Out of the Shed – A Little Challenge – Kiama Woodcraft Group, Inc

When last in the Old Fire Station Gallery a young fellow overheard me agree to make a chess pawn for a customer; well there was little I could do but agree to make a couple more for him, after all, he asked so politely.

Young Harry (name changed for privacy) had lost a couple of pawns from his set.

Back in the shed, Ebony was the natural choice of wood for the black, and although the pawn was only one inch high, a section cut from an elephant’s leg may seem a little overkill, however I did have a relic of a little carved elephant ornament that had had a hard life and was past its ‘use-by-date’, with a leg just large enough to accommodate the pawn (I’ll admit it, I’m a hoarder, I do have difficulty in tossing offcuts and damaged ornaments made from exotic woods, one never knows when they might come in handy).

It’s always difficult to make the first cut (a bit like the Club Challenge), however, the leg once amputated, cut to a suitable length and set up the lathe, and the challenge was underway.

Simple steps in the making of a small chess pawn:

Cut the wood to length allowing extra length to hold the work in a drill chuck and tailstock location.
Set up the work between centres and turn down parallel with a reduced diameter at one end to fit in the chuck.
Now set up the work in the chuck making sure that the turned shoulder on the blank is firm against the jaws to reduce flexibility; this is done by winding in the tailstock care being taken not to over-do it, remember it is only a small piece of wood.
Shape the pawn with the tailstock in place leaving enough wood at the tailstock end to be able to remove all evidence of the tailstock center.
Remove the tailstock and gently finish shaping the top with a fine skew chisel then sand the piece with very fine abrasive paper before burnishing.
Part off the pawn, job done.

Note: When determining diameters use small calipers; length transfer measurement use fine dividers; and shape, check by eye. Some turners use profiles and others use copy lathes, however for ‘one-offs’, visual checking is hard to beat.