Bowtie questions.....Woodworking, Really

Re: Bowtie questions.....Woodworking, Really

Dick Coers

Bowties are the equivalent of making dovetail drawers. It provides mechanical strength, plus glue strength. I've seen people use a biscuit joiners to put a straight spline across the crack, so relying only on glue strength. Some splines are shot across at an angle, so more light toe nailing. Size and thickness will depend on how structural it needs to be. It's my opinion that nearly all bowties are just visual.

Re: Bowtie questions.....Woodworking, Really

Jack Guzman from Maine

I have noticed that use of live edge tables with decorative bowties spanning cracks are becoming a thing. In my chair shop I use them alot,mainly in chair repairs where the seat has split. Sometimes I will have a perfectly good seat slab but it will have a check. If I decide to use it for a new chair I will place a dutchman(bowtie) in the seat to keep it from spreading. The dovetail shape is what holds the wood together. The glue merely to hold it in place. I usually go about 1/4" deep.

Re: Bowtie questions.....Woodworking, Really

Jerry Gibbs

Secret is for bow tie to be softer than slab or vice versa. Make the tie slightly larger with tapered sides. Apply glue and pound it home. You can’t make a dry run.

Re: Bowtie questions.....Woodworking, Really

John McGaw

"Do they rely on the wedging action of the edges or the glue in the bottom?"

Yes. Both. I'd guess that the appropriate thickness would be determined by the thickness of the stock and how hard it is trying to come apart. A super-thick slab splitting aggressively might benefit from bowties top and bottom. I've made them 3/4" in thinner slabs and it has always seemed to work OK. Probably whatever you can comfortably cut would be appropriate but I'd never try to go all the way through.

Laying out a butterfly

Clint Searl

The approach I use to lay out a butterfly starts with a rectangle or trapezoid , following the geometry using the midpoints of the bases per the drawing. IMO, a butterfly is primarily decorative, not structural, and only needs to be about 1/4" thick.

Re: Laying out a butterfly

Clint Searl

When I wanted to keep a nasty split closed, I used a double open end wrench epoxy embedded into the underside of the board.

Any preference...

Ellis Walentine

... for height:width ratio on that rectangle, Clint? Is that a Nakashima constant?

Ellis

Clint...

Tom Dunlap

...did you use a 10mm so you knew where at least one was located?

Re: Any preference...

Clint Searl

The aspect ratio doesn't seem to matter as long as the result is "pleasing". The big one in the picture is 12" long.

OK, so I made two....

Barry Irby

Pick up a scrap of MDF and cut a somewhat random bowtie pattern in it. A little asymmetrical, but good enough to make a trial run.

In a scrap of oak I cut out the pocket using a 3/8" spiral bit and a 1/2" bushing. Then cut the bow tie out of a piece of walnut using a 1 1/4" bushing. Beveled the bottom edges with a chisel, slathered on some Titebond, pounded it home and clamped it. Came back and rant the piece through the planer, sanded it a bit and Bob's your uncle.

When I bought my Festool router at and estate sale I got a Lee Valley inlay set with it, except there is no 1/8" bit. Hmmm, I may have to order one.

I decided to try a different combination and used a 1/4" spiral bit with a 1/2" and 1" bushing. The 3/8" bit created a lot of sawdust and required some stopping and starting to clean up the sawdust and keep the pattern empty and clean. The 1/4" bit was too long and chattered and howled. Less sawdust, but the chatter or whip created a problem. The bowtie is loose, probably 1/100" all the way around. I glued it in with some epoxy just to see what it will look like but it may be too undersized.

The 1/4" bit was probably too long. I may try again with a shorter bit.

I was intimidated by having to either cut the corners square by hand of round over the corners of the bowties. I chopped the corners square and it turned out to be easy.

Thanks for the help.

Here's some examples I saw in a gallery

Tim Greif - West of Chicago

Beautiful wood pieces

Fashion

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

I have noticed that use of live edge tables with decorative bowties spanning cracks are becoming a thing.

Jack, it is as if the more bowties the better. It has become a fashion statement. I think the result is hideous. Use them where needed, and try and make them blend in rather than become a dominant feature.

Regards from Perth

Derek

The customer is always right

Ellis Walentine

... and, sadly, fashion often dictates where taste fears to tread.

I'm with you, Derek. Function and aesthetics first.

Ellis

Gallery Furniture

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It seems to have become the trend in furniture seen an galleries, and copied by hobbiests, that it is the artistic attributes of the wood in the "furniture" and not so much about the attributes of the form or construction that define the piece. The skill exhibited is wood selection and composition and not a well installed hinge, for example.

The small mills that supply raw material must love this fashion. They can turn firewood logs into handsome profits. For someone that sold high grade hardwood lumber it all looks like pallet wood gussied up to look like furniture. I wonder at the staying power of live edges, bow ties, and huge knots. Will the novelty of mineral filled epoxy in your dining room table wear off?

I have difficulty valuing it because it looks to be assembled with little woodworking skills- fancy wood for a door that opens with a European kitchen cabinet hinge as seen in galleries. The artistic component eludes my ability to appreciate this value added, but that is my shortcoming, not the artist's. .

I never got much from Krenov's musings but one thing stuck. He advocated the design should look attractive made from the plainest wood. A lot I see in galleries and emulated by hobbiests doesn't meet this goal.

Re: The customer is always right

John McGaw

No. The customer is definitely not always right. But the customer is where the money comes from so, if you want to get some of that money for your own use, you treat even the most tasteless idiot as if s/he is right. At least until the check clears.

Photocopies

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

I never got much from Krenov's musings but one thing stuck. He advocated the design should look attractive made from the plainest wood. A lot I see in galleries and emulated by hobbiests doesn't meet this goal.

Each time someone copies another, without understanding the design in part or whole, the presentation degrades one more level. It is like the photocopy machines of olde - a copy is made from a copy until its original form is illegible.

Regards from Perth

Derek

.....or the vote is counted.....

What a difference it makes....

John in NM

To be providing a product that you would make regardless, and a customer (or many customers) actually want to purchase. I count myself very lucky to have bumbled on to one such product - it makes such a difference in my outlook!