I'd like to do a spiral-carved HF vessel, but I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to draw the spirals. Has anyone seen a tutorial or how-to to do this?
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Spiral-carved vessel
- Thread starter Hal
- Start date
john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
There is a fabulous book by Stewart Mortimer on twisted turnings.
Richard Baker
RIP
Drawing Spiral
Hal,
The simplest way I have seen is to wrap a strip of paper around the object in the desired spiral and draw along the edges of the paper. Can use multiple strips, varying width, etc. Probably some better suggestions will follow.
Hal,
The simplest way I have seen is to wrap a strip of paper around the object in the desired spiral and draw along the edges of the paper. Can use multiple strips, varying width, etc. Probably some better suggestions will follow.
One simple way to draw the lines for your spiral is use a piece of string. First measure the circumfrence of the bottom portion. (You can use a piece of string for this also). Take your measurement and divide it by how many spirals you want. Example: your circumfrence at the bottom is 12" you want 6 spirals so mark 2" spacings around the piece. Now measure the top portion the same way as the bottom. Take your measurement and divide it by how many spaces you put on the bottom. Example: your circumfrence at the top is 6" divide by 6 spirals so mark 1" spacings around the piece. Now you can take your string and run it from the top marks to the bottom marks. The nice thing about the string is you can visualize what the spirals will look like before you even mark the piece. I also use those plastic pins to hold my string in place while I mark it. Also remeber if your going to cut out ever other spiral to divide your circumfrence by even numbers. I hope this helps and isn't to confusing. If you need more details let me know.
Hal,
John is right, Stuart Mortimer is the best. I saw his demo last spring and heve been working on this look recently. He could carve sprials in a vessel in 2 hours, it takes me two days!
Doug went thru the steps if you don't have indexing on your lathe. If you do have indexing on your head stock let it do the measuring. Draw a pencil line near the bottom of the form and near the top of the form around the circumference. Now with the indexer and your tool rest as a straight edge strike lines at equal spacing from the bottom to top of your vessel. I use a folded piece of medium heavy paper to draw to connect the lower latitude to the upper latitude lines crossing over 2 or 3 longitude lines.
Your carving method will depend on your tools. I carve with a small v-tool to establish a guide down each of the spiral lines. Then with a back saw I set the depth of each groove. Back to carving gouges, followed by round micro-plane, files and sandpaper wrapped dowels.
Good luck, I think spirals are fun.
Frank
John is right, Stuart Mortimer is the best. I saw his demo last spring and heve been working on this look recently. He could carve sprials in a vessel in 2 hours, it takes me two days!
Doug went thru the steps if you don't have indexing on your lathe. If you do have indexing on your head stock let it do the measuring. Draw a pencil line near the bottom of the form and near the top of the form around the circumference. Now with the indexer and your tool rest as a straight edge strike lines at equal spacing from the bottom to top of your vessel. I use a folded piece of medium heavy paper to draw to connect the lower latitude to the upper latitude lines crossing over 2 or 3 longitude lines.
Your carving method will depend on your tools. I carve with a small v-tool to establish a guide down each of the spiral lines. Then with a back saw I set the depth of each groove. Back to carving gouges, followed by round micro-plane, files and sandpaper wrapped dowels.
Good luck, I think spirals are fun.
Frank
This article got me started...
The author is making "Barley Twists" or "Helixes"- but I think that is what you are after.
Technically, a sprial would be a channel or bead on a flat surface that begins (or ends) at the outside diameter and moves in a circular manner towards the inside diameter of the piece. Think of a coil spring.
http://home.att.net/~waterfront-woods/Articles/SpiralCandle.pdf
The author is making "Barley Twists" or "Helixes"- but I think that is what you are after.
Technically, a sprial would be a channel or bead on a flat surface that begins (or ends) at the outside diameter and moves in a circular manner towards the inside diameter of the piece. Think of a coil spring.
http://home.att.net/~waterfront-woods/Articles/SpiralCandle.pdf
I think we are probably thinking of two different types of spirals. The type I want to do was featured in American Woodturner Vol 19, No. 4 (Winter 2004) - the beautiful vessels by Avelino Samuel. I think Doug was referring to this type of spiral.
john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
If your talking about a gradual spiral running from foot to base on hollow vessels, I do that with a flexible ruler. I mark spaces on the bottom and then spaces on the top. Then I use the flexible ruler to connect them. I can fix it on the bottom and then move it to different holes on the top until I like the look of the spiral.
I shared a demo room with Samuel at the Ã…AW symposium but I'll be darned if I can remember how he marked the spirals.
I shared a demo room with Samuel at the Ã…AW symposium but I'll be darned if I can remember how he marked the spirals.
Thanks John. That's pretty much what I've done except it was more eyeballing it than anything else. My attempt so far needs lots of refining.