Christmas Tree Ornaments

[Dick Gerard]

Here are a few pics of Christmas Tree Ornaments i did this week for Ray Thompson. He is spearheading the effort to decorate trees with hand turned ornaments. The trees will be auctioned to raise funds for the preservation and restoration of the Paramount Theater in Anderson, Indiana. Sorry for the poor quality pics but they are the best i can do before I turn them in on Sunday .



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Now tomorrow I only ned to turn, decorate and finish another 30 or so to break the 100 mark!

[paul vechart]

Dick...nice job on the ornaments the lights look almost real! This gives me some motivation to try these. Is there any other way to hang them other than the eye hooks? I once saw a demo where a guy used a very small hook with a barb on the other end and just pressed it into the wood. I have never been able to find these in any store.

Paul

[Jim Burr]

Sounds crazy, but those light bulbs are really cool!! Well done on the whole tree farms worth Dick!!

[Billy Tallant]

Very nice job! Looks like those have kept you busy. I really like the lights. Very realistic looking.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Looking good. You have been busy.

[Scott Lux]

Impressive output, both quality and quantity.

[Brian Libby]

All are very nice! Great job with the colors.

[Dick Gerard]

Paul,
After trying all sorts of things, including crappy hooks (gotta cut the hook off, but they are gold plated), make your own, etc., I decided for me that getting them from Michaels or Hobby Lobby was the way to go. Last time there (3 years ago), I purchased 500. Clerk thought I was nuts.
What I do is mount the blank in a chuck, bring up tail center (steb live center) in indent the wood. Change out tail center for a Jacobs chuck with a 1/16 inch bit. Drill hole maybe 3/16 inch deep. Switch back to steb center. Round down blank with skew. Create the male part of bulb (3/8 inches diameter), then the bulb. Sand through 400 minimum. The smoother the better. part off. If there is some work to be done on the bulb portion (small raggedy ends from parting off) rechuck in pin jaws, holding it by the male end. Slight bit of sanding and its on to finishing.
I usually turn till my legs get tired, then do the finishing. After inserting the eye hook (sometimes with CA but many times just screwing them in by hand), I hold each one in a pin vise (HF for maybe $5.00). Then I apply transparent acrylics using an airbrush. When dry, a quick coat of spay can gloss lacquer and all is well. As each one gets its acrylic paint and later its lacquer, I hang it on a piece of dowel (1/4 inch) using a paper clip, bent open to form an "S".

Hope all this helps explain my process. Since I do these in batches an only at this time of year, the set up needs to be easy to control all the variables. BTW, all the work is accomplished with a skew. My most versatile tool. And, doing these many times over ives me lots of practice!

[Tom Winship]

Dick, great work! I am just learning with the skew. Which brand and width do you use?

[Steve Schlumpf]

WOW! That's a lot of work! Nice variety of forms and colors!

[Dick Gerard]

I use an old Sorby, it's about 1/2 inch wide. I use a grind like Richard raffan taught me. I also have a skew from D-Way tools. It is superb. I have also made my own from High Speed steel round drill stock. On that one I grind a very VERY long bevel. Maybe 3 or 4 times the diameter of the shaft. It is a fragile edge but oh so sharp and can reach into corners and the bottoms of "V"s quite nicely.

Here's a couple of hints....

1. Sharpness: the skew MUST be sharp. Not close to sharp or about sharp, but samurai sword sharp.

2. If you can see the cutting edge of your skew ... it isn't nearly sharp enough.


3. Practice. Even though I have used the skew for over 30 years, I still practice daily. If you have access to Richard Raffans first 2 DVDs, get them. Watch them alot. Then go practice. If you get a catch, erase it with whatever other tool you are comfortable with. One that spiral is in there, the skew will find it and repeat it again and agian. So erase it, get a fresh surface and try again.

4. Once you get the hang of the skew, all other tools will be a piece of cake ... carrot cake in my case!

5. Get one on one help from your local AAW chapter.

6. Contact me if you have further questions.