Flowers

When I use the term “Flowers” I am talking about an end-grain natural-edged piece that utilizes the full diameter of the log for the rim. The shape blossoms out from within the log in the process of shaping a vessel.  

There are a lot of possibilities inherent in this type of turning. It’s a useful method to create finished pieces as well as to make pieces that might be combined with other elements.

Some examples:

 Turned on center axis.

This would be a simple piece with a turned foot. Or you could carve feet into the foot of the bowl.

Or you could carve feet and as well carve the body of the bowl.

Take advantage of knots or other features in the wood.

 Combine the turning with sculptural elements or add texture and color along with carving to embellish a piece.

 Make a box. 

Turned off Axis 

 I often end up with an elliptical shape that is finished off with some carving added on the bottom.

 Combining an off-axis turning, carving, and a stand.

Turning flowers, developing a work-flow.

These examples should illustrate that there are a lot of ideas that could be explored.  Once the idea is in place, all that’s left is to work out a way to get from raw wood to a finished piece.

 Turning an end-grain vessel is pretty straightforward. Turning End-grain pieces with natural edges will introduce a few additional considerations. Working out the method to deal with these considerations is an exercise in finding a workable balance between defining the rim, the placement of features to be emphasized, and creating the shape that works for the piece. Initially, it’s normal that pieces will vary wildly from what was originally intended, but its part of the charm of doing natural-edged pieces. This process is a collaborative effort between the wood and the maker. No matter how it is approached, it will produce a piece that reflects how well that concept is understood. With a little practice the process becomes much more predictable and a pretty well defined work-flow will develop.

 The orientation and positioning of the wood mounted on the lathe will have the greatest impact on the look and feel of the finished piece. I often have to make adjustments while turning. Adjustments to wood alignment and position are often made and shaping continues to be refined until the piece looks right to me.

I do not rely on cutting alone to dictate the shape. Be prepared to make adjustments to the positioning of the piece on the lathe while making changes in shape. Stop and look at the piece as it is progressing and see if you are happy with where it is going. It’s not a good idea to go fast and hope for the best. This is going to be one of those projects where you have to sneak up on the shape you are happy with. It’s all right if you can’t predict the exact outcome. You will end up with a one of a kind piece that is organic in nature.  It’s a little like working with water-colors. It’s easy to go too far and you may not have a do-over opportunity.

A good approach is to break down the parts of the process. The parts that you have control over must be adjusted to get the turning you want. The example I will give here will be a typical method for turning a section of Norfolk Island pine into a simple end-grain, natural-edged bowl. In this example I want to utilize the ring of knots as part of the design of the piece.

To break down the process I must evaluate the following.

1. Make a decision on initial wood orientation on the lathe.
2. Locate my starting centers to mount the wood.
3. Begin roughing out so I can see the piece develop.
4. Adjust wood positioning and develop the shape as the piece is progressing.
5. Develop the rim and refine the shape to pull the piece together.

 Deciding wood orientation.

A few things need attention while deciding the best way to mount the wood onto the lathe.

I know that the direction of growth of the knots will change depending on where this wood was located on the tree. Most knots angle either up or down from the pith to the outside of the tree, and this often changes slightly in direction as you progress from the base of the tree to the top.  If I want to control the shape of the knots I need to know the angle of travel of the knot.

I will have the knots angling from the pith toward the top of the bowl for a longer and elliptical shape and angling from the pith toward the bottom of the bowl for a rounder shape. If you look closely at the knots you will see that they are not really round. They are more of an egg shape which is usually coincidental with a  pocket that is present on the bottom of the knot. This can be a helpful in determining the top or bottom of the knot and is useful in determining the direction of travel.

The angle of the knot and the pocket below the knot will put some limits on the possible shapes that might be made. This pocket needs to be located along the wall of the bowl where it will either be a part of, or not interfere with the final shape. Usually I will have to bring the diameter down enough, while shaping, to remove the pocket. There are times that the pocket will remain as part of the intended design, and might be incorporated into the shape of the piece. It can be used to advantage on the rim and possibly be useful for an intentional void in the wall of the bowl.

Wood orientation will be greatly influenced by how high the knot will be on the finished piece. If I am going to keep the knot pattern high on the wall of my bowl I have to be careful to note the direction of knot growth and to the location of the pocket. Both of these will affect the range of outside shapes that I am able to do and the contour of the rim.

If the knots angle down and toward the bottom pith, they will elongate and move down the wall of my piece as I am reducing the diameter of the wood. This needs to be considered.

If I orient the pocket so that it is incorporated into the rim, I can use it to create a lobe in the rim of my bowl. This will also give me an opportunity to leave a knot proud and raise it above the rim.

These things become fairly instinctive to evaluate, and it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it. Sometimes all of these decisions are going to be modified if the pith of the wood ends up in an unfortunate or unwanted area of the piece.

 Mount the wood between centers.

Drive centers are essential to enabling you to make position changes. After determining where the starting centers are located, the blank is mounted between centers on the lathe. The wood manually rotated to check the alignment of the piece. I look for any features in the wood that I want to take advantage of and adjust positioning of the wood for the symmetry I am looking for.

If the log has exaggerated lobes or is elliptical, I try to visually balance the appearance to find a starting point for mounting centers. Remember that the outside edge of the log will end up being the rim. Shifting your wood side to side along the turning axis will make a big difference in high and low points in the rim. The wood is often shifted from the lathe turning-axis in order to adjust for the alignment of features in the wall of the piece. Keep in mind that this will affect the rim shape as well and may require some side to side compensating adjustments along the turning-axis.

Begin roughing out.

For this type of piece I’m usually turning pretty wet wood. It is sometimes fresh cut when I want to a very blond piece. I will age some wood and allow it to run color if that is what I am looking for. Either way it is usually a good practice to work with wet wood.

 Tooling generally consists of roughing gouges and swept back deep bowl gouges for roughing outsides. I also use a thick shank detail gouge or a bowl skew for shearing cuts that require acute bevel angles.

I start by removing the bulk on the lower (bottom) end. I usually clean up the face on the tailstock end of the wood just to have a clean edge to rough out to while shaping.

A cylinder can be roughed out on the lower part but it’s good to just rough out small sections as you work toward the rim. It is easier to see proportions and get a sense of where the foot might end up.

I don’t bother cutting a foot at this time. The location for the foot will probably change as I continue shaping, and I don’t want the foot to dictate the shape. I generally leave the bark on if it is in good condition. You should remove it if you are concerned about pieces flying off. If the bark is removed cutting through the knots will have to be done carefully, using a shearing cut as much as possible. There won’t be supporting tissue around the knots if the bark is removed. If the bark is left on, it will be easier to rough out through the knots but a remaining band that is left as you establish your rim should be removed. This small band of bark is most likely to fly off. I’ve been bark-whacked enough times to testify to this.

I leave lots of wood in the area around the foot while I’m developing the shape. I need the extra material for moving mounting centers around, and I still have to cut a tenon for a scroll chuck after the shape is developed. Refine the shape first, and then deal with remounting logistics.

 The bulk that has been removed so far will leave enough room for finding the curve that will blend the rim area to the body. I sneak up on the curve and visualize how that curve will continue on through the rest of the piece. The shape of the curve in the areas of the rim and foot are going to impact much of the look and feel of the piece. If I have place knots high on the rim I need to anticipate where they will end up while developing my curve and I adjust accordingly. Changes in the shape and depth of the curve from the rim to body will move the placement of the knots a great deal.

I don’t cut very deep. I cut enough to establish the relationship of the rim to the body and the features I am concerned with aligning. If I am looking for a symmetrical rim with a consistent height this is a good time to check if I need to adjust the mounting centers. Cutting a small step in the alignment area is a quick way to check if adjustments are needed to the mounting centers. A marking pen can be useful at this point and provides a way to check both the center to center axis and side to side alignment for the piece. I use a marker early in the development of the shape and any marks on the wood are turned away.

If symmetry is not the objective, then I look to see if the center to center axis needs to be adjusted. Offsets from the turning axis control high and low points on the rim. These will make a big difference to the visual balance of the piece. When I’m satisfied with my mounting, I continue to shape the piece. I finish the curve from the rim into the body. I then establish my proportions for height and the curve to the bottom of the piece. Finally the rim, body, and bottom need to be connected with a curve that looks right for the piece. There are back and forth changes to shape along the body and transition to the bottom but I tend to stay away from any reshaping the edge of the rim. I usually do a final shear scrape of the entire shape.

 A note of caution.

There is a strong tendency is to try to create a curve under the entire rim. What I mean by that is there is natural inclination to see a complete rim outline with a curve that blends into the body. Some parts of the rim will be defined by the inside cuts when the piece is remounted and the inside is hollowed out. It is important to resist the temptation to cut too sharply from the rim toward the center in an effort to create a curve under every part of the rim. The rim is not a fixed diameter and parts of the rim are naturally going to be on different parts of the curve that defines the overall shape of the bowl. If attention is not paid to this there will be steep angles created that will make it impossible to get a graceful curve that gives a shape that looks right for the piece. Stopping often to look at the whole piece and re-evaluate the curve that is developing.                                      

Cutting in too far in from the rim cannot be undone. At the very least a very skinny piece will result. Keeping an eye on the ghost image while the piece is spinning will help guide the formation of the outside shape. When the inside is cut, transitions from the rim into the body will resolve naturally, if the outside shape is well balanced.

 Finalize the outside shape.

The outside shape is cleaned up using shearing cuts. I find it useful to use the roughing gouge turned on its side with a light scraping motion, similar to using a skew for scraping. I find it’s not very temperamental as long as even pressure is applied and quite often I will run a light scrape uphill to level out any ripples that I want to remove. I also use either a bowl skew or detail gouge to do shear cuts uphill. Even though this might be against the law, it’s equivalent to a climbing cut and resists the tendency for the tool to dig into the softer grain. This is also the time I pay closer attention to the knots. It’s fairly easy to get chips torn out of this material so clean cuts are essential and some cleanup might be necessary.

If I were planning to make a piece with carved feet, I would leave wood to allow for this while doing the final outside shape. I leave material for the height of the feet and leave a diameter suitable for transitioning the feet into the body and bottom of the bowl. I must also cut the tenon for remounting the piece into a scroll chuck. Then tenon I end up with is usually smaller than the diameter of wood that I leave for carving the feet.

I’m not overly concerned with cutting the top of the bowl and completing the formation of the rim at this time. I leave extra material at the top of the bowl but might clean up the face to make remounting in a chuck a little easier and to keep unbalanced weight to a minimum. The tenon for the chuck is cut and I knock off hard corners that may interfere with seating the piece in the chuck.

 Remounting for shaping the inside.

The approach I have been using is to remount the piece onto a scroll chuck and apply as much pressure as necessary to get a firm seat against the flange that I have cut for the foot. I get the most resistance to the forces levering against the mounted piece if I have the chuck in hard contact with the largest diameter on the piece that I have available for mounting. I don’t rely on the grip of the jaws alone or try to seat the piece against the bottom of the chuck.

I use a tailstock to apply pressure while mounting the piece and tightening the chuck. I also use the tailstock for support of the piece after mounting. I bring the center into contact with the slowly spinning piece so that it will find an unbiased center and snug it up.

This is the time to see if some tweaking to the outside shape is needed and to check that the piece is trued up on the lathe. If this piece will be a thin walled vessel, I make sure that the outside shape is running true before doing any cutting to set the rim or turning the inside. The tailstock will provide good support for defining the rim thickness and I cut in as far as practical while the tailstock is attached.  This also gets me away from the rim and allows me to do much more aggressive cutting operations while shaping the inside.

After setting the rim with a bowl gouge, I will generally cut out a cone  to remove the bulk of the inside. I follow the coning with deep fluted bowl gouges, one with a swept back grind and one with a short bevel and finish the inside shape. For the most part I have not been using hollowing tools that are available for cutting end grain. I will sometimes use hook tools, but generally find that gouges are still the most flexible tool for me. Shaping the inside of the bowl is a familiar exercise for most people. Any technique that is most familiar and comfortable is going to work. Most of the look and feel for the piece has been established while doing the outside shape.

 After roughing out.

There are a few things that are worth mentioning when the roughing out process is completed. Drying the piece and the prevention of mold are a couple of things that everyone deals with. There are also issues with dealing with thick sections of wood that are meant for carving.

 I use a dishwashing detergent, water, and alcohol mix to avoid case hardening of the wood. It tends to keep the capillaries to the bound water open longer and helps to keep drying consistent. This also helps to keep unwanted mold and other microorganisms from decorating your piece. I soak the pieces in solution for a few days up to a week and pull them out of the tank and rinse them off with clean water. I have found that this solution will have penetrated the wood and I don’t need to have a sticky residue to deal with if I rinse off the pieces. Replenishing alcohol into the solution will lower surface tension and increases the ability of the surfactant in the detergent to displace some of the bound water.

 If a roughed out a piece has run color or has some staining that is part of the design, I use the soaking solution to stop the microorganisms that create the staining of the wood. I can arrest the pattern on my piece as I left it when I finished the roughing out process. If I don’t use the solution, I  will lose control over the migration of staining and have to deal with the formation of mold.

If I have a piece that has very thick sections left in for carving after drying, I remove material in the approximate areas I need to so that drying will be more consistent. If there will be a need to remount the piece after drying, quite often I will drill through the areas that will be removed and leave enough material to still be able to remount into a chuck.

I have a huge stash of old t-shirts that were begging for a new life. These are excellent drying sleeves for my roughed out pieces. The outside of the piece always gets more air than you want. The neck hole allows the inside to catch up with the outside and the cloth material breathes enough to discourage mold and at the same time will limit the amount of air contact.

I have cool, still areas where the t-shirt outfitted rough outs lounge peacefully for a while. They are then moved to another area for more aggressive drying, (usually the attic).

Most of my pieces are too large to fit in a microwave. If I am rushed to get a roughed out piece seasoned down, I resort to my 4 by 8 foot drying cabinet.