Woodturning a natural edge mushroom in apricot. In this video, I continue a series exploring what difference the turning axis could make on a mushroom turning. A viewer questioned how I oriented the turning axis, so here we go with an experiment.

With this second apricot branch, I’m orienting the turning axis a few degrees off center. Actually, I did not measure the angle. Rather, I just placed the drive and tail centers half way between the center and the edge of the bark. The actual angle would vary with the diameter and the length of the wood.

As usual, the challenge is in the mushroom’s cap. With the natural, irregular edge, it’s hard to find the edge or to ride a gouge’s bevel. This only also had an area of rot in the mushroom cap.

The finish is mineral oil and beeswax in a 75%/25% ratio. This is Eli Avisera’s recipe. I love the honey smell from the beeswax. I used the oil/wax also as a sanding compound to both lubricate the sand paper and capture the dust.

I’ll be making one more mushroom for this experiment.

In this mushroom, the wood made much more difference than the turning axis, probably due to the large diameter.