Segmented turning is a form of woodturning, in which the piece of wood being turned is made of lots of small pieces of wood glued together. This is my first time segmented turning, and I aimed to make a round lidded box.

Wood

I have used four different kinds of wood for this project; Walnut, African Padauk, Maple and African Ebony. It always amazes me how different wood species can differ so vastly. The Ebony is so black and the Maple is very pale. That’s why I prefer wood to metal!

Tools

I started off by marking a parallel line 12mm from the edge of the plank of wood I had using a marking gauge. I then cut a few millimetres away from the line with my jigsaw and used a sharp plane to trim the wood to the line. Then, using a small tenon saw and my circular sander I cut all the small pieces and sanded them to the right angle. I then glued all the segments in to four octagonal rings.

When they were dry, I sanded them flat and glued them together. I also glued disks of oak on to the top and bottom. I could then mount it on the lathe and turn it round.

This photo was taken during the turning process before it was completely round. This box/pot sadly never got a lid, but once it was round, I parted off the piece that would have become the lid and hollowed out the inside. I didn’t do a lid for this because the piece of Oak for the lid had a small split in it. Once it was turned to shape I sanded it from 100 grit to 600 grit, and applied a coat of microcrystalline wax and it shone.