Help with a woodworking mystery

[jim oakes]

I was given a collection of FWW magazines back to issue # 1. What a joy it is to re-read them all. It brings me back to when I first started in the woodworking business.

This however is driving me crazy. In Finewoodworking issue#57 on the last page it shows a wood apple pierced by a wood arrow. They see NO glue joints anywhere. The USDA forest proucts lab even inspected it and could not say how the arrow got thru the apple, only that the apple is sycamore, the arrow basswood, so it can't be turned out of solid wood or it would be all one species.

It looks a lot like this , but no joints like you can see in this linked photo:
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i70/scrollylolly/ImpossiBottles/ImpossiBottles18.jpg

Any ideas? I don't have FWW#59 so it may have an answer to the mystery.

[Jim Becker]

And the question is?

[Mark Rios]

they drilled a hole in the apple and then cut the apple in half, laid in the arrow and glued the apple back together.

[jim oakes]

According to FWW and Forest Products Lab no glue joints inthe apple OR the arrow!
How do you get the arrow in the apple?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I'd do it the other way.....

Turn the apple....drill the hole.....turn the arrow in two pieces...make the pieces that go into the apple a perfect fit...put a small amount of glue on the very ends and insert the pieces into the apple.

[Ben West]

I haven't seen the issue, and Mark may be correct in the technique they used. But, you said no joint was visible anywhere.

The only way I can think to do that would be create an apple and arrow separately. Drill a hold in the apple the same diameter as the shaft of the arrow. Cut the arrow in half, insert each cut end into opposite ends of the apple along with some glue. That should produce the thing with no visible joint lines anywhere.

[Ben West]

Ken...you beat me by 120 seconds!

Ben

[jim oakes]

Oh, and the arrow slides in an oversized hole so your idea won't work Ken.

[Tim Thomas]

1) Make arrow
2) Make apple
3) Drill hole completely through apple
4) Cut Arrow in half
5) apply glue to cut ends of arrow and shove into holes until they meet in the middle
6) mystery solved

** EDIT **
Lots of fast Creekers on this one. While I'm futzing around in MS Paint, everybody else is posting! :)

[Jamie Buxton]

In FWW #59, the editors say that the trick is one which relies on the ability of wood to recover its shape after deformation. You make the apple first, with its hole. Then you make the arrow, leaving a rough block which will eventually become the head. You slowly compress the block in a vise. You pass the head through the hole. You soak or steam the compressed block. It will recover nearly to its original size. Then you carve the head from it. Undoubtedly some species and some grain orientations work better than others for this use.

BTW, I've seen a similar object, where the apple was a glass bottle with holes drilled through it. That makes it even more obvious that there are no glue seams in the bottle or the arrow.

[jim oakes]

Tim, sorry but the arrow shaft is about 9" long not including broadhead and fletching in FWW#57. The apple is about 3" or 4" in diameter so your joint would show. The shaft slides freely thru the apple.

[Jerome Hanby]

Paintshop Pro? :D

According to FWW and Forest Products Lab no glue joints inthe apple OR the arrow!
How do you get the arrow in the apple?

[glenn bradley]

I read that the arrow is steamed and then squeezed to the point where it can be inserted then returned to normal shape.

[jerry nazard]

I remember that issue. I think that Jamie Buxton had the correct answer in an earlier post.

[jim oakes]

Soak, steam and compress makes sense. Basswood seems like a good wood for that.

Thank You!

[Don Orr]

I have seen this done in a slightly different format but it works. You soak the Basswood in very hot water and compress it as Glenn said before carving. Slip it through the hole and resoak in hot water and it expands to near original size. Carve the arrowhead and you have your mystery piece. Basswood is the only wood I know of that will do this to such an extent. There may be others, I just am not aware of them.

Have fun !

[Michael Panis]

Compressing the arrowhead is the fast way to do it.

I suggest:
1) Make apple
2) Drill hole completely through apple
3) Place apple over young sapling
4) Allow sapling to grow such that it fills hole and sticks out the other side
5) Harvest sapling and make the arrow
6) mystery solved

:cool:

(OK...now I'll go back to my day job)

[Peter Quadarella]

Good plan Michael, but I would cut a hole in one tree and stick an adjacent sapling through that tree. Then cut them both down and start carving.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

This subject was taken up in a previous thread. I don't remember the particulars on how it was done but it had to do with steaming, bending, etc. Lot of help, wasn't I? :o

[Jon Behnke]

I've made one of these. It's simple, just soak one end of the basswood for a half hour or so, then squeeze it with a clamp and let it dry. Once dry it will hold it's shape. After you drill and turn the apple insert the arrow through. Soak the end of the arrow for twenty minutes or so and it will regain it's original shape. Sand the arrow into an arrow shape and you're done.

[Charles Krieger]

I have used the steam, compress method to put an arrow through a metal washer. I did this when I was 10 years old, 60 years ago, using pine and a 1/2" flat washer. This is the obvious solution to the apple and arrow as well. Bass wood should work better than the pine I used.

[Matt Hutchinson]

This process is explained in this book. There are a lot of very amazing things shown in this modern classic, but I was kinda surprised when I saw this included. It's still an interesting idea, and one might be able to take it to new lengths.

Woodturning Wizardry
http://www.amazon.com/Woodturning-Wizardry-David-Springett/dp/1565232798/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218922922&sr=8-1

Hutch

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

In FWW #59, the editors say that the trick is one which relies on the ability of wood to recover its shape after deformation.

Steam the arrow head and slam it home.
That'd prolly take several apple arrow combinations to get right. The entry hole may be left to be carved away later so as to provide the arrow head a tapered conicle entry hole .

[Charles Krieger]

I believe my source for the compressed arrow through an object came from a book I received Christmas 1945, called "Things Any Boy Can Make" I no longer have the book but I spent many hours making things from that book.