Review: Mick Hanbury Demo – Sunday 22nd October, 2023

We had a fantastic full day with Mick Hanbury who demonstrated three pieces: a textured and decorated shield/platter for wall mounting, a finial box and a bowl with a coloured rim.

Mick Hanbury started the demo with a brief explanation of PPE, and he wore eye protection throughout the demo. You should always wear appropriate PPE for the project you are doing. Mick is known for his extensive T-shirt collection and for the demo he modelled a specially selected “Five Finger Death Punch” shirt.

Decorated Shield/Platter

Mick mounted a sycamore bowl blank 12″x2” on a screw chuck with tailstock support. The blank is rounded and the face smooth using a bowl gouge. A dovetailed recess is created to match the angle of the chuck jaws. A bowl gouge is used to roughly shape the piece and a dome feature is created inside the recess.

The piece is mounted in deep bowl jaws. The face is smoothed and the piece is hollowed using a bowl gouge. A dovetailed shoulder is created in the central part of the shield for reversed chucking later on. Then a bead is added and then an area is blended towards the recess. A beaded and domed decoration is added in the centre.

The piece is then wet sanded with a home-made beeswax/paraffin paste. The piece is also power sanded where necessary. Mick then added some texture using a Hope (Tracy Owen) texturing tool. The butt of the tool handle is used to burnish the texture (don’t sand the texture).

The piece is then reversed and held by a chuck using the recess. The shape is now refined using a bowl gouge. Mick applied his paste for sanding to act as as a grain filler. Power sand as required, but don’t take away the design. Paper towel is used to remove excess paste.

Next Mick applied Chestnut ebonising lacquer spray, followed by a layer of chestnut melamine lacquer to achieve a higher concentration of lacquer. For speed Mick used a hairdryer to dry the lacquer. Mick then demonstrated various ways of applying colour. For this piece he used gold and purple Jo Sonja iridescent paints with 50% flow medium. The paint should not drip.

Tip: Spray a piece of paper with the ebonising spray to use as a palette to test the colour scheme.

Both a finger and the back end of a brush were used to draw in the paint while lathe was still and again when the lathe was in steady motion (100rpm). Circles were created using the back of the brush. Turquoise paint (again with flow medium) was added using the fan brush on its side.

The paint was dried using a hairdrier with the lathe running on a slow speed. Paint will flow just a little. Other effects can be achieved with a faster speed. The edge of the bowl was cleaned of paint using a bowl gouge. Mick also revealed some circles of bare wood using a gouge and he turned one bare area into a bead which he later textured. Using the 24 point indexing on the lathe, Mick made hole punched 12 holes. A stud is applied at each hole using a pin hammer. In the centre a brass cog is gently hammered over the central dome and another stud holds it in place.

If the studs “just happen” to go all the way through (make a note to turn the bowl thicker next time), then turn or sand them off to get feature spots on the reverse side. Distress the studs with sandpaper on slow speed to give an aged effect.

Finally, apply lacquer with the lathe on slow speed. Mick used a cellulose car lacquer.

Finial box

Mick mounted a 2.5”x7” elm spindle blank between centres. The blank was rounded using a bowl gouge. A dovetailed tenon is added on one end and the blank is mounted in chuck jaws supported by the tailstock. Mick marked positions on the blank with a pencil for the finial, the box body and parting off waste. Waste material around the finial is quickly removed using a gouge and the pointed tip is formed. The tailstock is removed and the tip waste is removed. The tip is sanded.

Form a teardrop shape on the end of the finial using a spindle gouge. Remove more waste and refine with beads and coves. Create a tenon for lid to fit the box. Sand and finish.

Part off the lid, leaving some of the tenon on the box body piece as a guide for hollowing. Rough shape the box body. Next rough hollow using a ½” spindle gouge with a 55 degree bevel. Mick prefers boxes to have a rounded bottom inside.

Refine the outside a little more. Then, size the opening to fit the lid using a parting tool. Cut until the remainder of the rebate tenon is just vanishes; this should give a tight fitting lid.

Hollow some more using hope Hollower. Refine the inside using a hope negative rake scraper. Then do a final refinement of the outside. Sand and finish. Take care not to sand the recess. Part off the box body. Use the waste material to make a jam chuck and reverse mount the box body. Refine the bottom of the box. Sand and finish.

Spalted Beech Plate with Texture

The blank is mounted on a screw chuck. The blank is rounded and a dovetailed tenon is created. Rough shape the outside and create a ¼” deep concave foot. The tenon will be removed later. Mick left the edge thick as he needed to remove ¼” of weak heartwood when the bowl is reversed. The final outer shape of the bowl is made using a owl gouge. The piece is sanded and finished. Leave the centre mark for remounting.

Reverse the piece and mount in a chuck using the tenon. Start the hollowing of the bowl using a bowl gouge. Mick created a bead feature on the inner rim and then textured it.

The rim of the bowl is sanded and sprayed with ebonising lacquer and dried. Iridescent paint is applied using a sponge brush (Mick used left over gold paint). The centre of the bowl is then fully hollowed out to the required thickness, sanded and finished.

The bowl is reversed and held between the tailstock with a cone centre and a cushioned chuck. The tenon is removed to leave just a small nub. The foot is sanded and finished. The nub is broken off and handed sanded.