Thankyou for sharing your expertise Richard, I find detailed spindle work quite tricky so your thought processes and techniques are quite invaluable. Regards from Portugal
My dad was a cabinetmaker and as his eldest teenage son back in the 70s, i was assigned to do the finial and spindle jobs on the refinishing work that came in. I used a similar sizing sequence as you demonstrated, but sadly, much of my detail wirk was done by scraping and sanding ( there, I said it!). As a 65 yr old today, i hope the next gen turners are watching your videos as you slice and cut each bead and cove. Thank you!!
Richard, don't worry about forgetting the sequence of your cuts. You have forgotten more about woodturning than most of use will ever know. Thank you for taking the time to share your expertise , it is very much appreciated.
I really like seeing approaches for duplicating objects and enjoyed seeing your approach to doing this. Making one of something is one thing, making a second or third that resembles the first to a satisfactory degree is another thing entirely. Thank-you for showing this, seeing the techniques you used was quite helpful.
Richard! That is the best ever! Cindy Drodza is my pal and speaks so highly of you. I am having a new deck built with privacy screens. The posts were still not topped off. I now have a pattern to work from. Excellent tool handling. Beautiful….
I get as much information from your replies to other peoples comments, as the video. Always worth reading them. Having to regularly match wood colour on gun stock repairs, I find almost anything can be done with either mixing modern wood stains (though not the water based ones), or applying one colour over another. A black marker pen immediately wiped over with stain can even mimic decades of use or possibly a build up of wax in corners. Thank you for another informative and entertaining video.
Nice recreation, Richard. If it were the same type of wood, I wonder if Tomislav's baking soda and water solution would add a patina similar to the original. A few years ago I did my first duplication of a pawn destroyed by a dog. I didn't select the wood very well, but the reddish-brown dye I used followed by wipe on poly matched the originals, quite well. That project taught me how often you can, or need, to take another cut.
I've tried my hand at duplicating finials and other parts.. Where you state forgetting the sequence, I'm trying to identify a sequence. Every video is an education. Your smooth cuts and finish regardless of the project size is an aspiration to me.
The thing to keep in mind is that after the finials are mounted you can't look at both at the same time. Thus, any discrepancies in form between them are very hard to distinguish. Color match will be much harder to replicate unfortunately.
Thank you for the video! I’ve got myself in a pickle. I need to turn 32 small knobs(about 22mm) for a cabinet, I don’t have any copy tools at hand, but will attempt to grind an old drill to have somewhat the profile required, then do details by hand. Doing it all by hand would be good practice but would make for very expensive knobs. How would you approach such a problem?
The first one always takes a long time as you work out how to approach the design, pretty much as in this video. The rest tend to go quite speedily as you know what you're going to do. You can probably get four knobs out of a dowel projecting 150mm from a chuck. You could size all the dowel first, then cut it into short lengths and turn your knobs. It pays to maintain your routine through the whole set so you get into a rhythm. Make a few spares so it's easier to pick matching pairs or groups. Once the knobs are fixed in position it'll be difficult to determine variations in shape.
I'm unable to offer any advice on refurbishing a hard finish other than remove it and start again. I use an oil and wax finish mostly because it's easy to refurbish whilst providing a good base for ongoing care that develops a wonderful patina in just a few months - the sort of deep shine that you cannot buy in a bottle. .
I got my start turning by repairing old and antique furniture. I've noticed that the finials, knobs, many clock parts and decorations are turned very precisely. I believe they were turned by specialists or possibly purchased from a supply house. (Country furniture is the exception.) Do you have any insights? Were there supply houses for turning parts? Is there a "history of turning" book you could recommend?
My experience making parts for English antiques in then 1970s was that most components were hand turned. Spindles often had evidence of wood cut less than cleanly and even the odd catch. Finials were rarely identical before manufacturers had automatic lathes for mass production. The only book I know of that traces the history of woodturning is Robin Wood's wonderful The Wooden Bowl, published 2005 by Stobart Davies Ltd.
Matching the finish might be entertaining. The Victorians mixed up some fabulous brews the least offensive of which might have been readily available uric acid.
I got lucky mixing wood stains. I managed a fairly close match to the colour so that across the room the new finial isn't obvious. I forgot to take a photo...
Very nice. Near enough for Victorian what-not work. 😉 My go to for tips on furniture repairs is Thomas Johnson antique furniture restoration, he has a channel on youtube.
Thankyou for sharing your expertise Richard, I find detailed spindle work quite tricky so your thought processes and techniques are quite invaluable. Regards from Portugal
My dad was a cabinetmaker and as his eldest teenage son back in the 70s, i was assigned to do the finial and spindle jobs on the refinishing work that came in. I used a similar sizing sequence as you demonstrated, but sadly, much of my detail wirk was done by scraping and sanding ( there, I said it!). As a 65 yr old today, i hope the next gen turners are watching your videos as you slice and cut each bead and cove. Thank you!!
Being creative, and being re-creative are two different things entirely. Thank you for the demonstration.
Richard, don't worry about forgetting the sequence of your cuts. You have forgotten more about woodturning than most of use will ever know.
Thank you for taking the time to share your expertise , it is very much appreciated.
I really like seeing approaches for duplicating objects and enjoyed seeing your approach to doing this. Making one of something is one thing, making a second or third that resembles the first to a satisfactory degree is another thing entirely. Thank-you for showing this, seeing the techniques you used was quite helpful.
Thank you for the master class in duplicating a finial. As much as making a duplicate scares me, I now feel I can at least give it a try.
Understanding how to reproduce a given piece is a challenge. Great explanation of what needs to be done.
Richard! That is the best ever! Cindy Drodza is my pal and speaks so highly of you. I am having a new deck built with privacy screens. The posts were still not topped off. I now have a pattern to work from. Excellent tool handling. Beautiful….
I get as much information from your replies to other peoples comments, as the video. Always worth reading them. Having to regularly match wood colour on gun stock repairs, I find almost anything can be done with either mixing modern wood stains (though not the water based ones), or applying one colour over another. A black marker pen immediately wiped over with stain can even mimic decades of use or possibly a build up of wax in corners. Thank you for another informative and entertaining video.
I'll try that black marker trick.
Perfect thanks for sharing 👏🏻👌🏼
An interesting exercise for any of us to try, l like the home made chuck. Thankyou. Alex
Nice recreation, Richard. If it were the same type of wood, I wonder if Tomislav's baking soda and water solution would add a patina similar to the original. A few years ago I did my first duplication of a pawn destroyed by a dog. I didn't select the wood very well, but the reddish-brown dye I used followed by wipe on poly matched the originals, quite well. That project taught me how often you can, or need, to take another cut.
I managed a fairly close match to the colour so that across the room the new finial isn't obvious. I forgot to take a photo...
When you are cutting your depths using the caliper as a reference how much would you recommend an intermediate turner leave for sanding?
I've tried my hand at duplicating finials and other parts.. Where you state forgetting the sequence, I'm trying to identify a sequence. Every video is an education. Your smooth cuts and finish regardless of the project size is an aspiration to me.
Excellent video as alwise
Thanks!
The thing to keep in mind is that after the finials are mounted you can't look at both at the same time. Thus, any discrepancies in form between them are very hard to distinguish. Color match will be much harder to replicate unfortunately.
Thank you for the video! I’ve got myself in a pickle. I need to turn 32 small knobs(about 22mm) for a cabinet, I don’t have any copy tools at hand, but will attempt to grind an old drill to have somewhat the profile required, then do details by hand. Doing it all by hand would be good practice but would make for very expensive knobs. How would you approach such a problem?
The first one always takes a long time as you work out how to approach the design, pretty much as in this video. The rest tend to go quite speedily as you know what you're going to do. You can probably get four knobs out of a dowel projecting 150mm from a chuck. You could size all the dowel first, then cut it into short lengths and turn your knobs. It pays to maintain your routine through the whole set so you get into a rhythm. Make a few spares so it's easier to pick matching pairs or groups. Once the knobs are fixed in position it'll be difficult to determine variations in shape.
@@RichardRaffanwoodturningthank you!
Hey man just wondering how to bring dry varnish to life if you know anything about it thanks lot
I'm unable to offer any advice on refurbishing a hard finish other than remove it and start again. I use an oil and wax finish mostly because it's easy to refurbish whilst providing a good base for ongoing care that develops a wonderful patina in just a few months - the sort of deep shine that you cannot buy in a bottle. .
Thanks Richard What size screw is on the chuck .... same as a drawer knob screw? probably i'll be making one of these.
I think it's a 40-year-old #12 wood screw.
Thanks for asking the question Joseph, I had the same thought.
I got my start turning by repairing old and antique furniture. I've noticed that the finials, knobs, many clock parts and decorations are turned very precisely. I believe they were turned by specialists or possibly purchased from a supply house. (Country furniture is the exception.) Do you have any insights? Were there supply houses for turning parts? Is there a "history of turning" book you could recommend?
My experience making parts for English antiques in then 1970s was that most components were hand turned. Spindles often had evidence of wood cut less than cleanly and even the odd catch. Finials were rarely identical before manufacturers had automatic lathes for mass production. The only book I know of that traces the history of woodturning is Robin Wood's wonderful The Wooden Bowl, published 2005 by Stobart Davies Ltd.
I looked up that book. $700 on Amazon, as much as $1700 elsewhere. Yikes!
Matching the finish might be entertaining. The Victorians mixed up some fabulous brews the least offensive of which might have been readily available uric acid.
I got lucky mixing wood stains. I managed a fairly close match to the colour so that across the room the new finial isn't obvious. I forgot to take a photo...
Very nice. Near enough for Victorian what-not work. 😉 My go to for tips on furniture repairs is Thomas Johnson antique furniture restoration, he has a channel on youtube.
Perfect
I wish.
Yours looks like it could have been made by the same machine as the original.🙂🙂