Thread: S & P Grinders for Tui Tai

I had a fantastic holiday in Fiji not so long ago (I posted in the travel threads) and stayed on the live-aboard Tui Tai . As I mentioned in the travel thread, the ship had plenty of beautiful timbers with decorations from pearl shell. Since they only had plastic salt and pepper grinders I promised I would make new ones for them.

I couldn’t find any Rain Tree thick enough , the main timber used on the boat, but scored some “Vesi” they make the local kava bowls out of from a local mill. It was not until I looked up the botanical name that I found out it was what we call Kwilla or Merbau . This timber is normally straight grained and boring, for turning anyway, but I was lucky enough to score a 4x3 that had plenty of twisting grain (and why I didn’t recognise it as Kwilla). The finished grinders certainly have plenty of figure.

Anyway, here they are finally finished. I carved the boat’s name on each using my Dremmel freehand with a small router bit. I then filled the recess with some broken black-lipped pearl shell I had left over from a pen I made a while back. I then fixed the shell in and filled the gaps with thin and medium CA. At one point the Dremmel slipped , so I filled the mistake with sawdust and CA, shame the colour changes . Pearl shell kills even HSS tools , so you need to have the timber turned to the right shape before you start, then get rid of the bumps with a Dremmel with a course sand paper bit. Once round again you can then sand on the lathe by hand with sandpaper (I use old sanding belts to start with).

The top dots, for the salt and pepper symbols, are made from Ebony and Bonewood. I just turned tennons to suit the drilled hole then glued them in with CA before finish turning the tops.

The grinders are finished with Shellewax/EEE/Glow. The inside is also sealed with Hard Shellac, all from UBeaut of course . They are not exactly the same, but that’s the way it is with hand-made (by me anyway ). I’m sure they will not mind. The colour is much yellower than Kwilla I have used previously , perhaps it is from the local soil conditions where the tree comes from, or perhaps it will turn more brown with age (time will tell).

Cheers