Thread: Turned Soapstone

wow that looks excellent, bear in mind I know nothing about turning, but how hard is it to do soapstone??

we had our monthly meeting of the central coast turners last friday and one of the members decided to make a bowl out of an old lawn bowls ball. Apparently is was pretty tough to turn.

Brett

Thanks Brett,it's not really difficult to work with,alot of it is used for hand carving.
Soapstone (stearite) is what talcum powder is made from,it's the softest of the stones.
It's almost too soft,ya can't grab it with a chuck cuz it just crumbles.I had to mount it to a glue block which became the base.
Scraping tools work the best butshoot a stream of powder straight back at ya,I looked like the Pilsbury Doughboy when I was done!

What's a lawn bowls ball made of?
There's lotsa wood harder than this stuff!

Thanks again.

Phil.

Old lawn bowls used to be made of Lignum Vitae, a very dense wood much in demand by turners and others. However, it's almost unobtainable now, and most bowls are made of a composite synthetic material.

That vase is a beauty. The soapstone seems to have more 'grain' and colour in it that that mined in South Australia.

this bowls balls wasnt made from wood, it was made out of some sort of rubber compound. I cant remember what they called it, but apparently Dunlop make it.

Thanks Alex,I wasn't real happy with the shape but the lid seems to hide that.
This stuff came from Canada,it looked somewhat bland till it was polished and shellaced.
Apparently there is some mined in Vermont U.S. that is green in color,but I was told it may contain asbestos.
I am familiar with Lignum Vitae,I have a few small squares of it,it turns quite well and smells good too!Makes a good spinner top.

I did a little search on "lawn bowls" cuz bein' a dumn Yankee,I have no idea what it is!
Henselite appears to be a brand name and the balls some sort of plastic composite.

http://www.henselite.com.au/organ/index.html

Thanks again.

Phil.

Hi Phil
Love the vase, or vase as we Ozzies say...............
Dont they play old mans marbles, or lawn bowls in the US?
Cheers, Allan

Thanks Allan!Tell me,what's the difference between a vase and a VaaaaZe?

Maybe the Kennedys' out on Hyanus play Lawn Bowls,
but I ain't never heard of it,in my neighborhood we had to steal to play Kick the Can.

Phil.