A Chapter Workshop One evening in August, nine of us gathered around Fran Morrins' impressive Poolewood lathe in his comfortable workshop in North Dublin. Fran began the evening by looking at a simple accessory , a copper candlestick insert, essential for a professional finish in a candleholder, yet who ever has one when they are needed? The construction method was straightforward --I.5in length of 0.75in copper pipe mounted in an Axminster 4-jaw chuck. The copper was protected by a simple wooden collet in the jaws. As copper is so much softer than steel, the end of the pipe was trimmed with a standard gouge, used as a scraper . Now with a true end the pipe was cleaned with wire wool and coated with flux to prevent oxidisation and a penny soldered to the end using resin cored solder (the type used for electrical and electronic work). Soldering was done with a blow torch, which heated the whole piece, thus annealing ( or softening) it. With the copper cup remounted in the chuck and using the back of the gouge and moderate speed, he belled out the open end of the pipe -voila! A candle insert. Incidentally, if your candles doesn't fit use a heated holder to melt the end to size.

Fran then mounted a bowl blank on a faceplate and produced a fearsome home made implement, several feet in length and tipped with tungsten steel. This weapon would not have disgraced a Wexford man in 1798. Fran, using the slightly curved blade, removed the centre plug of the blank, thus salvaging the makings of a second smaller, bowl. Similar tools are available commercially,(at a cost) but you need to make a lot of big bowls to justify the outlay. Also remember you need a powerful lathe motor -Fran reckons 2HP (around 1500 Watts).

Our final demo was the application of metal leaf -e.g. gold, copper, aluminium, etc. This turns out to be a relatively simple process, the glue resembles a watery PV A and is applied with a clean lin. brush. The glue line must end at a distinct edge, such as a rim or groove. The leaf is applied firmly and the glue allowed to dry .Finally the edges and overlaps are brushed with a soft brush (Fran recommends a makeup brush) back and forth until the surplus pieces break off cleanly. The result was impressive and I'm sure that with practice the technique could be mastered. All in all an excellent evening. well presented with humour and knowledge. Thanks Fran.

Tom Hayes