Woodturning is said to be the safest form of woodworking, that said it can still be dangerous and care should be taken at all times

The methods and procedures I show here are what I do at the moment and feel safe doing, I am not suggesting that you should do things the same way, that is up to you, if you don’t feel safe doing it one way find another way of doing it.

Above all take care and remember if this is your hobby it is supposed to be fun so enjoy it.

Wooden goblets are always popular but if they are to be used it can make life a bit awkward for the turner to finish them.   There are a number of finishes such as Rustins plastic coating and various varnishes from the states as well as oils etc that can be used.   The problems with a lot of these is that they can make the wood look and feel a bit plastic and if they get chipped the liquid will get through the chip and soak into the wood.

One answer to this is to use a wine glass to hold the drink and make a wooden stem for it, so you have the best of both worlds.   You can buy the wine glasses ready cut from suppliers like Turners Retreat or you can cut them yourself this will probably be cheaper and you have a wider choice of glasses to use.

It is not that difficult or dangerous to cut them yourself but it is wise to take precautions.   You will be in the workshop so I assume you will be wearing your smock or similar other items you will need are a full face visor and thick gloves for protection and a piece of wood that the stem of the glass will fit over and preferably a small 3 corner file.   If you don’t have one of these the corner of a fine ordinary file will work as well but I find the 3 corner version better and easier.

Holding the bulb of the glass in one hand and resting it across the block of wood use one of the corners of the file to file a line around the glass.

Now to break the base of with the top of the stem give the bottom of the stem a firm tap and it should break cleanly at the filed line.   In the picture below I am using the morse taper end of a drive center as I find this works well.

Make sure you dispose of the base properlly, I put mine in the recycle bin.

You now have the glass prepared and the next job is turning a new stem and base for it.

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