# Canteen project: walnut and pecan



## WeekendTurner (May 27, 2011)

What a fun project! Have you tried one of these? After reading about it in the British "Woodturning" magazine last year it went on my list of things to try. Then I stumbled across Tim Yoder's video on it and I was hooked. It's not nearly as involved as it seems. I had a special dry chunk of 3-inch thick walnut and plenty of figured cutoffs from a 150-yr old pecan that I've been working through. The versions of this I've seen tend to use a light wood for the main piece and a burl or darker wood for the sides and cap. I liked the reversing provided by my wood choices. I took several in-process shots to help show the steps required. 

A collage of steps ...








Part one: Plan, measure and mark 3 centers.... Circle center then neck and base centers. Do it first or you will have a hard time finding them later.








Since the general shape is a given, I used a band saw to remove the bulk of the "corners." Cut well outside the guidelines, especially near the foot and neck.








Ignore the mounting here as it is from a later step. Real first turning is to use a screw chuck to hold it while you cut a simple tenon for chuck holding and later use as the mounting for a side panel.








Next use that tenon to mount and hollow out the "bowl" portion. When done, use a sharpie to clearly mark what will be the outer edge of the canteen. This needs to be a dark and clear mark as you will need to see it as a fast-moving ghost image in the next mounting.








Yes, you saw this before. Change axis mounting in the chuck and watch the drawn circle as your guide to cut away the excess wood and get a clean "rounding" of the outer canteen area. Lots more air the wood here, so a fast speed, sharp tool and good control is required. Oh yes, this part started between centers, turning a spigot on the foot and remounting on that foot to drill a hole though the neck into the bowl edge. At the end of this step, you turn the outside of the neck. Sand the outer bowl portions with the lathe OFF, but you can use powersanding.








To turn the foot, I used a long dowel in a chuck to pin the inner bottom. I might have used a cone or jam chuck, but didn't want to worry about pressure on the neck.








I don't have shots of turning the disks, but you can pretty well guess how those were done. It was important mainly to have same outer diameter and general curvature so it would not look awkward when viewed from the sides. Oh yes, and start by making sure the fit is good. Epoxy will be used to permanently mount these.








One more pecan scrap to make the stopper....








And there you have it.








Lots of fun. I'll have to make some more of these before I get bored and move on to something else ;-) ...


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## DonAlexander (Apr 12, 2012)

Very nice and I like the reversed colors.


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## calcnerd (Dec 7, 2012)

Wow that's cool. Nice job!


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## MGP Roofing (Jul 10, 2010)

Very nice. Have you finished the inside with anything so it could hold liquids?


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## WeekendTurner (May 27, 2011)

Not yet. I will do the outside with a tongue oil but may use a "salad bowl finish" inside. May just use the oil for both. It will cure in a few weeks and be perfectly safe.

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## grahamhowe (Jun 16, 2015)

Amazing canteen project...


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