June General Meeting - Danny Bartlett - Trembleurs

June 5, 2025 Meeting

7:00pm - 9:00pm

Danny Bartlett

 Trembleurs

Danny Bartlett

 Trembleurs

Danny gave us an overvview of turning these incredably difficult items at Open Shop a few months ago.  tonight he will take us through the whole process.

TREMBLEURS

Trembleurs were originally used in France as part of a woodturner’s body of work to show their mastery of the craft to promoted from Journeyman to a Master of the Guild. They are made from one piece of wood and were made with Ivory in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. The ‘fine’ connecting the features were supposed to be no thicker than a horse’s hair. One question that is often asked is – “What are they used for?”.  Pride and bragging rights are the answers. The wood must have very straight grain and be relatively and uniformly dense. I have turned trembleurs from oak. They are extremely fragile, and I don’t recommend doing it.

The large trembleurs shown here have all been turned in the last year. The large one is Maple, dark is Jatoba, and the third is Cherry.  The large one will stand on its own and is usually one the granite fireplace hearth in my house. The two medium trembleurs are suspended from the top of the clear tube. The tubes are traditionally glass, but these are acrylic. The tube for the large trembleur is used for transport and display only.