New pepper mills in the making

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been putting aside lots of interesting timber, ready for my salt and pepper mills. I’ve just introduced a new version in yew, but there’ll soon be spalted beech and walnut as an option.

The precise design of each mill means a lot of preparation is needed, especially when drying the timber. All components are turned to exact tolerances and therefore cannot warp or twist, one reason why the lids turn so smoothly! The top image shows a selection of spalted beech and yew, soon to be hollowed out on the lathe.

The image below shows all the components required for a pair of mills, just before completion. However, these ones are rather special – turned from walnut, they will feature inlays of bog oak and sycamore…