For my first attempt at a little woodturning project in 20(ish) years, I thought I'd try a simple pair of salt and pepper shakers.

These are turned out of a piece of Ash. They have a hole drilled out of the bottom of them, with a simple rubber bung to hold in the salt and pepper. They are finished with Hampshire Sheen - Gloss finishing wax.

To make this piece I first cut a 2" x 2" x 5" piece of Ash out of a larger piece of Ash on the bandsaw. I then mounted this on the lathe, and rounded it. I then remounted it in a 4 piece chuck, and used a couple of Forstner drill bits mounted in the tailstock to drill out a hole for the salt, with a recess for the bung to sit in at both ends. I made a little mistake here, and drilled the recess a bit too deep - but they are still usable. I then cut the piece in two in the middle. I then remounted the first shaker to the chuck, using outward pressure, to shape it, and then sand it down. For sanding I used 80, 120, 180, 240 grit sandpaper. (I would have also used 320 grit - but I got impatient waiting for it to arrive). For the second shaker I used a pair of Calipers to try to match the thicknesses of the shakers - but I misjudged the amount of wood that the sanding would remove. I finished them with a couple of coats of Hampshire Sheen Gloss finishing wax, waiting a few days between coats.

On the most part I'm quite happy with how they came out - although they don't quite match perfectly, and the holes in the bottom of them aren't quite right - I'll give them another go later in the year - but I'm going to try a few things where I don't have to perfectly match one design to another first.