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the craft of Reifendrehen

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hoping to find the one who has done this German craft and has suggestions. tis a matter of sculpting profiles on a wood ring that when sectioned is an animal or some other profile to finish carving to shape.
 

hockenbery

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There is an article and a photo on the cover of the spring 1999 AAW Journal.

I haven’t been able to download it tonight.

It is called ring turning in the index.

saw a couple of demos. Played around with it a long time ago to make a bunch of maple leaves.
 
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john lucas

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I called.it German ring turning. There was going to be a.demo on that at the 2020 symposium but obviously that didnt happen. I would have to.do.some.research to.find his name but he has posted some incredible pieces.on the WOW forum.
 
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If I recall correctly, Reifen means Tire and drehen means spinning (in German drechselen is turning) They use a cross slab of the wood so the rings run all the way around. And primarily European Lime wood (bass) From what I can see the logs are actually stored in a pond to keep them wet so they don't crack. the log is pulled out and cross sections cut off and turned wet/green. The ring is turned and cut into those little rough animals and then the pieces are simmered in water for a period and finally carved wet, then permitted to dry when so thin, they are not likely to check.. I intend to try this with a piece of cherry, but I want to cut the piece and turn it with in a few hours of dropping the tree so i can have an intact cross section with fairly concentric rings.

This is a folk art developed in the 19th century in a German region in the Ertzgebirge mountains. the main town is Seifen. A town where they once had more wood lathes than families. Nutcrackers, and other holiday crafts developed mainly in this area.

Here is a slightly humorous German video showing the process: they show the various steps although no real explanation for why they do it that way.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoRJT9L-kf8


This one shows the log storage in the pond, as well as a cool little village made with this craft and other turnings.:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1H9DM_wVfw

.
 
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hoping to find the one who has done this German craft and has suggestions. tis a matter of sculpting profiles on a wood ring that when sectioned is an animal or some other profile to finish carving to shape.
In the second video I posted there is a brief showing of a simple little village made by tuning just a ring in a round block shape. From there you would need to study the silhouette of your intended shape and transfer that into the bumps and grooves you will need in your ring. Some shapes might be easier to turn the ring, but incredibly difficult to then carve the individual pieces. You would also need to keep in mind that the surface facing you will be much easier to do legs etc that the side of the ring away from you, so I would keep the top of the piece relatively simple. .
 
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Go to Simon Begg's web page and look under german ring turning in his gallery. https://www.simonbeggswoodturning.com/
Thanks for that link John. He does incredible work. I notice also that he turns items with no regard to having concentrc rings. He turns cross grain like a bowl turner and most reifendrehen is turned with the grain oriented as if a spindle. . so the grain is vertical in the all figures.
 
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Thanks for that link John. He does incredible work. I notice also that he turns items with no regard to having concentrc rings. He turns cross grain like a bowl turner and most reifendrehen is turned with the grain oriented as if a spindle. . so the grain is vertical in the all figures.

Turning with the grain in classic reifendrehen is likely to allow clean cutting of the ring into segments. Begg seems more focused on the sculptural aspect, so that grain orientation would likely be less a consideration.
 
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wow I certainly will keep coming back to this and thank you Perry for the videos. so far more posts than I expected. so now main problem is to come up with wood of usable size/type.. I gues a trip to a local saw mill to see what he has. I really have not intention to make this a regular thing but would like to do a simple bird shape. my carving club is cranking out what is considered "Comfort Birds" that the blanks are cut from scroll saw/band saw. we have space to turn at this carving club.
 
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wow I certainly will keep coming back to this and thank you Perry for the videos. so far more posts than I expected. so now main problem is to come up with wood of usable size/type.. I gues a trip to a local saw mill to see what he has. I really have not intention to make this a regular thing but would like to do a simple bird shape. my carving club is cranking out what is considered "Comfort Birds" that the blanks are cut from scroll saw/band saw. we have space to turn at this carving club.
I am a very beginner carver and saw the comfort birds on line. this method ought to be ideal if you can find the wood. .
 
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I always like to bragg on our carving club called, Eastern Woodlands Carving club Inc. See this club in N central Indiana, little town known as Converse, OWNS a 3 story building. With space to spare, but on the second floor, not only is there an apartment for when a pro might be there for a weekend does not have to leave/pay to stay 30 miles away. but I convinced the officers/board of directors a room could be for turning. Now IF power would letus we could have 4 people turning. so far that has not happened
. right now the 3rd floor is more like a catch all. sorry to get off subject but just had to
 
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Same idea as "ring turning", when my kids were young I used to make long strips on the table saw and/or shaper. Various shapes like cars trucks, people, etc. A 6 foot strip was enough for all the neighborhood kids.

Pretty common technique.
 

Dave Landers

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john lucas

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It is important to orient the wood properly for the project you have in mind. I made some leaves once to be used to make a sunflower. I just cut the entire ring up after the leaf shape was turned. It was a side grain turning and all the leaves that had cross grain were very fragile. all the ones with long grain of course were very strong. so you probably need to plan your project and draw grain lines through it to avoid any weak areas. Then figure out how to get this out of the log.
 
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