I’m planning to turn a goblet as a gift. I was recently given a few pieces of persimmon that are quite dry, measuring about 5.6% m.c. (They had been stored away for 10 or 15 years!), and big enough to get 3” cylinders from. I’m thinking of making a contrasting lip on the goblet of something like walnut, purpleheart or ebony. I’ve considered the possibility of making a segmented ring to glue to the top of the persimmon to defend against glue line failure at the joint of the rim to the body. I anticipate the rim being very thin and not too high, perhaps 1/8-3/16” thick and only about 3/16” tall. An added complication is that the end of the goblet will of course be end grain, and the mating surface of the rim ring would be side grain. So, as I asked in my title, is this idea doomed to failure?
I’ve had one other idea, and that is to part off a small ring from the almost finished goblet and saturate it in dye, hoping it would penetrate into the wood, then glue it back, aligning the grain, and finish turning. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
When I, in my inexperience, was concerned with gluing layers of dissimilar materials I called glue-up expert Frank Penta for advice. Made this goblet.
Cherry, walnut veneer, basswood for chip carving.
He said to alternate dissimilar woods and grain directions with thing layers of veneer. If turned thin, stresses from seasonal wood movement are minimal. Sealed with a good finish also helps. Since then, I've done this often since with other turnings. (Make sure all wood is dry, dry, dry! And mating surfaces flat)
Persimmon (an ebony) is quite different from many woods, but if you can get it glued to ebony or some other dense wood, non-oily wood, I'd think it should be OK. I glued the stack with Titebond and clamped it for several days. Epoxy might even work better - I've used epoxy to glue bubinga, walnut, and quatambu together, clamped well.
I usually use a 60 grit drum sander to flatter before gluing but a disk sander might be better to square up 3" blocks
Remember, purple heart will eventually turn brown (except for some in my stash from an undisclosed place in Mexico - it refuses to change color!)
I think it might be difficult to cut, dye, and reattach a small ring without a visible gap.
Why can't you attach end grain to end grain? Lack of wood the right size? One option besides ebony might be african blackwood. I've bought a bunch of african blackwood clarinet bell blank rejects which make wonderful turnings - could cut an end-grain slice big enough for a goblet top and glue/clamp to the goblet blank.
Here's one of several things I've made from these clarinet bell blanks.
If you decide to go with a specific wood and don't know what glue is best, I could try calling Frank.
I'd love to see a photo of the result! (BTW, I love turning persimmon - we have a lot around here.)
