Wooden Flowers

[Tom Hartranft]

Just finished a new project ... lathe-turned and hand-cut wooden flowers. The flowers are mounted on 1/8 inch dia brass rods and set in a Catalpa vase. The wooden flowers are three wood species (L to R): Flaming Box Elder, Padauk, and Yellowheart. They are finished with three coats of True Oil.

Tom
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Photo 1 is the final work. The 'making' process is illustrated in Photos 2 to 5 using a Yellowheart turning block. Photo 6 shows four different wood species flowers ready for finish application.

The process starts with a 2x2x4.5 inch turning block mounted between centers to turn a tenon for chuck mounting.

Photo 2: With the tenon mounted in a 4-jaw chuck, the outside flower shape is turned and then a center hole is drilled leaving about 3/8 inch material at the bottom of the flower. The flowers are now 2-3/4 inches long x 1-3/4 inches dia at their base.
Photo 3: The inside is hollowed out using hand-held hollowing cutters to maintain a wall thickness of 1/16 inch to 3/32 inch to match the outside profile of the wooden flowers.
Photo 4: The chuck is remounted on my workbench and the petal outline is penciled in.
Photo 5: The petals are cut to shape using a small flexible handsaw then used 150 grit strips of sandpaper to smooth the petal profiles.

Then chuck was remounted on the lathe and the wooden flower was carefully turned off of the turning block stub.



http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/tjh_020/1410%20Wdn%20Flwr/IMG_3558480x640_zps4c37a0c7.jpg

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/tjh_020/1410%20Wdn%20Flwr/IMG_3535640x480_zps87125b7a.jpg

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/tjh_020/1410%20Wdn%20Flwr/IMG_3538640x480_zps0777d2e0.jpg

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/tjh_020/1410%20Wdn%20Flwr/IMG_3541480x640_zps2cc94c22.jpg

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/tjh_020/1410%20Wdn%20Flwr/IMG_3542480x640_zpsd43b0b46.jpg

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/tjh_020/1410%20Wdn%20Flwr/IMG_3544640x480_zps6d0529b9.jpg

[Tim Boger]

Very Clever!!

Something I'd like to try as well, thanks for sharing.
Tim

[Glenn Barber]

Thanks......very cool!

[Paul Hinds]

Those are really neat. Nice job.

[Dave Cullen]

Awesome. Thanks for the inspiration. I've bookmarked this thread for future reference.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice work Tom! Thanks for sharing your technique!

[Dave Mcintire]

These are cool but can be done easier if you start with a square piece and mark a V on two sides of the square and cut out the V on a band saw before turning. This gives you the flower petals from the start instead of using a hand saw. Ithink there is a u tube movie for this method. Also much less expensive to use a small dowel in lieu of brass rod. Either way , very nice results

[Tom Hartranft]

Dave ... appreciate your feedback. I used that approach couple of years ago ... http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?196214-Bouquet-of-Flowers&highlight= However, the flower petals wind up quite a bit thicker and less realistic using the bandsaw-first method. Carl Jacobson has a 2011 youtube video illustrating that technique.

Carl put out a 2014 youtube video revising his technique and I followed that on the flowers posted here. I did a few things different, but the basic approach came from his video. So conceptual credit goes to Carl.

Cutting the flower petal profiles by flexible handsaw after hollowing enables thinner petal thickness and thus more realistic flower appearance. I believe it'd be very difficult to avoid breaking/chipping the petals if the hollowing to thin walls was done with the flower petal profiles already cut out. Perhaps you are able to do such hollowing on already-cut petal profiles.

Tom