More Fun with Finials

[Mark Hubl]

Well last night I worked up some courage and did a couple of practice finials without the benefit of the tail stock. Mission was successful and not as bad as I thought it might be. The pieces never "left the building" if you know what I mean.

So tonight I had an hour to kill before the ball game and one of the practice pieces starring at me. I have always been intrigued by twists on the lathe, although I have never tried one. I have seen twists on finials and know that Mortimer is the guy when it comes to these.

I thought what the heck I would try one. I drew three lines and had at it. Went very quickly. The result is certainly less than usable but I am definetly going to try some more. I like how these types of finials can look. Should have used four lines. I have not found any instructions on line so I am probably no where close to doing this using any accepted or correct method. May have to rent a DVD.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/4835704945_9d41f135cd_b.jpg

[David E Keller]

WOW! I absolutely love the look of that spiral section. I've done exactly one spiral turned piece(candle stick), but it was nowhere near as nice as your practice piece.

I'm dying to know how you did it.

[John Keeton]

Nice work, Mark! I thought about trying one of these a month or so ago, and got distracted. There have been some neat ones done, and it has lots of possibilities. This could be your signature!!

[Mark Hubl]

Thanks David,

The spiral took less to an hour to produce. I was pretty surprised. I just used the index on the lathe. (1 9 17) Marked the spots and connected the top to the next one over on the bottom. Took out the trusty DeWalt drill and drilled a bunch of small holes into the piece in each section to quickly hog out some wood. Get out the Dremel and cutter burr and have at it until I got some spokes. Change burr to diamond 240 and clean up the whole affair a little. Should have used four lines (do they call these bines). This would have yielded 4 spokes (?) and four XXthreeXX voids. Quick work, now a couple dozen and I will get one good enough to use.

[Mark Hubl]

Thanks John, you need to try this. I think this is already Stuart's signature. But, I will use it. I think it can add a lot of elegance to a piece and gives it that "how'd he do that" appeal.

[David E Keller]

Thanks David,

The spiral took less to an hour to produce. I was pretty surprised. I just used the index on the lathe. (1 9 17) Marked the spots and connected the top to the next one over on the bottom. Took out the trusty DeWalt drill and drilled a bunch of small holes into the piece in each section to quickly hog out some wood. Get out the Dremel and cutter burr and have at it until I got some spokes. Change burr to diamond 240 and clean up the whole affair a little. Should have used four lines (do they call these bines). This would have yielded 4 spokes (?) and three voids. Quick work, now a couple dozen and I will get one good enough to use.

I was thinking that you somehow turned that spiral portion on the lathe, but I couldn't figure out how. The drill and dremel trick is right up my alley.

If I'm not mistaken, three spokes gives you three voids and four spokes will give you four voids. I'd have to see one with four, but odd numbers are usually favored for design purposes.

[Richard Madden]

Very cool, I like the look. Might have to try this someday. Thanks for sharing.

[Mark Hubl]

Your right David. I have a hard time counting over 1!

[David E Keller]

Your right David. I have a hard time counting over 1!

I already had my shoes off so the counting was easy(Arkansas public schools:D)

[Thom Sturgill]

Good job, I haven't had the nerve to try that yet. I sat through Mortimer's presentation at a symposium. Here's the process he showed:

1) Draw lines for the top and bottom of the spiral around the form
2) Halve that and draw a mid line, then two quarter lines. (this is for four twists)
3) using the tool rest and the indexing feature draw evenly spaced lines along the length
4) Draw lines corner to corner in each of the resulting 'rectangular' boxes. This gives a better line.
5) use a saw, grinder, or whatever to cut along these lines

I have also seen barley twists laid out using some stiff paper wrapped once around a cylinder and marked to get the diameter. Fold the paper to find the mid-point and then the mid points of those segments. Use that as a 'story board' to lay out the markings around the cylinder and get a 45degree twist. I used this (twice) to layout the basket weave carving I did on a tool handle (see my entry in the challenge).

[Mark Hubl]

Thanks Thom. I pretty much did 1 and 2 and then winged it on the lines since this was a test. I have seen barley twists laid out on paper and described in detail in old text's. I think old books was the first time I saw them.

By the way great job on the tool handle. That is lovely.

[James Combs]

Good job, I haven't had the nerve to try that yet. I sat through Mortimer's presentation at a symposium. Here's the process he showed:

1) Draw lines for the top and bottom of the spiral around the form
2) Halve that and draw a mid line, then two quarter lines. (this is for four twists)
3) using the tool rest and the indexing feature draw evenly spaced lines along the length
4) Draw lines corner to corner in each of the resulting 'rectangular' boxes. This gives a better line.
5) use a saw, grinder, or whatever to cut along these lines

I have also seen barley twists laid out using some stiff paper wrapped once around a cylinder and marked to get the diameter. Fold the paper to find the mid-point and then the mid points of those segments. Use that as a 'story board' to lay out the markings around the cylinder and get a 45degree twist. I used this (twice) to layout the basket weave carving I did on a tool handle (see my entry in the challenge).


From what can be seen the practice one doesn't look bad. There ought to be a way of doing number 5 with a router mounted above the lathe on a slide or something. Seems like I saw something like that on here someplace. May have been Australian.

[Ryan Baker]

You might be interested in Stuart Mortimer's book on the subject of spiral turnings. Pretty good. It's not everywhere, but a search will find it quickly.

I've done a number of barley twists and spirals of various types. Haven't done any on finials yet, but one of these days... I've also cut similar types of decorations using the router-over-the-lathe setup. Be aware that you can't cut a spiral with the router method (unless you have a way to precisely turn the piece at the same time -- like a Legacy mill). The router cuts straight lines. It still can be a very nice effect, but it is very different than a spiral.

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a beauty Mark. Really nice.

[Baxter Smith]

Pretty cool! Since I can barely do a solid one, I will pass on trying this for a while!:)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

That practice finial would pass as a finished one in my shop!

Nicely done.Thanks for displaying it.

[Michelle Rich]

Look up: Bill Bowers..he has a book on spiriling, and shows it in pretty good pictures & good detail..he has a website also

[Tim Rinehart]

That is a nice job, practice piece or not. I've not tried yet. Wanna add some real 'Gee whiz' to it...see if you can leave a ball shape inside...kinda like the classic chinese ball puzzles.

Ok, not necessary...but if you get really bored...it's a thought.

Again, nicely done. Hope to see one utilized on a finished piece soon. You may be able to give John K a run for the money if you dress up a nice hollow spiral finial.

Oh, I think they sometimes refer to the number of twists ...as either 'twists' or 'starts'.

[Cathy Schaewe]

Look up: Bill Bowers..he has a book on spiriling, and shows it in pretty good pictures & good detail..he has a website also

I just bought the book a couple of weeks ago - it looks pretty good.

[John Keeton]

You may be able to give John K a run for the money if you dress up a nice hollow spiral finial.Tim, you, Mark, and many others on here are already accomplished turners and easily more talented than am I!:)

My thought on these spiral finials is that they require a special application. In order to get the cutouts right, the bulb needs to have a little width/mass to it. The finail gets "lightened" by the removal of material, but the undersupporting form still needs to accomodate the extra visual impact of the spiral finial. Beautiful in the right situation, but not every piece would be an appropriate application IMO.

Certainly worth doing, and Mark has really done a great job with this one - better than could I. And, I am confident he will soon favor us with a beautiful piece on which he will have mounted a very well done spiral finial!:D;)

[Thom Sturgill]

Thanks Thom. I pretty much did 1 and 2 and then winged it on the lines since this was a test. I have seen barley twists laid out on paper and described in detail in old text's. I think old books was the first time I saw them.

By the way great job on the tool handle. That is lovely.
Thanks, I like it.

The reason for laying out the spiral that way is that you can twist further. He laid out 4 'ropes' that each went half way around. He also used a side grinder with a lancelot (chainsaw) blade. I bought one and quickly decided that was NOT a tool I wanted to use:eek:. I saw a segment on the Woodwright's Shop where Roy Underhill lays out a Barley twist and cuts it with a saw then pares it with a chisel while it is still on the lathe. He's the one that i saw use the paper for the layout.