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pimples ON wood

D

dave J

Joined
Feb 5, 2005
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Location
north cent. indiana
some where in a magazine I saw a picture/artical of a bowl with nice neat lil pimples all over it. any body se that and know where it was I saw that? seems he made indents with an auto center punch then steamed the piece an caused them to raise the other way. But where did I see that? My efforts so far, I just get the holes closed up !!
 
dave J said:
some where in a magazine I saw a picture/artical of a bowl with nice neat lil pimples all over it. any body se that and know where it was I saw that? seems he made indents with an auto center punch then steamed the piece an caused them to raise the other way. But where did I see that? My efforts so far, I just get the holes closed up !!
Click to expand...

Dave.......I believe I saw the article you are referring to......at least five, or so, years ago. This is something I've never tried, but it did peak my interest enough to read it. I have no idea where that article was, but I think I can remember enough to help you out a little.........

The wood was dented, or compressed with some object like a ball pein hammer, or rounded punch. Then the surface was turned down slightly on the lathe. This removed some of the uncompressed wood down to the level of the compressed wood. The turning was then steamed and the compressed wood raised above the level of the uncompressed wood.......creating the effect I believe you are attempting to achieve.

ooc
 
It is a technique I have seen Michael Hosaluk use.

Make dents
Sand the undented areas to near the depth of the dents
Steam the dents to their original position which now makes. Them proud.

I have steamed out a lot of dents by putting a wet cloth over the dent and a hot cloths iron on the cloth.
This create s enough steam to in dent the wood.

Happy turning,
Al
 
I can't kelp you on the article.

I have used a several ton press and leather stamps to indent a pattern into the rim of a platter. I then turned and sanded the rim smooth and flat. Next I steamed the rim over a tea kettle and the indented patterns which were pressed into the wood raised up proud of the rim surface. I have tried this process with a variety of different woods. The process worked great with sycamore but didn't work at all with cocobolo. Some woods work better than others.

The technique you describe is used by carvers to put bumps on carved frogs. The technique is called Ukibori. Google "Ukibori" and you should find loads of information on the process.
 
Gynia,
thanks for the term Ukibori ! Yes I googled the word, first in Google images as that is my most used way of search. and the very first thumbnail showed a version of what I had seen on a turned bowl. Possibly the magizine called "Wood Turning Design" . but still to find where or waht issue. then something brought to mind a book I have called Decorating Turned Wood by Liz and Michel O'Donnell there is some text/visual on the subject of Ukibori also. I gotta keep after the subject now. Also googling the term brought out 2 more Ojime and Netsuke all of Japanese craft. Thanks to all posts so far, maybe I will get some more
 
For a more random appearance that looks somewhat like the texture of an orange peeling, the surface can be peened using a needle scaler. However, the needles need to be modified to round over the ends. After that, the wood is sanded smooth and finally steamed or doused in boiling water to raise the wood fibers. This will not work on really hard woods. Really soft even-grained woods work the best.
 
I use a wet wash cloth and an iron to raise the bumps on the few that I tried. even made a special punch that had a washer brazed on to limit the depth of punch and hopefully make the raised bumps the same size. It didn't work. Apparently the wood varies in density enough that even though they are compressed to the same depth they don't come back up the same.
 
Needle Scaler

Bill Boehme said:
For a more random appearance that looks somewhat like the texture of an orange peeling, the surface can be peened using a needle scaler. However, the needles need to be modified to round over the ends. After that, the wood is sanded smooth and finally steamed or doused in boiling water to raise the wood fibers. This will not work on really hard woods. Really soft even-grained woods work the best.
Click to expand...

To preserve scaling function, use a spare set of needles.
 
Bill are you talking of the air tool used to take the weld slag off welds? I have seen those, but never used one. I was once upon a time USN certifyed aircraft welder but wrong kind of welding. worse thing with the Auto centerpunches is where to get a quality one vs the "made in China" ones they barely qualify and not all that dependable ! OH are we surprised? Na me !!
 
dave J said:
Bill are you talking of the air tool used to take the weld slag off welds? I have seen those, but never used one. I was once upon a time USN certifyed aircraft welder but wrong kind of welding. worse thing with the Auto centerpunches is where to get a quality one vs the "made in China" ones they barely qualify and not all that dependable ! OH are we surprised? Na me !!
Click to expand...

... or rust, paint, conversion coating, barnacles, etc. Yes, except that there are smaller versions that you might find easier to use. Right now, HF has a sale on the big needle scaler (fifty something dollars) and the smaller one is just under $30. I originally bought the larger HF needle scaler several years ago to remove rust from a wrought iron fence. It did not work worth a flip for that. I played with using it for texturing wood and it is OK for that. Choice of wood makes a big difference. Things like holly and basswood work well ... forget about oak, etc. I presume that the serious industrial scalers made by Ingersoll, Speedaire, etc. that go for $400 to $500 work better at cleaning metal, but are not necessary for texturing wood.
 
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