My Trained Termite Did This....

[Wally Dickerman]

Madrone burl and African blackwood. My trained termite is actually a dental tool.

Wally

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wally - that is absolutely amazing work! Love the form, the wood combination and, of course, all the detail work! Did you dye the cut away areas?

How big is this? What did you use for a finish? How long did it take to do all the carving?

[Scott Lux]

Ditto what Steve said! How big? How long? Finish?

Excellent piece (and pierce)

[Allen Neighbors]

That's an awesome piece, Wally. I always enjoy seeing your work!! You just keep raising the bar! :)
Thanks for posting.

[alex carey]

That is one beautiful piece and by the looks of it it must have taken a very long time. Well done.

[Wally Dickerman]

The piece is about 4.5 inches wide. The finish is Daly's Ben Matte tung oil. 4 coats I think. I don't time myself but the piercing took perhaps 6 or 7 hours. I'm fortunate that for someone my age (88) I still have a steady hand and good eyesight.

Thanks for your kind comments.

Wally

[Mike Golka]

Fantastic work! I hope to still be breathing at 88:eek:

[Jeff Nicol]

Wally, You need and exterminator!! Great job on the piercing and the form is cool too! I am getting some pieces ready for some holes too but don't have the right tool yet to cut the holes. Looking at a couple different options. Where did you get your dental tool? The ones I see on the web are pretty pricey!

Jeff

[Wally Dickerman]

I got my dental tool from Binh Pho. It's the same kind that he uses. I thought that maybe some of his artistry might rub off on me. It turns at 350,000 RPM. with no torque. It's air driven so you must have an air compressor.

I recently had a student who is a retired dentist. He gave me a used tool. I haven't tried it yet because it takes a different size burr.

For best results the sidewalls of the piece must be 1/16th in. thick.

Wally

[Robert McGowen]

I must say that the termites left behind quite a nice piece of wood!
Very, very nice.

[Marc Himes]

Wally, that is a beautiful piece. The time involved was worth it. My only thought is that it would have been beautiful even without the dental work. Don't you have any plain old wood to pierce instead of Madrone burl? Seriously it looks fantastic; excellent balance between the foot and bowl, and a nice combination of wood.

Marc Himes

[Curt Fuller]

Beautiful work Wally!
When I first saw the title of the post my mind immediately went to an old Pink Panther cartoon where he's battling a pesky termite.

[Eric Roberge]

Fantastic work! It looks like a piece that I would see in an expensive little shop on vacation while in Hawaii.

Keep up the good work, I look forward to more.

[Terry Achey]

Awesome collander! :D

[Bernie Weishapl]

Absolutely beautiful Wally. Well done.

[Steve Frederick]

I'm fortunate that for someone my age (88) I still have a steady hand and good eyesight.


...And the patience of a saint!:)
Beautiful!

[Skip Spaulding]

WOW!! Amazing what can be done with a little time, patience and a lot of talent!

[Jeff Paxton]

Wally,

Amazing piece! Can you give us novice turners a little insight as to your process in doing that? Did you drill the holes with a drill to begin the work? Are there other tools like a Dremel that would work? I have an air compressor, but am not familiar with a dental tool (only to have a cavitiy filled years ago). Would another tool work with my compressor? I do a lot of Scroll Sawing as well, and that looks like fret work on a bowl. Truly beautiful. I would like to give it a try, so any help would be appreciated.

Jeff

[Bob Hallowell]

Wally, WOW!!!! that is truely a work of art!

Bob

[Wally Dickerman]

Thanks Jeff. I do use a dental drill to do the piercing. It's smaller in dia. than a pin and it's carbide. I also do texturing, using a round burr. You can do piercing of sorts with a dremel tool. The dental tool is doing 350,000 RPM vs 30,000 on a Dremel. Because of torque, the Dremel is harder to control. No torque on the high speed dental tool.

First, it's necessary to turn the walls to 1/16th inch. With a bowl like this one I do the piercing free hand. No pattern. I do some pieces where I draw an overall pattern, using a pencil. Mostly with hollowforms. I'll post a pic of one later.

[Jarrod McGehee]

wow that termite is pretty sweet.

[Dave Schell]

Wally, thanks for sharing - nice piece. Question: after you have carved out all of the holes, how do get the walls of the holes black?

[Wally Dickerman]

Dave, I could tell you that I take a tiny paintbrush and painstakingly paint each and every one....but I won't. The drill is very high speed and makes smoke when cutting. The black just happens. The same drills are meant to be used on people's teeth. Do they smoke?:))