What Type of Woodturning Project Should I Turn Today? A Wood Vase!

I don’t know if most woodturners are like me but my interest in woodturning projects changes throughout the year. I always like turning bowls, but sometimes I get into turning small bowls and then I’ll get interested in turning big wood bowls.

I might get fixated on turning billy bats, billy clubs, fish clubs, tire thumpers or personal protection devices ….whatever you want to call them and I’ll crank out 20 or 30 and try to find a place to sell them.

I also like turning wood boxes and people really love these. I might find the perfect piece of wood to get 10 or 20 boxes out of so I get all set up for that project, might take me 2 days or 2 weeks or a month but that’s what I focus on for a period of time.

Recently I found a nice straight ash branch and turned about 20 wood mallet heads. Then I decided to turn some handles. I made the handles of different profiles and used different wood. You’d be surprised how many woodworkers would love to have a custom wood mallet.

I haven’t done much with pens but would like to ….. as well as making handles for various kitchen accessories or different woodturning kits you can get from Amazon or Rockler.

Why Would Your Make So Many Woodturning Projects ….Like 20 Wood Mallets?

If you are reading this you might be thinking, why does he turn and make 20 wood mallets, boxes, billy clubs or whatever? My intent was always to set up a website to sell my wares (woodturnings) online or to sell them at shows. Although I have done a couple of shows and they worked out well, I have not set up my website yet and hope to do that this year yet. I’ve been building websites for over 20 years and I just have not been motivated to set my own woodturning website up yet. I primarily would want to sell big wood bowls and I really do not have a lathe that can easily turn big wood bowls.

Hope you don’t mind me sharing some of my thoughts about life, woodturning and profiting. But I’ve always worked for myself and I think it would be fairly easy to sell what you turn to pay for new tools and perhaps make some extra cash. Yes I am a captialist and I am always looking for ways to fund my woodturning habit.

Woodturning Beautiful Wood Vases

One of my favorite woodturning projects is turning wood vases. I would have never guessed that they would fascinate me as much as they do but I really enjoy looking for different shapes of wood branches to turn into vases…. always with character flaws and almost never perfect unblemished wood. Its easy to turn a straight branch into a wood vase but add some knots, branches and a few twists and you have a real woodturning challange. Then I like to figure out how to finish both inside and outside to make them functional …..do you put a finish on the inside of the vase or do you use an insert of some kind …like a test tube or used water bottle.

Turning A Current Wood Vase For Fall Flowers

Fall has arrived in northern Illinois and there are still some flowers left, foilage and other plants that can be used in a vase.

I grabbed some clippings from a burning bush, flowering shrub, geranium and some mums.

Perfect Wood Vase Project To Test
My New DIY Hollowing Tool

I had been working on my hollowing tools and turned a wood vase from a 6″ ash branch and used a test tube insert to hold the flowers. The test tube insert was from the second portion of the test tube so I had to use a hot glue gun and glue the cap to the the test tube to make it water proof ….in other words I got 2 wood vase inserts from one test tube. So if you are thinking about buying some plastic test tubes for wood vase inserts do not be afraid to buy long test tubes.

Hollowing A Wood Vase

I drilled a hole in the vase, then I used my hollowing tools to widen the hole and give it some form. I probably should do a video of the process but all seems to be working well, the HSS cutter worked well in the straight on mounting and the HSS blank (smaller) and at an angle worked well for forming the top of the vase.

I only share this because I had a terrible time trying to hollow out some of the Ash I had, the stuff was like concrete, drilling with forstner bits was slow and awkward ….in fact I thought it was going to burst into flames while drillilng. It wasn’t steam but smoke from the friction of the bit cutting into the ash end grain.

Anyway, I like to surprise my wife by putting out a newly turned wood vase with some flowers next to the coffee pot in the morning. I’m usuallly up all night so I try to program the coffee machine to provide a fresh pot of coffee and when I can a nice little vase of flowers.

Fall And Winter Flower Arrangements?

Winter is coming, or I should say, “frost will be here soon” so the only flowers that will be found will be dried, dead and brown …..but they make surprisingly nice looking arrangements. When I turn a vase at a time when the flowers have all died I either puchase some from the local grocery or better yet I will use dead flowers, twigs, grass heads and other dried plant growth ….they look great and you don’t need an insert for them!

Never thought I would be a vase guy ….but I really enjoy turning different wood and different forms for vases. Anyway I thought I would share this one with your guys. Nothing special, maybe some of you never thought of turning a vase with an insert. You can use anything for an insert that will hold water ….medicine bottles, other plastic bottles and you can buy test tubes.

Some of the test tubes I use for wood vase inserts to hold water and keep flowers alive:
–DEPEPE 18pcs 115ml Clear Flat Plastic Test Tubes with Screw Caps, 30 x 180mm, with 3 Funnels, 1 Brush, Large Test Tubes
–40x197mm PS Test Tube, Round Bottom, with 40mm Plastic Cap, Natural (Pack 5) Karter Scientific 402V2
–DEPEPE 50pcs 10ml Plastic Frozen Test Tubes with Screw Caps, 16×105mm Vial Seal Cap Container
–Glass Test Tubes, 18pcs 55ml Clear Flat Test Tubes with Wooden Stopper, 25×120mm by SUPERLELE
–40x197mm PS Test Tube, Round Bottom, with 40mm Plastic Cap, Natural (Pack 5) Karter Scientific 402V2
–Glass Test TubesJumbo 41 X 225mm with Cork Stoppers, Pack of 5

Test tube inserts for wood turned vases are about the easiest methods to hold flowers with water in a wood vase. However, as you turn more and more vases you will began to think of containers you have around the house or office that might work perfectly to hold water and flowers when placed in a woodturned vase.

In my case, I have probably close to 20 medicine bottles that can be used for small and large woodturned vases. As mentioned earlier, empty water bottles make perfect wood vase inserts  and will hold a lot of water and flowers.

I grab a garbage bag and ask my wife and I do it myself ….that is, we just throw empty bottles, glass or plastic into a box so I end up having a large selection of wood vase inserts to hold water and flowers.

I even purchased a bottle cutter to cut the top off of wine bottles, vodka bottles and other food bottles like a long tall bottle of olives. It will cut the bottle where needed and you will have a perfect wood vase insert to hold water and flowers.

So no the idea is when you go shopping for a specific product ….lets say “olives” they can come in a tall glass jar anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Simply cut off the top and use it for your vase insert.

This is the bottle cutter I purchased and use  “HALOVIE Glass Cutter Round Bottle Tool Cutting Machine DIY Kit for Cutting Wine Beer Whiskey Alcohol Champagne Soda Bottle ” .  Takes a little practice to get a handle on it but once you do, you really began to increase the possibilities for design in your next wood vase.

There are a lot of other woodturning projects that can incorporate both turned wood and a portion of a glass bottle, check out Pinterest and Google for some more ideas.