Design advice sought

[Nate Davey]

Need some design advise. I like the overall shape of this, but was wondering if the slope up to the neck should be slightly convex or left as is? This is Splalted Birch I think and I'm having a heck of a time with tear out. So have given it a good soak with shellac and Medium CA in some of the difficult areas.

Thanks.

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[David E Keller]

Looks like a nice bit of wood... I like a smooth flowing concave neck on these forms. Look at some of John Hart's recent posts for some great examples of what I'm talking about. Looking forward to seeing this one with some finish on it.

[Michael James]

Nate, that looks pretty good, but add a vote for more concave. John's pieces are often "assembled", and therefore bypass the hollowing challenges that will be inherent. But where there's a will, there's gotta be a way. Best of luck!
mj

[Steve Schlumpf]

The wood looks fairly punky - so watch out when you start hollowing it because they do not hold together as well as sound wood. For a rough shape - this looks OK. Like David mentioned - a cove from the shoulder to the lip works well but you can play with the size of the lip and adjust the cove accordingly. Only other caution is to watch the curve from the shoulder to the foot and try not to create any flat areas.

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing it finished!

[John Keeton]

Nate, I agree with the comments on the neck flare. This might be a really good piece for Wally Dickerman's glue soak - 50/50 mix of cheap white glue/water. Rough turn it and soak it for a day or two to stabilize the punky wood. While I am prone to toss punky wood (just too lazy to fool with it), Wally's method should work here.

[Don Alexander]

looks like its worth the extra effort to me i'd vote for soaking it in the glue

[Wally Dickerman]

I'll agree with the rest that the neck is too wide and the rim needs some flair. Something that I've done in the past that looks really neat, is while you're turning the neck smaller, make about a 1/4 inch bead right in the narrowest part. Makes a nice point of interest in the piece.

[Nate Davey]

Thank you all for taking the time to post. It's not real punky, but it's not really "solid". I will use Wally's glue method and give a bead the old college try :)

[David DeCristoforo]

Yes, it would look better with a thinner neck which is "doable" and a wider flair at the top which is not (out of wood there!). But with that sharp undercut right below the neck, this will be a PITA to hollow if you make the neck too small.

[Nate Davey]

"wider flair at the top which is not (out of wood there!)"
The flare is in pretty bad shape too, had to cut away a big check, I'm not going to make the neck too small, will sacrifice aesthetics for doability.

[David E Keller]

... will sacrifice aesthetics for doability.

In my hands, that rarely works out the way I want it to. You could always add a contrasting wood for the neck portion... That would allow you to hollow without the neck in place and then add the neck form that you want. However you do it, I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Nate Davey]

Well, I am not at all happy with the shape of this thing. Looks like it should be in a Dr. Seuss book. But there it is. Need to work my bead skills as well. This was a good exercise, for me, on tool control and hollowing. At a little over 9" off the rest, this was probably the max distance my tools are good for. Using light cuts I was able to get a pretty consistent wall thickness. Need to sort out a tool to get out to the edges as my swan necked Sorby wasn't quite up to the task. The line you see around the mid section is where I had the painters tape on for my steady rest wheels to ride. I cut a shelf at the opening for a lid of some sort, may still do it for the exercise of it. I think the next step for this will be on the bandsaw to have a look at the inside. Thanks for looking and the advice.
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