"hand planed" ornaments

Re: "hand planed" ornaments - Beautiful!!!

John Aniano in NJ...

>

Re: "hand planed" ornaments - Beautiful!!!

bill tindall

>thankyou

Re: "hand planed" ornaments

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>You trying to pull something over on us, Bill? It's obvious you made those out of M&Ms :^) I can see the little "m" trademark on every one of them.

Those are very nice, not to mention strangely coincidental. I went to a turning meeting this evening, and there were probably fifty ornaments on the table. There was a competition, and many members brought some to show. I never would have guessed I'd see a bunch more as soon as I got home. I didn't have any for display, having never tried to turn one.

What did you turn the spindles from? Do you hollow your globes to make them lighter?

Also, very unexpectedly, at the meeting, I met Stokes. I told him I didn't need to answer his face vise question, because other Centralians had already done a great job of answering it. We discussed some of the issues anyway.

This place has a bunch of great and helpful people.

Re: "hand planed" ornaments

Steve knight

>very nice. you should play with some laminating to get some cool tropicals and such in there too.

Re: "hand planed" ornaments - redbud wood *LINK*

Miles

>Bill, nice ornaments! How do you make the skinny bits? They look 'difficult' to me but I'm no woodturner...

I got hold of a little redbud here in the UK, where it's called Judas tree (cercis siliquastrum) - some logs two feet long and about 12 inches diameter.... still trying to find someone with a decent size bandsaw to cut it into boards before letting it season. I think it's a lovely colour and figure based on some trial bits I sliced off. Similar richness of colour as olive, but more contrast between the pale & dark parts of the grain.

There are pictures of my test slice at the link below (great site btw) and the tree is (was) coincidentally the one on Wikipedia's page about this species! The pale sapwood has warped greatly as it has dried, but the heartwood has remained relatively undistorted, which is promising. Maybe it will make some nice small boxes, pictureframes etc once it's seasoned. I like 'rescuing' such bits of wood that would otherwise be wasted. It seems that redbud is not scarce, but it's one of those woods that no-one uses or supplies. How did you get your bit?

Funny how exciting a bit of wood can be.... :-)

Miles

Cambridge, UK


Judas Tree / Redbud wood

Re: "hand planed" ornaments - redbud wood

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>The wood Bill is using is probably Eastern Redbud, Cercis canadensis, and we also sometimes call it Judas Tree. Very rarely does one encounter one of these with a 12" diameter trunk.

Thanks for the tips and photos. If one of mine ever comes down, I'll be sure to save the beautiful wood.

Re: "hand planed" ornaments

Dave Anderson Chester, NH

>There's not really much to say except-- Very Well done Bill.

Very nice, Bill...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>I could use a few of those around the bottom of our tree, the cat could swat at those and only damage it's self.

Their purdy.

Re: "hand planed" ornaments

bill tindall

>What did you turn the spindles from? The spindles are walnut on the sassafrass and purple heart on the cedar. The purple heart is very hard to turn for these small things as it more splinters than makes a shaving. But I had some scrap so it got used.

Do you hollow your globes to make them lighter? Yes I haven't learned to hollow from a hole in the end so they are split with parting tool, hollowed like a bowl and then glued back together. The red bud would have benefited from not dividing as it messed up the equitorial pattern that was real nice.

The red bud was cut by the road crew clearing brush from the sides of the road. Red bud grows in profusion here in any area being reclaimed by trees. A big tree is 4". The heartwood is more yellow than the example shown in pictures below, which I suspect is a different vairety.

Re: "hand planed" ornaments

Stokes

>It was great fun! Certainly nice to meet other Wood Centralians.

Stokes

Re: "hand planed" ornaments - redbud wood

Miles

>I was lucky to get it! Just cycled past at the right moment... I guess it's similar to the N. American species.

If you did have such a log, how thick would you slice it? I'd like to get various figures, so a set of parallel slices should be OK. It may be good for resawing into 'thick veneer' once it's dry - or should that be done straightaway and then the thin slices dried carefully and held flat somehow?

I guess I'll end up using it in quite small sections, but with no firm plans its a teaser to decide how to do it. I have ripped one log in half by hand (granpa's saw, Smalser would approve!) but I'll waste too much doing the rest (and it's hard work!).

I guess this is a nice little problem to have - any wisdom will be gladly accepted!

cheers

Miles

(I also have small bits of (dry) evergreen oak which has a funky grain, mulberry (nice colour) and laurel (like holly) all from my parents' garden - very sentimental!)