Matt Jordan Woodturning

This weeks project is a batch of 10 applewood pencils. Thought I would take you all through the entire process of making the blanks from the log, and from the blanks to turning them into pencils. There's still another batch of blanks left over from this log so I will be turning those at a later date. Pencils are finished with sanding sealer, an abrasive paste followed by a beeswax polish. The log has been previously dried so there was no waiting for the blanks to dry out, moisture content was about 11%. The pencils will be on the website later on today. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a Cherry log I was given towards the end of last year, the log was turned wet, after day 1 I had not completed the rough turning so it was wrapped in cling film to hold the moisture content in, this helps limit the cracking you may get if its left to dry out unevenly, although Cherry is well known for cracking so I expected some as it dried. The rough turned vase was then placed in the kiln to dry for about 4 weeks before being finished. The inlay is copper wire, can't remember the gauge off the top of my head. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a water bottle turned from a Silver Birch Log. The rings are made from Ebony. The inside of the bottle has been coated with a two part Rustins food safe coating off camera. The outside is coated in a standard food safe varnish. The log was turned green and then placed in the oven to dry. Only able to post about once every two weeks at the moment due to a back log of work, I'm also working on some larger projects for the channel in the background, hope to get back to posting once a week soon. The bottle is a custom order and won't be for sale via the website. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a large oak burl taken from a fallen tree, the tree must have been approximately 300 years old but had suffered from Oak Fungal Disease hollowing out the base of the trunk. I have plenty more of the wood from the tree so a few pieces this year will be from the oak. As the bowl was too big to microwave dry I opted for the more conventional method of sealing with an emulsified wax and then left to dry for a few months, the wax stops the wood from drying out too quickly and limits the amount of cracking that will take place, there was some minor cracks but these were filled with Oak sawdust and CA glue. My website - mjturning.com

Called the lost log at this was part of a much larger log obtained while I was out taking a walk a few months back, clearly dumped sometime ago by the original owner and left to rot, I would say it had been there at least one season as spalting had started to take place, so over the shoulder it went all the way home. I then left it for about 9 months to finish drying out. The rest of the log will be turned at a later date. The wood is Elm with plenty of burl on the one side. My original plan was to turn a live edge bowl with the bark left on, the bark however was too loose and had to be removed, not a fan of random flying pieces of bark. As the turning progressed and the bark had been removed I decided not to chip away at the burl anymore and to finish it left fully in place. The wood was a bit soft in places due to the spalting, CA glue was added to the base so the mortise cut be cut clean. Finished in Danish oil My webiste - mjturning.com

Just when you think you're done for the year, along comes another request. This piece was actually started 12 months ago (hence why its started on my old lathe), and I had left it to dry before finishing, needless to say its dry now! The original plan for this was to include Resin in all the cracks, but with time limited to get something out the door I went with an idea, the inlay is ground coffee mixed with a copper coloured Mica dust using CA glue to hold it all in place, the camera does not pick this up that well but it looks like very small metal crystals. The wood is apple, finished with sanding sealer and then a semi-gloss lacquer on top and a small amount of burl on one side. My website - mjturning.com

Some of you may have noticed I haven't posted for a couple of weeks and that's because I been throwing my time at this project and trying to get orders out the door ready for Christmas delivery. Last year I made a bell for the tree, this year I thought I would put a bit more effort into the Christmas Project, so I've made a Nutcracker Soldier! The design has changed several times on where the nuts would actually be cracked, in the end I went for a design where they are cracked in the hat around the back, next year I might look at making another one but use the more traditional way of having the mouth open. The main body apple wood, the wood was part dried and finished off in the oven, it was left in for an extra 10 hours to darken the wood up, so a total of about 24 hours including the drying time. The hat and face are made from English Brown Oak, the legs are Sycamore, and the arms are Sycamore with the resin middle pieces. Once all parts were completed the inlay of the Swarovski Crystals began, not exactly sure how many I used in the end but in excess of 2000 crystals are now on the piece, and yes it took several hours. Probably not for sale this one but I'm always open to offers through my website, if you don't hear back from me its not enough! My website - mjturning.com

Little late with this project, was supposed to be last weeks. The project is turning a pinecone into two coffee measuring spoons. The cone was dried fully in the oven before casting into epoxy. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project was more of a trial than anything else, I wanted to see what copper would look like below a twisted stem. You will have to let me know in the comments if you like the look or not, I kind of think it came out a bit more medieval than I wanted. The wood is spalted beech, a piece of wood I purchased online, unfortunately whoever did the spalting process let it go way to long, as a result most of the wood was so soft it was just tearing out, it also made the twist extremely difficult to make with the wood being so soft. The goblet is finished with several coats of Danish Oil left to cure after each coat, then polished up with an abrasive paste. I'm going to put a section in my website to sell some of these trial pieces at a much reduced rate, otherwise they just end up hanging around, they are too good to throw away but not up to my normal selling standard for full price, so some of you may wish to have them. My website mjturning.com

This weeks project is a French / Coffee Press which has taken much longer to finish than I expected. The wood is apple with burl running down one side. Wood has been previously dried to less than 5% moisture content. The wood is finished with several coats of Danish oil left to dry between each coat which takes about a day, then polished up using an abrasive paste followed by a beeswax polish. The epoxy used is food safe even though it never comes into contact with the coffee being made anyway. Metal is Pewter, and no it contains no lead. My website mjturning.com

This weeks project never started out to be a vase, I was going to make something completely different so that will have to wait for another week. This log was saved from someone removing a large bush, not sure what wood it is, but its pretty hard on the tools. The ends were sealed but it still developed a large crack when drying. The way I have cast the resin on this one leaves a sleeve of resin on the inside, leaving it totally water proof. The light can be changed to any colour to match whatever flowers you want to use, or not used if that's how you prefer it, or just used to illuminated the vase on its own. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project started out as one idea, then changed to another idea then grew legs on where it ended up. Wood is a piece of apple that was never sealed after it was cut down, hence all the cracks. Finish is Danish oil. The epoxy changed colour slightly but I think that was due to the heat when it cured. My website - mjturning.com

First off I should probably say I have very little idea what these are other than they feature in the game Dark Souls, these have been made for a subscriber. I was given a couple of pictures of what they look like in a game and this is what I have made. Not much more to say really, although they do look pretty cool in the dark with the lights on. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a custom Beer Tankard, can't say too much as the recipient does not know they are getting it yet. The wood is apple covered in burl. Handle is from the same wood. I have very little of this wood left now so if you are thinking of something like this you need to be quick with the request. The logs have been drying for sometime now and this log is about 2 years in a dry warm environment now so very stable in moisture content. Although it still needed a last little help in the oven to allow it to work with epoxy, and yes the epoxy is food safe! The outside is finished with several coats of Tung oil (and yes that's food safe too) left to cure between coats, to ensure the inside stays leak proof I left a small gap around the filler wood, this allows a thin coat of epoxy fully covering the internal of the tankard and matches the external epoxy finish. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is something I do enjoy doing, taking a freshly cut piece of wood, rough turning it, drying it and then finishing to natural luster but not to a high gloss. The oak burl has been finished with Danish oil only and the piece will now be left for a few weeks to ensure the wood has settled before being put on my website. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is taking a slice off a log and turning into two wine goblets. The log has been seasoned for over a year now but the moisture content is still too high for using it with Epoxy, so in the over it goes. The goblets have been finished with a two part coating which is both durable and food safe. My website - mjturning.com The goblets will be available on my website from this weekend.

Final part of the jet speaker, first off a couple of thank you's Thank you to Marc Rebillet for letting me use his music at the end to demonstrate the speaker, please check out his channel here - https://www.youtube.com/marcrebillet or direct to the music track here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vBwRfQbXkg Second thank you is to Tang Band speakers, they completed all the calculations for the speaker volumes, port size and length etc. The speakers used are - Main Drivers W3-1878, Subwoofer W5-1138SMF. Their website can be found at http://www.tb-speaker.com, if you email them about a certain speaker they are always willing to offer help and advice. Hope you enjoy the finished project, going to try and get a couple of larger project in before the end of the year time permitting. My website - mjturning.com

First off I don't normally do two part videos, and I always try to keep the length to whats important to include, however there has been so much work put into this I couldn't get everything into one video that was short enough to keep peoples interest in one sitting. The idea for the speaker first came up around January this year, I then started the project towards the end of February, the have been so many design changes along the way, and with everything that's been going on its taken its time to get it finished, but its done now so hopefully you will like it and I can get on with some other cool projects I have ideas for. I originally wanted to make all the oak parts out of UK sourced wood, however it takes so long to dry that only around 30% of the oak is fully processed by me, I gave in and bought the rest. The other wood used in the main subwoofer is Sycamore. Part two is out next week and I'll try to make it sorter than this video, although I hope you can get an appreciation of how much work has gone into this one! My website - mjturning.com

A few months ago I was contacted by a subscriber, he had full plans to propose to his girlfriend but wanted a custom ring box making, this was before I did the last ring box video. We agreed on a price, colour and wood. The ring box was made in time and shipped to the US ready for the big day. You will have to watch the video to see it being made and find out how it went! The wood is Red Mallee Burl My Website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is a custom order, can't say too much as the recipient does not know they are getting it yet. The wood is Hawthorn, the epoxy is a mix of 4 colours with a luminescent powder added to give a glow when the glass is exposed to UV light and then continues to glow while in the dark. The style of glass would be considered by most as a Euro style. Only a small project this week as I'm still working on a large Audio project which should be out in a couple of weeks for all those who like the speakers I make! My website - mjturning.com

This weeks project is one I started several months ago, hence the use of two different lathes. The wood was turned to the basic shape, then placed in the oven to speed up the final drying. However I never got round to finishing it so its just been sat around the workshop for the last few months waiting for me.. The epoxy used has a blue/purple mica dust added, depending on which way you look at it depends on what colour it reflects. The inserts into the speaker uses a luminous dust in the epoxy which glows pretty well, especially under a UV lamp. The amplifiers is a mono bluetooth amp, the speaker is made by Tang Band, its one of their self contained module units which has its own radiator installed in the back so no worrying about calculations for volumes etc, model number T2-2136SA. My webiste - mjturning.com

This weeks project is something I was asked to make a while back somewhere in the comments of one of the previous coffee mugs I've made. The base and handle are cast and made from Pewter, in the video you will see me adding a grey powder to the glue, this is left over pewter dust from sanding of the pewter parts and adds colour to the glue. The mug is finished with polymer coating which durable, food safe and heat resistant. The wood is apple and part of a batch I've had for sometime now, it was pretty well dried but just needed that bit extra hence going in the oven for a few hours. If there is enough interest in the mug I may think about producing a small batch of them later on in the year. My website - mjturning.com

This weeks video mainly features a piece of Snap & Rattle Burl, there is also a piece of Snakewood (one of the rarest woods in the world), Mallee Burl, Masur Birch and Ebony. The video is to feature a new pen range I'm launching this weekend on my website, link below. The range enables you to pick your wood from the 5 options, you can then pick your pen type, metal finish and custom accents giving you hundreds of variants for a truly unique pen. My website - mjturning.com

First off there have been a few issues with filming of this project, I basically lost most of the footage for the black / gold box, the idea was going supposed to be two boxes made switching the footage back and forth between the two, so hopefully that explains what I have left and the reason it switched to the turquoise box after casting. The wood used at the moment is apple wood, however other woods will be available soon. Boxes will be available on my website from tomorrow in a variety of colours. My website - mjturning.com My Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mj_woodturning/

This video is a little different in the fact I do a short review of the new lathe, I thought it would be best to introduce the new lathe and why I bought it, over the next few weeks you may see several videos that start off on my old lathe and end up finishing on the Laguna. This is down to the drying process I use on most of my projects, they are started using wet wood, then left to dry and completed at a later date once the wood is dry enough. For those that are interested, I've bought the lathe as basically I needed something a little more industrial as I'm doing a lot more turning now, while there is nothing wrong with the old lathe it's just not built for what I'm throwing at it on a daily basis. I think I've covered most of the basics in the review, however if you have a question please drop it in the comments and I'll do my best to answer it. But yes I would recommend the lathe to anyone thinking of buying one, and it can be assembled by yourself if you're feeling up to it. The wood in this one is a large piece of apple wood I've been keeping for sometime now, there would have been no chance of turning this on my old lathe so its nice to use it to Christen the new lathe. If you're interested in buying a lathe they are available here, Laguna Tools UK - www.lagunatools.uk - this is not an affiliate link and I make no money from any sales. My website - mjturning.com