Pole Lathe - Turning a pair of egg cups

I wanted to turn a pair of egg cups and it was a good opportunity to test my newly re-tempered favourite hook tool. Despite the chaos of my shed I managed to make it to the pole lathe and get turning.



With small items like egg cups and goblets they can be turned as spindles with the cord wrapped around the wood as it's turned. This allows me to use my normal gouge and skew chisel to shape the outside of the wood and the hook tool is used only to hollow out the inside of the vessel.





In this case I went a little mad and decided to turn a pair of cups from the same piece of wood - one on each end.

For the eagle-eyed amongst you, yes the work piece has got shorter in the final photo. Thats because the wood developed cracks. It's some of the Wild Cherry that I have been using for a while and I had to start again having cut off the ends. But all's well that ends well - and I do like the grain of this wood which makes it worth the difficulties of working.