>I'm back with a follow-up question to my earlier posting on crotch orientation. To illustrate, I borrowed an earlier posted pic by Lee Weed. In picture C, does the special graining run along the black line or the white line. It seems the best options would then either be A or B for bowls - with one case putting the graining across the bottom of the bowl and the other putting only a line of graining along the middle. Am I thinking right on this? I know recomendations have been to make one cut down both piths but I still would like clarification (i.e., option A).
>The crotch feather is in line with the white line of photo C. Bowl orintation of photo A is best since it will put the feather in the bottom of the bowl. A hollow form would still use orientation A but orient the foot to the bark side and the rim towards the center of the log.
>Perfect - I absolutely get it now. 'A' is how I was told to do it but I wanted to understand for sure exactly why. Thanks for saving me the time and resources of turning both ways myself to figure it out.
Lyle Jamieson did a demo at our club and he turnes them on the side so the heart is at the bottom bark on top. The figure looks really good and if it is a natural edge bowl it will be heart shaped. We all went home and turned one afterwords.
No it's not oriented like photo B. If you layed the crotch on the ground so it looks like a y and took the bowl out of the middle with the natural edge facing up and the bottom toward the heart of the tree. I guess you would call this long grain orientation.
>John, is the crotch split thru the pith first, and is the pith what you refer to as the "heart" of the tree? I've been experimenting with crotch orientation lately, and have achieved some really wonderful effects, but this one is new to me if I understand the layout correctly. Can you clear this one up for me?
Your right. When I looked at that photo the first time I thought it was end grain. It didn't sink in that the bowls were drawn so they would be taken from the long grain. Must have had a brain fart. Of course that assumes that I have a brain and that fact has been debated.
To get the heart shaped bowl you have to make the heart larger than the crotch. Obviously if you make the bowl smaller than the crotch sides it will simply be round.
>This would make a good article for one of the turning magazines, showing the different orientations and the resulting bowls. I guess we can also do the same with slash debris.
>The pictures are looking down into the branch of the Y. Imagine the Y standing tall and proud on the floor and then we are looking down on to it from above. So, you see the two piths, one each out of the tops of the Y, but the bottom pith main trunk) is against the floor. Clearly I should have explained this better - sorry for any confusion.
>Hope this doesn`t muddy the waters too much but,I`ve had some nice hollow forms come from the center of crotches where 3 or more branches emerge from the same plane.I turned a birch hollow form from a 5 branch crotch that had incredible figure all the way around it.That piece never made it to the gallery,it got snapped up in rough form.
Urban trees that have been headed(the term is pollard,I think)are a good source for this kind of opportunity.
I also have seen fantastic small boxes turned from just the "feather" portion,but that wastes alot of wood.
I have a piece of mesquite that has 3 branches coming out at the same plane. Do you have a picture of the hollow form that you turned? Did you end up with "open" areas between the branches?
>If you picture where the feather figure runs thru the piece and then lay out the diameter of the round to run thru the tops of that,this will be your blank.The foot will be at the main trunk or lower end as the tree grew.
You turn the top of the blank down to get the best figure,try to center the opening between the 3 forks(the figure is less and more balanced there).
You will need to bring the curve of the body in to chase the figure in the blank anyway so things just work out if you mount the blank right.A cup center in the tailstock works best as it allows you to move and remount the blank as needed,I start these between centers.The pith in what used to be the main trunk needs to be centered or the pith will bump out after drying and throw the piece off.
If the blank co-operates and things balance out you will end up with the feather figure in 3 places around the vessel with curl and swirling grain between.It`s a bit of a balancing act but well worth it when it works.The only thing I`ve found that rivals it would be turning a rootball.
I have a pic of the piece somewhere but I`ll have to look for it and then see if my youngest son can help me scan it to post it.(I type with 2 fingers,that gives you an idea of my PC skills).
I`ve found excellent figure in maple,birch,cherry,red oak,walnut,ash and afew others.Not every tree shows feather figure thru the forks so you might want to try a fork from a large branch first to see if you have one that works.I was disappointed to find lilac didn`t.(though the purple streaks made up for it).
