Pounce Pot

[Toolin Around]

Years ago (10 this month to be exact) I was in the little town of Bakewell in the Yorkshire Dales, England. I was in an antique store and saw the original of what I thought was a fantastic piece of turning. Turns out it's a pounce pot. Used in the old days to dry the ink on paper so it remains legible. The lady behind the counter wasn't to keen on letting me take a picture of it so I had to sit there and study it. When I got back to my aunts place I quickly drew what I could remember (Pic below Pic 13). The original was made, I think, from either rosewood or ebony. But's it's been so long that I can't honestly remember. It was only tonight that I figured out why it has a dish on top. It's to catch all the extra pounce so it can be used again later.

I only found those scribbles last month; I thought they had been lost forever. They fell out of a furniture book I was thumbing through for ideas. So for the last few days I've been drawing it up in the cad program I use at work called Pytha (Pic below Pic Pounce Pot). Once I had what looked like good proportions it was time to turn it. Pulled out a piece of some burl I bought at the Bris wood show last year (help me here guys, it begins with c but that's all I can remember of the name of the wood). The burl didn't lend itself well to thread chasing so I use ironbark inserts instead. Even then my chasing is in need of some work.

It's a challenging project but but a fun one. If you're interested PM me and I'll give you my address. Send me a self address stamped envalope and I'll send you some 1:1 scale drawings of the piece so you can make one yourself.

Over all a fun project.

[dai sensei]

Beautiful work. Is the stand part hollow? Have no idea what wood it is, but certainly looks close grained and beautiful. What was your finish BTW?

Correct me if I am wrong, but the pounce is a powder to help dry the ink, so I can understand the dish but not the holes in it :?

[Gil Jones]

Excellent turning on a fine piece of wood!! :2tsup:
Would the pounce powder be sprinkled on the wet ink
from the holes like a salt shaker?

[bitingmidge]

A burl starting with "c" - this isn't Crapiata is it Mat? I've heard of it so often around these parts, I figured it would only be a matter of time till someone built something useful from it!:D

Great stuff, so where are you going to get pounce?


Correct me if I am wrong, but the pounce is a powder to help dry the ink, so I can understand the dish but not the holes in it :?

Pounce is a powder, and it was sprinkled on the surface, hence the holes in the top, the dish shape is so unused pounce can be tipped back into the container without taking the top off. I wish I could empty all that useless stuff out of my head, I have no idea why I know that!

Cheers,

P
:D

[dai sensei]

Pounce is a powder, and it was sprinkled on the surface, hence the holes in the top, the dish shape is so unused pounce can be tipped back into the container without taking the top off.

:doh: Makes perfect sense now you describe it. Just like a giant salt shaker.

[hughie]

Toolin',

I would say your memory is very good. I found the pic on antique collectors site. As you say an interesting project, as I am between workshops so to speak. I will store it away in the memory banks for later



http://www.darwincountry.org/explore/001945.html?sid=fb


Great piece of turning and timber.

[joe greiner]

Wikipedia has an entry for Pounce:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pounce_%28calligraphy%29

Long before CAD, we used a little pillow filled with it to remove dirt and smudges from drafting paper after inking the drawing. Still available, as well as the straight powder, at shops dealing in art supplies and such.

Joe

[Toolin Around]

A burl starting with "c" - this isn't Crapiata is it Mat? I've heard of it so often around these parts, I figured it would only be a matter of time till someone built something useful from it!:D

Great stuff, so where are you going to get pounce?

P
:D

Close but I think it began with Cool... it had a b in there somewhere also.

I'll go to the pounce shop of coarse!:D

[bitingmidge]

Close but I think it began with Cool... it had a b in there somewhere also.

Of course!
Coolibah!

My missus drinks the juice from that stuff, it comes in a cardboard box!!

:D :D :D
P

[TTIT]

Regardless of the fact that I had never heard of one before and will probably never find anyone that uses a 'pounce pot', I reckon that looks fantastic Toolin'. :2tsup: I might make one just to get people asking what the hell it's for!:U

Can you give us some rough dimensions (H x W)?

[Toolin Around]

There ya go.

[Gil Jones]

Thanks for the .pdf, Toolin.

[Farnk]

Excellent Idea, May try that one myself!

So Toolin' did you have a Bakewell tart?
I've got inlaws from the area (Peak district) and the town has a long history associated with a particular baked item. The story goes that a few hundred years ago, someone got the recipe wrong and created a different version. Fast forward to today, and half the village sells Bakewell Tarts, and the other half sells Bakewell puddings!

When we made a trip over there a few years ago to catch up with family ( in Buxton), I went into a shop and asked for a BW Tart, only to be informed VERY RUDELY that 'We don't make those damned things here!"

[BernieP]

G'Day TA

Very nice and thanks for sharing PDF. Useless bit of information pounce powder is made from powdered cuttlebone. Use that one in conversation and see the response:2tsup:

Cheers
Bernie

[Toolin Around]

Excellent Idea, May try that one myself!

So Toolin' did you have a Bakewell tart?
I've got inlaws from the area (Peak district) and the town has a long history associated with a particular baked item. The story goes that a few hundred years ago, someone got the recipe wrong and created a different version. Fast forward to today, and half the village sells Bakewell Tarts, and the other half sells Bakewell puddings!

When we made a trip over there a few years ago to catch up with family ( in Buxton), I went into a shop and asked for a BW Tart, only to be informed VERY RUDELY that 'We don't make those damned things here!"

Yup - had one and couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about.