Beading Tool

Re: Beading Tool

John Veerkamp

1/4 round diamond file.

Re: Beading Tool

john Lucas

I only have home made beading tools but I never sharpen the flute or bead side. I only hone the flat side.

Re: Beading Tool

John K Jordan

Just hone or grind the flat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH9MQnA6ApY

This is the way I sharpen the fluted parting tools.

JKJ

Re: Beading Tool

Jerry Maske

Thanks folks. I've turned some great beads in the harder woods and am amazed I've never seen this tool before. Haven't had the need to sharpen it yet, but, that's only a matter of time.

I'll be heading on vacation later this week. I'm dragging my wife kicking and screaming over to Maui for three weeks. It's our twenty fifth anniversary. Never thought I'd find a woman willing to put up with my antics that long. I was stationed at Pearl for almost seven years in my younger and wilder days so I know the lay of the land. Beautiful place.

Thanks again for the guidance.

Jerry

Re: Beading Tool

Jerry Maske

Okay. I have a tapered diamond honing tool that worked pretty well. And if that doesn't do the job, I'll wrap some sand paper around a dowel. More than one way to do anything.

Here's my first piece. I just put on a coat of sanding seal that isn't totally dry, but you can see the beads pretty well. The ones on the inside had me using language that made my bride leave the shop.

She'll get over it.

Jerry

Re: Beading Tool

John K Jordan

Just to be clear, the sharpening I do on fluted parting tools and I see recommended for the d-way beading tools does not touch the flute at all. Just the flat is honed, or easier, ground.

If you want to see how Harvey uses these, start at about 18:30 on this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A4UI_7OYDo

To see how Harvey sharpens, start at 34:10

JKJ

Re: Beading Tool

Jerry Maske

I'll look those over. Like a scraping tool, the bevel, what there is of it, probably won't ever touch the wood, so honing the top, or flat surface makes the most sense. I get that. And since this is my first venture into such a tool, I need to get all the information about them I can get. So, thank you.

I cleaned this one up with the diamond tapered tool and honed the top flat and level. Seems to have cut pretty well. Just for the record, that's a piece of Avocado cut about 18 months ago. I'd turned the bowl down into rough form and finished it last summer. HATED IT. I'd designed it to have some sort of decoration on the outside, but overall, the bowl had a miserable shape to it. Still not as graceful as I'd like but it made a good practice bowl for the beading process.

That raises a point too. Soft wood doesn't work well with a beading tool; I already found that out. Avocado isn't REAL soft, but it isn't hard either. The trick seems to be speed. I ran this one about 1,000 and it worked out fine. Slight amount of tear out on the inside beads but I corrected those without much screaming and shouting.

Please keep throwing advice at me. Really, I do hear and I do listen. Sometimes I'll take what I learn here and try it, alter it, modify it and actually make it work for me. I appreciate any advice and guidance I can get.

Jerry

Re: Beading Tool

John K Jordan

> Soft wood doesn't work well with a beading tool;

Soft wood doesn't work well with a lot of things! If possible, stiffen up the wood first. I often use thinned shellac or thinned sanding sealer - paint it on, let dry, repeat. I like the shellac but thinned lacquer or lacquer-based sanding sealer should work too.

In his video, Harvey Meyer also talks about the importance of beading on a surface that is already made very smooth, but not sanded. He shows a method of gently rocking the beading tool to gently cut alternating sides. He mentions the importance of stopping the beading just as the tool barely cuts down to the top of the bead - if the tool is allowed to cut into the top of the bead it can tear out fibers. Note that I don't have one of these yet so I'm just repeating what I heard. I plan on getting these at some point.

JKJ

Re: Beading Tool

Jerry Maske

John,

Thanks for the continued guidance. And I've already figured out what you were talking about. In one experiment I did, in fact, run the tool in too far and chipped off the top of the bead on the tool itself. That's a delicate part that takes a light touch to get it just right. On the picture I posted, I ran the tool in until I could barely see light at the deepest part of the curve and stopped. It wasn't much trouble to sand the rest of the bead round after that.

It's an interesting tool that does have a learning curve. And one thing to consider is that it produces a DEEP cut to each side of the bead. Leave your walls thick to allow for that. And all I'll say about that is, It wasn't pretty!

Jerry