Weekend tinkering

[Bill in Buena Park]

Bought a bundle of cherry turning stock on the cheap at Woodcraft a while back to become the basis of some pen designs I have in mind, but thought I'd try my hand as something else just for fun. First shot is cherry blank chucked up in a PSI economy chuck - simple but works well for me. Second photo is a part of the project, likely obvious, but guesses welcome. The last photo is of a couple blanks in work, mixed woods, will be come celtic knot pens. Thanks for looking.

[TimTucker]

Croquette mallets?

[capncarl]

I just went to the ribbon cutting of a new lumber and hwd store that is just 8 miles down the rd. Nice well stocked store but no offerings for woodworker supplies like Woodcraft, Rockler or Highland have. I miss me some Woodcraft!

[Bill in Buena Park]

Croquette mallets - hopefully my croquettes are never hard enough to require a mallet! Great idea Tim, and close - gives me an idea for a future project, but although this is in the mallet family, it's not for croquet.

[JR]

Looks like a gavel to me. "Bailiff, whack his pee-pee!" (It's a wonder what sticks in the mind...)

I'm curious about how to do the celtic knots. I'm of Irish heritage and I know my sibs would enjoy pens with that pattern..

[Bill in Buena Park]

Yep - JR's got it, going to be a gavel.

JR, the celtic knot (which I understand is a misnomer for this pattern, but close enough for me) is basically a series of non-through miter kerf cuts in a pen blank into which you insert a contrasting or complementary thin piece of stock that fits. Four cuts are required, one on each side, for the standard knot (but I've seen others do more complex cutting on hexagonal and octagon blanks, and also double-parellel cuts per side).

Its important that your blank be square, or the pattern, when turned, will be off kilter. Also important that you be able to drill dead center of the blank, or risk the same consequence. Miter angle is subjective; I've used 45 and 30 deg, probably like 30 better for the tighter knot that results.

I made the little jig for my bandsaw pictured here for the non-through miter cuts, and use these pen blank jaws on my PSI economy lathe chuck. I use HF epoxy to glue the thin pieces into the kerfs, which seems to hold very well. You have to remove any material that would put your blank "out-of-square" once the epoxy dries.

When turning, use very sharp tools and light cuts; blow-out is rare for me, but has happened when my cuts are too aggressive.

There's a lot of good info over at the IAP website, highly recommend their library. Also, here's a fun video you may have seen that demonstrates a non-sled approach to the kerf cutting.

[JR]

Thanks, Bill. I think I've got it.

I have pen mill clamp for my drill press. So far I've not worried too much about the how square the blanks are, but it sound like I need to pay closer attention to that.

I've turned only about a half-dozen pens so far. I've made a few mistakes, but am happy with the results by and large.