Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Here is another cane. The shaft is the clear shaft posted a few weeks ago. It now has a rubbed black lacquer finish similar to the other. The handle is carved cherry. There is an ebony tenon wedge.
six sided die roll
I've had good luck using India ink to blacken ash and maple shafts. It seems to go a little deeper than dyes and stains.
Looks good, Joe. Use a router jig for the twist?
No router. All by hand.
I use a modifies Stuart Mortimer 3-bine twist (reference his book if you can find it) to stretch out the pattern to make it more rope-like. I lay it out using techniques that I learned from him and Allan Batty.
Once the spiral is marked out for the three gullets, I use a dovetail saw to cut 3 kerfs all the way down. You have put a piece of tape on the saw plate as a depth gauge, but I do it by eye. Usually about two passes per kerf..
Next, I use a fine microplane rasp with a 90 degree corner to open up the 3 kerfs. Because one side of the rasp is cutting with the grain and the other side is cutting against, Allan Batty would tape out the "bad" side. You wear out one side of the blade this way unless you alternate spiral directions across multiple carvings.
Next, I switch to SaburrTooth carving burrs that have concave profiles to form the rounded bines of the rope. Again, I cut from both directions to get the "with the grain" cuts.
Sanding. On slow speed, the lathe turns the spindle and I use very thin strips of cloth-backed sandpaper held at a diagonal and allow the spiral to drag the bundle of strips down the kerf. I do this about 30 times in each direction figuring that in 30 passes, I will hit all three kerfs multiple times.
For the first time, I bought some of that sanding cord to try for the very bottom of the kerfs. I'm not 100% sold yet.
Sealed with thinned, clear lacquer and sanded back.
Black lacquer sprayed on, then wiped off with lacquer thinner to fill the pours, but expose some red oak wood too.
Tung oil finish on top.
The handle was roughed on a bandsaw, then shaped with the same concave Saburr Tooth burrs. Lots of sand sanding after that.
Once the tenon was glued and wedged, I used Saburr Tooth carving disks to take off the extended tenon and get it flush to the handle.
Carving note #1. Cutting twists by hand is very mono-dexterous. In other words, as a left-hander, I almost always cut twists in a counter clockwise direction going down the spindle because they are easier for me to execute with my left hand. Right-handed people tend to make their spirals go the other direction. Next time you see a photo of a piece with spirals, look at the direction of the spiral and you can almost assuredly determine the handedness of the turner. Trust me, carving the opposite spiral is a b!+(h.
Carving note #2. The linear distance between the bumps or grooves on a twist is called the pitch. Mark asked about using a router. The problem with a router is that a jig will make an evenly spaced pitch all the way down the shaft. A true twist varies the pitch along the shaft with the diameter of the shaft. In other words, as the taper gets smaller, the pitch gets smaller too. It makes for a much more aesthetically pleasing carving. A router jig on a screw or chain mechanism can't do that. Hand-work required.
Disclaimer - I am a Saburr Tooth dealer so wanted to do a majority of the carving with those products. I have made about 20 canes over the last 10 years - all with some sort of twist. Prior efforts have been done with hand carving tools, rasps, files and sanding cards. I highly advocate the power tool method.
Well Done and congratulations on a unique cane~~!! P.
Thanks Joe.
I'd like to try my hand at carving (some day!) and you have noted some great pointers in your description. I for one never thought about or realized the pitch relationship to diameter the way you described, but it makes sense now that you say it.
I missed the earlier post - what is the shaft species? (EDIT - ok I see it in the title now - Red Oak!) isn't mahogany a usable species. for carving? (aka 'carvable'). Seems to fit with your 'red' descriptor in the test. Are there other species you'd consider using or is mahogany (or basswood) just the right material? Does it have to be a certain type of mahogany?
Henry
Henry, Technically, you can carve any wood. Some are easy to carve and others more difficult. Basswood is a clear, tight grain wood that carves easily and holds detail well. It is also economical and is the carver’s go-to choice. Mahogany is a little harder, but works well.