Salt and pepper mills in gorgeous woods

This week, I've been busy making salt and pepper mills and have used a variety of woods. The top image shows two sets of my wych elm ones, with a walnut version sandwiched in between – these are a little special and feature bog oak as the darker inlay…

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, this design relies on super dry timber, so that the mechanism operates smoothly. Any movement will result in the lids becoming stiff to turn. Due to this, I pre turn all the pepper mill parts first and store them for a couple of months inside. You can see some spalted beech and yew blanks in the box below…

I’m back to the lathe now, as there’s still more blanks to turn – olive ash and burr elm are next on the list…