Every tankard I make starts as one of two very different things. A turned piece begins as a single solid billet, roughed round and hollowed out from one block — the same piece of wood all the way around, so the grain flows continuously and there’s no seam to hide. It’s the more traditional route for a mug or cup, and it’s what many of my recent Signature Series pieces are.
A stave-built tankard is assembled similar to a wooden barrel: narrow staves glued edge to edge into a ring, then turned true once the glue cures. Stave construction lets me combine multiple species in one vessel (a light sapwood stave next to a dark heartwood one, for instance) and it’s the only practical way to build a tankard wider than the biggest blank I can get in one piece.
Neither method is “better” — they’re suited to different shapes and different visual effects. If you’re commissioning a piece and have a preference, it’s worth mentioning early, since it can change the wood options available to you.