The Pineflower

[Bob Ramsay]

I have been asked to talk a bit on the piece so here it goes.
Turn your wood on the outside to its nearly completed shape, do not hollow. The reason is so you can plan the starts and stops of your relief cuts, in the case of the Pineflower there is 6 relief cuts each side @ 45 degrees for a combined total of 90 degrees which means any geometric segmented shape with a 90 degree corner could be glued into the cut. The same with the flower petals, this bowl has a 10" dia. divided into 6 quadrants this is very minimal I would not want to do any less using 90 degree relief cuts.I am working on a 14" bowl using 120 degree relief cuts to create a wider pattern, to look more proportional to the size of the piece. The beauty of this system is you can stack many, many layers of segmented inserts as long as your order is well planned out. I have plans to create pieces with many layers of segmented designs even some into fully segmented bowls that combination seems endless.Even backcutting some layers on the lathe to give them a three dimensional look. Sorry at this time I have no pictures of my process, but you are wellcome to ask me anything you want to know.

Bob Ramsay, Prince George, British Columbia

 

[Richard Baker]

Bob,
Welcome to the forum. Hope you will soon have some pictures to show us.

 

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Bob, I understand your technique. The potential for wood movement problems due to the need for some amount of cross-grain joinery concerns me. If this technique were used on a segmented construction, consistent grain alignment could be achieved, but with a solid bowl blank, cross-grain can't be avoided. I suppose you could build the inserts all differently, so that they match the grain as the grain direction changes around the bowl, but that seems pretty impractical. It may or may not be a problem. These wood movement situations can be difficult to predict.

 

[Joe Greiner]

As the original poster (OP), it can or should be possible to include specific links between picture and text to each other. You can definitely edit your original text to the picture, like this: http://www.aawforum.org/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=6946 I'm not sure about the ability to edit the text associated with the picture; you might have to put it in a subsequent "reply" (which I've just done, BTW). I'll try to post a complete example shortly.

If I understand correctly, your technique is similar to the construction of blanks for the Celtic Knot, but without the restriction of 90-degree offsets, and with the cuts made part way through the turning. On a cross-grain blank, there should be only two or four locations where end grain to perpendicular grain would be an issue, and they could be avoided by carefully selecting the locations. Elsewhere, you'll have angular orientation for better contact.

Balancing moisture content among all the parts can help a lot. Somewhat awkward with a solid parent blank.

[And thanks for providing the description.]

 

[Bob Ramsay]

Moisture Content/Grain Direction, Pineflower

Morning Fellows, I have used beetle kill pine as the body because about two years before it was cut down it had lost all its free standing water and after a year in my shop it was at a consistant moisture content to the other inset wood, I am hoping it will work out. Also about 95% of all the segmented inserts have no end grain exposed, hopfully this will allow the vessel to move uniformly. As far as the end grain in the body of the piece it is uniform in its exposure to the atmosphere ,but who knows time will tell, all. I should of mentioned some of this earlier it is very important that these steps are followed carefully. These segmented inserts also look very nice on the inside of the piece, mirror image this vessel is turned to about 3/16" thk. My wife won,t part with it, it's hers.

Thank You fellows
Bob Ramsay

 

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Bob, I hope I didn't come across too negatively. The issue of cross-grain is unfortunately often ignored in segmented work. With your project, you've probably done all you can do in order to avoid a movement problem. I still have a few pieces from 15 years ago that have 4" long cross-grain joints and they have not separated, but I've also had a few from that era that literally fell apart. Why have some survived and others not? This stuff can drive you crazy.

 

[Bob Ramsay]

I Agree

I agree Malcolm its a wierd and wonderful science, you know if I stack enough segments there will not be anything left of the original body to worry about ha! It would have been just a glue base, na, I like the combination to much, the next one is Wenge,D-Maple Beetlekill Ponderosa Pine from the Clinton area haven't decided on the rest yet. No lid though, open vessel, so all the detail wiil rise from the base and terminate at the rim.

Have a great day!

Bob Ramsay