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On Grooves and Beads

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May 16, 2005
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I did these a while back to show a friend how I did simple decoration. May have been posted here once.

The time to make grooves or other embellishment is when the piece is circular. To me that means after working the outside, and before I begin the inside. It's a lot less risky then, because you're not going to make a bowl shorter with a too-deep groove, or if you're the kind who uses a scraper to make the groove rather than cutting, you risk no chatter and squirm from a high-friction tactic on a thin rim. So, for what it's worth, the way I do it.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/1-Downhill-First.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/2-Back-Cut.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/3-Two-V-Grooves.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/4-Roll-The-Round.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/5-Back-Roll.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/6-Refine-as-Required.jpg

The gouge is a 5/16 "pointy" grind which I use for hollowing Christmas ornaments. Also sneaks in where space is limited for other uses.

Don't have a lot of pictures of bowls using the beads or grooves, but I did see this in passing.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/7CoupleEdgeGrabs.jpg
I use it on very ordinary utility bowls to provide an outside grip. Popcorn types, mostly.

Apologies for the series, which was made rather quickly as an answer, not at length as a lesson. If you use a steady while cleaning up the inside, only someone with a micrometer will be able to tell if the bowl has ovalled, because the rim will be equal thickness all around, even as your decoration. That's what happens when moisture or stress changes are severe, the bowl goes a bit oval. It's not "runout" because the deviation is on opposing sides.
 
Is the wood on the last one maple?

Appears to be. I worked a lot of soft maple from one area for a couple of years. This year is hard maple, two years ago cherry. The soft had the size, and turns a treat. Not the exotic figured stuff, that is a cash crop....
 
soft maple

I had cut down a tree in the back year about 4 weeks ago as it was creaking and leaning toward the horse pasture fence, Was cutting up for firewood ( no real color and not excited about white wood) when I noticed it had stripes and was tiger maple. Cut up and sealed about 10 pieces besides the 8 bowls I have now turned. A week later a man I had met at a local craft show called and had some large maple, and cherry in his back hard all cut up in chunks for firewood. Turns out it was tiger maple, and at the flare of the base had some wild figure or "feather". May try dyeing some to show the figure better.. A few are almost dry enough. This is my "white era" ( I have a "potato chip era" too when I did real thin stuff)
 

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It's the beginning of the white time here, too. Snowing, mixed intermittently with sleet. "Those" times are coming. Dinner's in the crockpot and coffee #2 at the left, so....

Thoughts on curl of a couple types, one stress, http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Campfire-Maple.jpg the other genetic. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Bottom-Tenon-Box-2.jpg Open-grown trees tend to load with branches to one side - toward the sun - and the imbalance causes compression not just under the branch itself, but all the way to the base. Had two swooping aspens ("popple" up here) that were bothering my neighbor, who was worried about injury to his cows should they succumb to wind and rain. Some of the loveliest curl I've seen on the one side. Other straight. Had a lot of fun turning thin and green with that wood. Sun would make it glow through and through. Stuff from the woods runs all the way 'round in most cases. Presumably genetic, and happens even when the subject is straight as a string from climbing to light. Soft maple (Acer rubrum) is most prone to curl here, though it's not unknown in hard A saccharum.

The odd thing is with birdseye, which appears genetic, but often will not run all the way 'round the trunk. Mills won't count a log as birdseye unless it goes >50%, sincethey commonly peel rather than slice. Friend of mine who used to operate a family mill moved up to a corporation operation and talked them into a slicing machine to use those logs, as well as the curly maple which shows best on the quarter grain. Claims it paid for itself in short order.

If you get some summer-cut soft maple, you can leave it a little long and in the bark to ferment. It'll smell like wine, and will go nearly as brown in the sapwood area as in the heart, where it's usually trashed with small fractures. I love to exploit it, even caramelizing a bit with hot polishes. This is such a piece, with genetic curl over branch curl.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Curly-Combo.jpg

Looks about like this in the raw, before burning in BLO.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Waitsand-1.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Waitsand-2.jpg

I think it shows figure better than even dye work, if you get the opportunity.
 
Well, the garage door is UP. Let it blow snow, sleet, and otherwise try to get the equipment wet now. I just wanted one day that I could work out there without being chilled to the bone. Not that I'd trade for heat. Carswell was not one of my favorites, I guess because the D training culminated in a trip further west - so far it was east.

I have a week's worth of outdoor stuff left, and it's not looking good for the next two.
 
Our club meets just south of Carswell. We have a number of member who work at the adjoining "bomber plant" as the locals call it.

I have an air conditioner in my shop. It is not a luxury item -- it is a necessity for survival. The downside is that I can't filter enough of the dust out of the air and the air conditioner condenser coils get clogged with stuff that passes through the filter. The A/C doesn't have enough mojo to handle HEPA filters. Since it is cooler now, I have the unit out of the window and disassembled to remove all of the black slime mold that got started because of ignoring the dust and water too long.

New A/C units are not built the way that they used to be made. This one does not even have a water drain and they said that I would void the warranty if I drilled a drain hole -- well one voided warranty coming up. 😀
 
natura lvs. dye

MichaelMouse;87149 "I think it shows figure better than even dye work said:
"

I have not put any finish on them yet, and need to see how well the tiger stripes will show.
It;s depressing seeing the longer night light and so little "day light".😱 When the sun shines I am outside from noon to 6 pm. Fall is nice but it forebodes what is to come. But winter is when I hunker down in the basement with my Oneway (when I am not working , that is)😀
Gretch
 
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