Nantucket Basket Molds - newbie turner

[james bell]

My wife wants me to make some Nantucket basket molds - basically looks like a straight bowl, minor taper to the bottom and a recessed base for the basket bottom.

Should be fairly simple, an easy bowl without hollowing out the bowl.

Questions - green wood or glue up some dried wood? And if a glue up is the answer (the one she has borrowed is glued up), any wood preference. I have a lot of ash, 8/4 genuine mahogany (end pieces I picked up for $.99 bf), cherry, etc.

I got a midi lathe and a 1/2" bowl gouge. Any suggestions on other gouges.

Any suggestions would be great. I did attend a bowl turning class at Woodcraft a couple of years ago, but as I never put it use, probably need to attend again!

[Jim Silva]

Lets try this again (first response was eaten by the internet)

I'm a Nantucket Basketmaker by trade so I'll chime in here.
Use kiln dried wood and do a glue up. Green wood won't work for you as moulds are generally not hollow and green will warp and give you grief.

As for the type of wood, it really won't matter to the basket. I make economy moulds from pine and they are perfectly serviceable for many years. I do hardwood moulds if students/ customers request them and just about any hardwood will do. I typically use cherry or maple. The only wood I'd not recommend would be oak because it's so dense and miserable to turn when dry.

I use threaded brass barrel inserts in the bottom of the mould's recess to mount the base to. I typically use 8-32 or 1/4-20 bolts and all my bases have a 1/4" hole in their center. (You generally plug this hole with ivory or hardwood when the basket's finished.)

Main tip is to make absolutely certain the sides of your mould are dead flat with a slight taper toward the bottom of the mould. Any dips in the sides and the basket will conform to it and become stuck to the mould and will have to be cut off. (I've cut many baskets off moulds someone's husband made and trust me, wives find this highly upsetting:rolleyes:)

I generally finish my moulds with poly (4 coats wiped on semi-gloss) and then polish with 0000 steel wool and Butchers Bowling Alley Wax or another paste wax. Expect your moulds to get chewed up a little with each weaving as the packing tool will mar the wood. This is normal and every dozen or so baskets I'll hit the mould with 220 grit paper to remove any raised grain. Moulds (even pine) should last a lifetime.

PM me here if you have any questions and I'll be happy to help.

Jim

[David E Keller]

Jim, I'd love to see some pictures of this process if you wouldn't mind. I know nothing of Nantucket baskets, but my interest is piqued.

[Jim Silva]

Hmm... I've never bothered with photos of mould making because... I never thought of doing it lol.
I've been meaning to show the basket weaving process for a while now so maybe I'll do some documentation of the commissioned piece I'll be doing this week and post it on my site.
Now to find the camera....


Jim

[Bruce Lundgren]

Jim, I'd like to see pictures also. I made a small shaker basket a bunch of years ago and it was fun to do and I bought the mold. Would like to make a Nantucket basket and make a mould for it also.
Bruce

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

I never heard of a Nantucket basket until I read this thread. I jumped to another site to see what one looked like. Wow! Neat basket. Jim, can't wait to see the process. I'll probably never try one but seeing how it is made will be most enjoyable.
faust

[Greg Just]

I too would love to see some pictures. This is a curious bunch!

[Bernie Weishapl]

+1 for pictures.

[neil mackay]

Jim, I'd love to see some pictures of this process if you wouldn't mind. I know nothing of Nantucket baskets, but my interest is piqued

here you go David :)

http://www.nantucketbaskets.com/index.html

[Greg Just]

Ok - Now that we know what a Nantucket Basket looks like, are you looking to turn a basket mold to be used to form the basket around?

[Jim Silva]

Greg, that's what he's intending.
That link is for Tim Parsons' website. He's a very well known weaver and does great work. Oddly enough, the first woodturning demo I ever saw was him doing some basic turning at the Nantucket basketry museum years ago. Nice guy.

If you want to see some of our stuff you can go to http://www.basketryetc.com (http://www.basketryetc.com/). It's being updated as we speak (or would be if I was banging out code instead of posting here lol) and will have better images within the next few weeks. I've been slacking on the remodel long enough (or so I'm being told) ;)

Hope it's not a problem posting that link. If it's against TOS please remove it. I don't want to step on any toes.

Jim

[charlie knighton]

the mold sounds pretty much like the molds used by LC Tiffany for their lamp shades

if you ever get to Winter Park Fl check out the Morse Museum, they have a work station on display with a mold

they also have wooden bowl/glass Marks: J.B. / L.C. Tiffany