Matt Jordan Woodturning

This weeks project is a trial piece made for a customer for a wedding, they want a set for the top table but didn't want to commit until they had seen one, now all I have to do is make the rest. This one is made from Applewood, they have however gone for oak in the final order to provide more contrast to the white resin. Metal is Pewter. Resin is food safe. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a lamp made from a piece of Hawthorn, the wood was turned wet, then left to dry. The one piece was a bit fragile after drying so had to be held together with two straps while it was given enough strength again by being glued into the final piece. Finished in Danish Oil only. My Website - mjturning.com

Project I've been working on for the last couple of months, originally started in October. The Oak was taken from a fallen tree and still had a very high moisture content, no time to let it dry slowly over a year so in the oven the pieces went to speed up the drying. After the over the pieces was left to settle for around 4 weeks before finishing. There was a large fault running all the way through the wood, so this piece would have split anyway regardless of the forced drying process. The speakers used are from Tang Band, each driver is a W3-1878 and the Subwoofer used is a W5-1138SMF. The amplifier uses a TPA3116D2 giving 2 x 50W and 1 x 100W. Still need to source a very small fan for cooling the amplifier box but should have that done soon, and then it will be for sale on my website. Finished in Danish oil only. My Website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a car air freshener, bought one recently and wasn't happy with it, so I've made my own. Will be gathering interest on this to see if its something people may want to purchase. Wood is a small piece of apple burl, metal is Pewter. Outside is finished with shellac and then polished, inside has a coating of epoxy resin. My website - mjturning.com

Festive project for this week, a Snowman! Made from Applewood. My Website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a Tippling Stick, called that as you can carry a "Tipple" in it anywhere you go. The wood for the stick is Black Palmwood, I tend to use this or Ebony on most of the sticks I make. Metal is Pewter. My website - mjturning.com

In this weeks project I'm making a Bioethanol Garden Burner. The wood is Applewood and a large piece I've had drying for over 2 years now, it was rough turned and still had a higher than I wanted moisture content, there were also several parts of the wood which were soft and punky. After rough turning the piece was treated with a resin to try and stabilise the wood, then finished several months later after final drying had taken place. The final piece has been finished in Danish Oil. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is called "the other half" as its the other half of a piece of wood I used to turn "The lost log", which is a piece of wood I found on the floor while out walking. Originally I wanted to keep the bark on, however too much came off during turning so the entire lot was removed, followed by a re-sand of the back. Finished with several coats of Danish Oil only. Plenty of spalting and burl down the one side. My Website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a lamp made from a large burl taken from a felled Alder Tree. The burl was turned green and then left to dry for around 3 months during the summer, being finished in the last couple of weeks. The resin pour only shows two lots of resin used in the first pour, there was actually just over 4 with a total of 6 litres used. I didn't however expect the resin level to reduce as much as it did, so instead of trying to top it up with the same colour and be left with a distinctive fill line, I went for white. My website - mjturning.com

Just a short video this week while I finish off a large lamp. The Oak is reclaimed from the HMS Victory restoration. Full certificate of provenance included with each pen and fully traceable of its origin. Pens are available on my website - https://mjturning.com/collections/pens/products/hms-victory-fountain-pen

A couple of people over the last few months have suggested making a torch, so here it is. Main body is a small piece of Applewood with Epoxy, the metal parts are cast and turned from Britannia Pewter (no lead). Cree LED and standard 18650 battery. My website - mjturning.com

This is the project I've been working on for the last few weeks in the background. Lots of hours gone into this one. The main body of the water feature is made from some off cuts I was given, these were glued together and turned. The small pieces glued on are from last years trimmings from the grape vine, the larger pieces are from some logs of Plum I was given recently. The base is made from the same off cuts as the top, but sprayed to make it look like stone, and came out better than I expected. A few have been asking for a longer video recently, here it is :) My website - mjturning.com

Another quick project video this week while I finish the larger project off. Custom order of two wine glasses, the wood is English Oak Burl. Finished with Danish Oil. Glass is from Dartington Crystal. My website - mjturning.com

Just a quick project this week while I finish off a larger project and try to get some orders out the door. The Whistle is made from Masur Birch, stabilised using a heat cured resin. If there is enough interest in these I might offer them on my website. My website - mjturning.com

In contrast to last weeks project this one went very well, no issues at all! The Lamp and shade are made from a Silver Birch log, the log was turned green and then left to dry. I have tried to keep as much of the natural look as I could using the bark as a feature on both the lamp base and shade. Top feature piece is cast from Pewter. This will be on my website soon, I'm running behind at the moment and hope to have a few more pieces on it this weekend, My website - mjturning.com

This is project should have been finished and published a week ago and was supposed to be a quick infill project while I work on some more complex things for the channel, lets just say if it could go wrong it did. The problems started even with drying the wood, took an extra week to get it dried, and even then the wood split and warped more excessively than expected on the bottom piece, to the point where I wasn't sure I could save it. Wood is Cherry. Finished in Danish oil. My website - mjturning.com

I've not done a speaker for a while, so here's the first one this year, I have another idea for a speaker I'm working on that will be out in a couple of months. The wood is apple with plenty of burl, its been previously dried ready for turning and epoxy use. Slight calculation error on the amount of epoxy the cast would take, once it came out of the pressure pot the level had dropped to about 1/2 lower than the top of the wood, nothing I could do, as in reduce the size as the internal volumes had already been calculated for the speakers. The only thing I could do was to cut a groove out either side and cast some more resin in to make a feature either end. Just need to order up a new power supply for the speaker and it will be on my website for sale, the only 12V one I had around for testing is about an amp short for full volume, but OK for testing. My website - mjturning.com

No Epoxy this week! Just a little project of seeing what would become of this Hawthorn Log. The log was turned green all the way through and never let dry, I did this to allow the wood to maintain strength while being turned, when you watch the video you will see why, dry wood has a tendency to split much easier when under force. This will now be left for a couple of months to ensure its fully dry before appearing on my website. Finished in Danish oil only. My website - mjturning.com

Custom order for this weeks project, and just in time for the summer, all three days of it. The wood used is from the Cucumber Tree, and is part of some I obtained last year, previously dried for use with Epoxy. Metal used in the stem and insert on the base is Pewter. Finished with a food safe hard wax finish, several coats applied over several days. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a trial piece, I'm trying a new coating for my Coffee Mugs, the food safe coating is a type of hard wax oil. I will be assessing the durability of the wax oil over the next couple of months, if it works it will be used on all my turnings which come into contact with food / drinks. Reason for this is to decrease production times, the Tung oil I use at the moment just takes too long to apply and cure (about a month) The mug is made from Spalted Beech, the wood has been previously dried. With most spalted woods they tend to be a bit punky and soft in places. The wood way turned to a basic shape and then submerged into a heat curing resin, to get the resin right into the wood its placed into a vacuum until no more air bubbles can be seen, then its left over night to ensure its soaked in. After this the wood is then placed into an oven at 96 degrees Celsius for about 3 hours. The wood is then turned and sanded to the final shape and then the hard wax oil coating is applied in several layers, allowing each layer to dry between coats, about 9 coats on this. The handle is made from Ebony. My Website - mjturning.com

A few weeks back I made some Pencils, however not standard Pencils as most might think, a couple of people said they would like to see how normal everyday pencils are made and how the lead is inserted into the wood. The steps I have followed here is basically how pencils are made on an industrial scale, although different equipment is used for different steps but the process is there or there about's. Most Pencils would normally be made from Cedar, have non of that so I've used a small Apple Log, works well enough. My Website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a custom order, what was requested was a Goblet with captive rings for a wedding present. Other than a few small requests of size and colour etc I was left to come up with the rest as I wanted. All the metal is Britannia Pewter (no lead), the wood is English Oak. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a little late, it should have been finished ready for Easter Sunday, I wasn't happy with the original base I had made for the egg, so I made a completely different one which set the completion back a few days, there was also a lot more video to edit than I had originally planned for but I'm happy with the end result and hope you will be too. The process is similar to other projects, the Apple log has been part dried but still contains too much moisture for casting in epoxy, so the quickest way to dry them out is to rough turn the log into a basic shape and pop it in the oven for a few hours until dry, then cast. The centre waste piece inserted before casting is to save epoxy only, it also holds the two pieces together so the epoxy cast is lined up with the wood. The nuts used for the smaller eggs are Tagua nuts. Metal is Petwer with no lead. Crystals used are Swarovski. The epoxy used in the base is set using a UV light, only takes about 2 minutes for it to set. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project features no woodturning, at all, not even a little bit. Its a project I've been working on in my spare time over the last 3 months. The log had been previously dried and when I looked at it my instant thought was..chess board. I've opted for cast chess pieces, simply because I prefer the look of character pieces over what would be considered "standard". Wood is Apple for the chess board, the outside frame is Oak finished with several coats of Danish oil. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a custom engagement ring box. Wood is apple with plenty of burl down the one side and the metal is Pewter (no lead). Wood was previously dried but the oven was used to reduce the moisture content right down before casting the wood with Pewter. Ring boxes will be back available on my website soon, Pewter cast ring boxes will be available later on in the year, purely based on how long they take to make. The CNC is new to me so still playing with speeds, tools etc, but a handy additional to the tool collection and opens up other avenues of work. My website - mjturning.com