Turning Miniatures

by Charlie Belden

Peter Pipe was kind enough to regrind one of my skews to put a curve in the cutting edge. That changed skews from my least used, most "feared" tools to my absolute favorites. The more I use them the more things I discover they can do. I now have four of them: ½",¾", and seldom used 1" and a 1¼". Haven't ground the curve in the 1" yet but will when I have the need to use it.

After turning some ant's legs and long thin antennae&helip;with 18 spindly legs, and working on the thin legs for the spider, I wondered how fine I could turn a finial. Having played with Santos mahogany (Brazilian) and becoming familiar with how it turned and took an oil finish, I started playing with it on the lathe—with no real plan other than to do “Middle East type spires/minarets.” I began with the shortest and progressed to the tallest, getting more delicate as things progressed.

The thing about being in the zone, the place where things happen just so, is that you don't know where you're going but just go with it anyway. Here's where this part of the visit went.

Kind of traditional spindle turning stuff, right? Sorry the image isn't as crisp and clear as I'd like. There's a reason for that.

These pieces are too big for my camera's macro mode, and too small to get close enough to them and stay in focus in normal mode. Cribbage pegs, anyone?

The tenon/spigots at the bottom are 1⁄8" in diameter. For the metric visitor, that silver coin on the left is just under 18mm.

Oh, and for the tool junkies, these weren't turned with any special gouge or chisel endorsed by some famous turner—they were done with a plane old Buck Brothers¼" bench chisel and a 1⁄16" thick bayonet saw blade that I ground the teeth off of—the handle being a paper towel wrapped around one end.

And here are some more in poplar. Turning these things is addictive. With so many shapes to play with and combine, and because these little pieces don't take much time to make, it’s hard to stop. Just for fun, I decided to see just how small I could go with the bayonet saw blade parting tool. The one on the right was the end of the road for this sojourn. It tapers from 0.02" to a fat 0.03", turned from a half inch poplar dowel. The zone.

Like potato chips and M&Ms, these things are hard to walk away from. I'm sure there’s a limit to how small I can go with them—but I haven't gotten there…yet.

Great stress reliever—and good for the soul—or whatever you want to call it. The endorphin bursts are icing on the cake .

Turning delicate and turning small provided plenty of practice using a curved edge skew and a regular old single bevel bench chisel to cut balls and beads and coves and grooves. Because I was starting with what would otherwise be scraps, and the diameters started out relatively small, there was no concern about a catch or dig-in that could cause heart failure or loss of life or limb. As a result, I tried all kinds of ways to make a particular type of cut, and some cuts for which I had no particular application in mind—because the risk of failure was so low and the consequences basically nil.

Looking back on all the slicing & dicing I decided to put together some illustrations of the basic cuts I used for all the spinarettes and the little peg things. Once you understand what cut does what and how to make them, they can be combined and improvised on to do all sorts of things.

So here's the first one—a simple Rocking Slice Cut Across the Grain Cut. This cut is great for cutting line grooves and making stop cuts into which other subsequent cuts can be made.

Rocking Slice Cut across the grain

The next basic cut—the Peeling/Shearing Cut—is great for reducing the diameter of your turning—either along its entire length or in just one area. It does require a square chisel end—a bedan, a plain old single bevel bench chisel, or even a parting tool work just fine. The only tricky part, which is the trick for all this type of cut, is keeping the cut tangent to the changing diameter of the piece—preferably above the horizontal centerline of the piece. That means that you have to gently dive the tip of the tool downward as the diameter is reduced. If you keep the bevel behind the cutting edge rubbing the wood it will burnish it to a nice, smooth surface

Peeling/Shearing Cut parallel to the grain

Now, if you make a Rocking Slice Cut first then use these two basic cuts and add a Roll between the Peeling Shearing Cut and the Rocking Slice Cut, cutting towards the stop cut you initially made, you can turn a bead, or a ball. Here's your view of this Roll and Rock Cut. Although the illustration shows the cut being made bevel up, it can be made bevel down, although the cut would then end with the back of the chisel parallel to the vertical wall of the stop cut.

Start by making a stop cut using a Rocking Slicing cut.

Begin with an almost Peeling/Shearing cut using just the right corner of the chisel. Roll the chisel clockwise and begin rocking the right corner down towards the center of the blank, making a right rolling rocking slice cut. End the cut with the bevel parallel to, and up agianst, the vertical face created by the initial rocking slicing cut (the stop cut).

Here's an end view of the cut which shows how it transitions from a peeling cut to a cross grain cut . Note how the chisel is rocked down into the cut as the rolling cut is made. Also note that the actual cutting section of the edge remains above the turning's horizontal center line. Cut below that centerline and you're apt to start an uncontrollable Spiral Cut or cause a dig-in with the upper corners of the chisel.

End view of the cut shown above—but done bevel down instead of bevel up.

Rub.

Begin Rolling Slice cut with the corner of the cutting edge.

With the bevel riding the already cut surface, roll the corner of the cutting toward your desired end line (made by the previous stop cut).

Finish the cut with a Rocking Slicing cut.

This Roll and Rock Cut can be made either Left or Right, bevel up or bevel down. The rate of roll will determine whether you cut a squished, almost flat ball, an oval squeezed ball, or a nice round ball. Roll fast for the squished almost flat ball. Roll slow for an oval squeezed ball. Roll in between to get a round ball. Play with the Rolling and Rocking Cut, too

It's funny how the brain rewards creative experimentation, so I did another and another, each producing a nice endorphin reward.

The smallest finial took about 45 minutes because there were a lot of pauses for “now what should I do?” If I had this one to look at, I'm sure I could do a similar one in maybe 20 minutes, 25 minutes tops.

The tallest one took close to an hour and a half to do. Again, some of that time was spent on “now what should I do?” but most of the time was working s-l-o-w-l-y and very carefully on the long thin tapers. You start at the tip, the piece held at the bottom in a chuck and the other end supported by a live center. Completely finish the top, then work down the next section. Once the top is done the piece is held only at the other end, in a four jaw chuck so there’s no going back. Turn it and finish it—before moving down the blank.

While the piece is being created, you see it sideways, and while on the lathe, even when you turn your head sideways, you really can't visualize it upright and standing alone until you take it off the lathe. Only then is there an Ah!—or an Aw sh*t! I shoulda, coulda, woulda…

To give you an idea of scale, here's a detail with a #2 pencil as a reference.

Looks kind of different when seen vertically. I think the one on the shorter one below will make an interesting pendant. Have no idea what the other one is good for, maybe the prototype for a series of very expensive tooth picks for some rich lady's hors d'oeuvres.

It's interesting how the look of these things change as you change their orientation. The longer one of these seems longer and more delicate when viewed point down ( right) than when viewed point up (left).

P.S.—One of the tricky cuts used in these pieces is a Roll—Slide—Roll for the top part of the tear drop shapes. The curve on the cutting edge allows a cut that's impossible to do with a straight edged skew chisel because the long point would catch in the transition in the S-Curve and the long point or heel can easily catch in the long tangent tapering area.

If you're looking for something to turn, you might want to have a go at some spinarets. They really aren't that difficult to do—with a little practice, and a sharp cutting edge.