Tim Rinehart
06-30-2011, 11:27 AM
I was inspired by the likes of Jim Syvertsen (Australian Burls dealer) who likes to challenge himself by taking scraps and doing something with them. If you haven't seen some shots of him using a razor for fine work, take a look at his site.
I had a couple little cutoffs of blackwood from doing a razor stand, and decide to glue one of them (about 5/8" sq x 1 3/8" long) onto a waste block and see what I could do.
I turned it down to about 5/8" diam, drilled it out using a 5/32" drill to about 1" depth, then made a little hook scraper from an old allen wrench for hollowing, shoved into a piece of 1/2" wood dowel...but you can make your tools out of pretty much any old drills too if going straight in.
Anyway...you get the idea and it is hollowed, though perhaps not to standards of bigger stuff. Hey, NO ONE is going to stick their fingers in this one!!
The overall height of form is about 1 1/4"...not going to win any awards for smallest HFs, but it's good practice on defining contours for finials and other spindle work. I mainly used my skew, but also used a small gouge for the base cove.
The finial is holly and the thinnest part at top is under 1mm diameter. :eek: I had to turn it down to about 1/16" then soak with thin CA to stabilize in order to even put sandpaper to it without disentegrating. The entire finial was finished with BLO/CA like a pen would be...albeit very carefully. I did the finial using nothing but a small gouge (1/4") that came with my Delta lathe. I put a fingernail grind on it...works pretty good for small details, but you have to make sure the overhand on tool rest stays pretty tight. I have another smaller one (1/8" or so) that came in same set from Delta...but haven't really tried to grind or use it yet. Seems very flimsy..but we'll see...it may have use in doing some really fine work if I can get a good grind on it.
I just did a single BLO/CA coat on the blackwood portion.
Anyway...don't throw away those scraps...there's life in em!
199929199928199930
I had a couple little cutoffs of blackwood from doing a razor stand, and decide to glue one of them (about 5/8" sq x 1 3/8" long) onto a waste block and see what I could do.
I turned it down to about 5/8" diam, drilled it out using a 5/32" drill to about 1" depth, then made a little hook scraper from an old allen wrench for hollowing, shoved into a piece of 1/2" wood dowel...but you can make your tools out of pretty much any old drills too if going straight in.
Anyway...you get the idea and it is hollowed, though perhaps not to standards of bigger stuff. Hey, NO ONE is going to stick their fingers in this one!!
The overall height of form is about 1 1/4"...not going to win any awards for smallest HFs, but it's good practice on defining contours for finials and other spindle work. I mainly used my skew, but also used a small gouge for the base cove.
The finial is holly and the thinnest part at top is under 1mm diameter. :eek: I had to turn it down to about 1/16" then soak with thin CA to stabilize in order to even put sandpaper to it without disentegrating. The entire finial was finished with BLO/CA like a pen would be...albeit very carefully. I did the finial using nothing but a small gouge (1/4") that came with my Delta lathe. I put a fingernail grind on it...works pretty good for small details, but you have to make sure the overhand on tool rest stays pretty tight. I have another smaller one (1/8" or so) that came in same set from Delta...but haven't really tried to grind or use it yet. Seems very flimsy..but we'll see...it may have use in doing some really fine work if I can get a good grind on it.
I just did a single BLO/CA coat on the blackwood portion.
Anyway...don't throw away those scraps...there's life in em!
199929199928199930