Turning fruit on the lathe is easy once you learn a few tricks and then practice your technique. No two pieces of fruit are exactly alike (not even peas in a pod) so don't worry about making exact copies of your apples, pears etc., near enough is good enough. I have found fruit to be a fast seller at craft fairs and shows.

First select your piece of timber and closely inspect it for any obvious flaws, like soft areas or splits in the grain (shakes). The size of the blank for an apple should be approximately 4" long x 3 1/4" thick, this allows for a certain amount of wastage during the mounting procedure and the parting off of the piece. My preferred timbers for

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apples are Tambootie, Paddauk (red), Yew and Holly. Timbers I prefer for pears include Tambootie, Iroko (irritant), and Laburnum. The size of blank for my pears is 4" x 2 3/4".

I have selected a piece of spalted branch wood from a pile of beech, which I cut about 15 months ago. I had sealed the ends with PVA mixed 50/50 with clean water and left the timber to air dry in my wood rack at the back of the workshop. (Photo 1)

I marked the centers of the timber by using one of my center finders; there are many on the market at very reasonable prices. (Photo 2) Then I mounted the blank between centers using a four prong drive center and a live tail center, and set the lathe speed to around 1800 rpm. (Photo 3).

After checking that the timber did not foul the tool rest, which is set on or just below center, I used a 3/4"roughing gouge to turn it to a cylinder. (Photo 4)

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With my 1/8th parting chisel, I trued up the ends, forming a slight under cut. This ensures that the piece will seat properly into the chuck, and will sit against the rim. I use

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the Super Precision 4 jaw chuck from Axminster, fitted with a set of long jaws called the O'Donnell jaws. They will grip a spigot of about 2" - 2 3/4" and expand into a recess of 3" - 3 3/4". No chance of rapping the knuckles of the left hand with these jaws. (Photo 5). At this stage I checked the timber again for any flaws I may have missed, and formed a spigot at the headstock end to suit my Axminster chuck. I took the cylinder of timber and fitted it onto my chuck, making sure that it was tight, and then spun it by hand, and made any adjustments to get it running true. After adjusting the tool rest so that it was close to the timber, I marked the finished length onto the blank with the parting tool. I prefer my apples to finish about 3" long and 2 3/4" diameter.

With a sharp 1/2" spindle gouge, I started to form the shape of the top of the apple (tailstock end). (Photo 6) Try and get a smooth curve here and don't try and rush at this stage. When I had the shape I wanted at this end, i.e. a semi sphere (Photo 7), I started at the other end of the apple with a 1/8" parting tool and cut into the timber to about 1", widening the cut as I went so as not to burn the tip of the tool as the timber grabbed the sides.