Owen Lawrence wrote:

Actually, that's exactly what I was trying to do. I got it down to about a
minimum of 3/8" thick by 1' or less, but after that I get a lot of catches.
I'm not willing to blame my lathe entirely, but it vibrates a lot. My tools
are as sharp as I can make them. I think I'll ask if I can try it on a
friend's lathe to see if it makes any difference. It got to the point where
I gave up pending building a steady. I don't know if I could make a
trapping plane that would work any good, but that's a new idea to me (thanks
Andy).

- Owen -

It's a lot easier if you use a chuck like the SuperNova2 or
Talon type. Cut your stock square, chuck up the handle
piece and drill a hole in the end for the tenon you'll turn
on the end of the wand part later.

By using a chuck to hold the drive end and a live center on the
tail stock you can greatly reduce one source of the problem -
the springing you get when using a spur or stebb center on
the drive side. Compressing the blank between the head
stock spur drive and the live center will

If you start rounding from the tails stock end and work your
way back to the chuck - cutting towards the tail stock also
helps because you're automatically tapering, k with lots of
beef to the left for rigidity. Cut the tenon on the wand part
last as it will be closest to the chuck where things are
the most stabile.

If you set the tool rest lower than normal and use a 1/2"
or 3/4" roughing gouge, handle pretty low and do light
passes, you'll reduce the likelyhood of a catch. Higher RPMs
also helps.

And don't forget about the "80 grit gouge" I've NEVER had
a catch using my trusty "80".

Sand to 320 before cutting in details.

Handle details with a half inch skew - at low RPMS, detail
gouge at higher RPMs

(Here's some ideas for wands

http://home.comcast.net/~charliebcz/...agicWands.html
http://home.comcast.net/~charliebcz/.../Turning2.html

and then try doing some hair sticks
http://home.comcast.net/~charliebcz/...Turning12.html

charlie b