Idea Worth Exploring - Grain Compressing/Uncompressing - embossing

Frank Klausz, a well known old world trained furniture maker, does a demonstration whose underlying concept may have a potentially interesting application for creating design elements on turnings. The sequence for Mr. Klausz's technique is as follows:

  1. plane the side grain of the surface smooth
  2. with a tool harder than the wood, selectively crush/compress the side grain in a line, or outline of a shape
  3. plane the surface again so the top of the new surface is flush with the bottom of the depression(s) caused by crushing/compressing the grain in the previous step
  4. either wait for the wood to absorb moisture out of the air or dampen the newly planed surface with water

What will happen is that the grain that had been crushed/ compressed will swell up back to its original size - now ABOVE the surrounding wood.

Think of it as the reverse of embossing. With embossing your crush what is to be low spots/areas, leaving the uncrushed areas "high". With this technique, you crush what is to be high, remove the surrounding wood then "uncrush" the crushed areas.

Some possible applications:

Turn the outside of a piece, preferably one made from a soft wood (not a "softwood", some of which can be harder than some "hardwood"), and finish the outside surface to the point just before adding any liquid finish.

With a smooth tool which won't cut or tear the grain, the round end of a push rod, a crochet hook, a knitting "needle" etc. for example, turn a smooth groove around the piece. Press hard

- you want to really compress the wood BUT NOT CUT OR TEAR IT.

NOTE: you're doing this BEFORE you remove any wood from the inside of the piece. You want the force you apply to the "crushing/compressing" tool to crush/compress the outside grain, NOT flex the piece.

Re-turn the surface, removing just enough to get the new outside surface flush with the bottom of the groove you just made.

With a damp, not soaking wet, cloth, dampen the surface of the piece - and wait. After a while, you should see that the line you "inscribed" is now a raised rounded ridge. It may be subtle or quite noticeable, depending on how hard the wood is, how prominent the grain figure is and how hard you pressed the tool into the spinning wood.

The idea can be applied using leather embossing tools or stamping tools. You just want to have as much of the "stamp" in contact with the wood as possible. Since you're working on a curved surface, the flatter the curve the more contact area between it and the stamp and the more of the pattern you'll get on your piece.

Am tied up until Christmas turning gifts so I won't have time to try this out. If YOU have some time give it a try. Who ever does it - please report back.

charlie b

Reply to
charlie b
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Idea Worth Exploring - Grain Compressing/Uncompressing - embossing

Frank Klausz, a well known old world trained furniture maker, does a demonstration whose underlying concept may have a potentially interesting application for creating design elements on turnings. The sequence for Mr. Klausz's technique is as follows:

  1. plane the side grain of the surface smooth
  2. with a tool harder than the wood, selectively crush/compress the side grain in a line, or outline of a shape
  3. plane the surface again so the top of the new surface is flush with the bottom of the depression(s) caused by crushing/compressing the grain in the previous step
  4. either wait for the wood to absorb moisture out of the air or dampen the newly planed surface with water

What will happen is that the grain that had been crushed/ compressed will swell up back to its original size - now ABOVE the surrounding wood.

Think of it as the reverse of embossing. With embossing your crush what is to be low spots/areas, leaving the uncrushed areas "high". With this technique, you crush what is to be high, remove the surrounding wood then "uncrush" the crushed areas.

Some possible applications:

Turn the outside of a piece, preferably one made from a soft wood (not a "softwood", some of which can be harder than some "hardwood"), and finish the outside surface to the point just before adding any liquid finish.

With a smooth tool which won't cut or tear the grain, the round end of a push rod, a crochet hook, a knitting "needle" etc. for example, turn a smooth groove around the piece. Press hard

- you want to really compress the wood BUT NOT CUT OR TEAR IT.

NOTE: you're doing this BEFORE you remove any wood from the inside of the piece. You want the force you apply to the "crushing/compressing" tool to crush/compress the outside grain, NOT flex the piece.

Re-turn the surface, removing just enough to get the new outside surface flush with the bottom of the groove you just made.

With a damp, not soaking wet, cloth, dampen the surface of the piece - and wait. After a while, you should see that the line you "inscribed" is now a raised rounded ridge. It may be subtle or quite noticeable, depending on how hard the wood is, how prominent the grain figure is and how hard you pressed the tool into the spinning wood.

The idea can be applied using leather embossing tools or stamping tools. You just want to have as much of the "stamp" in contact with the wood as possible. Since you're working on a curved surface, the flatter the curve the more contact area between it and the stamp and the more of the pattern you'll get on your piece.

Am tied up until Christmas turning gifts so I won't have time to try this out. If YOU have some time give it a try. Who ever does it - please report back.

charlie b

Reply to
charlie b

This idea has been explored in a woodtruning book IIRC - Decorating Turned Wood:The Maker's Eye.

Can't put my hand on it now but I think that's the correct one.

Reply to
jev

Hi Charlie, The general idea known to turners as pimpling and to the Japanese as 'ukbori' has been discussed here before. Thanks for bringing it up again. I hope someone will give it a try. Usually for turnings and carvings, the non-compressed region surrounding small compressed stampings is best _sanded down to level and the compressed areas raised up by steaming. A problem for pimpling on turnings is to compress the future embossed details equally, ie. to the same depth. Using spring loaded automatic punches is one way to assure compressing to equal depths, but I wasn't very successful at it using decorative or number/letter punches. My punches may have been too large or the wood not dry enough to be raised by steaming or more likely, I just cut more fibers than I compressed. :)

I wonder if an old rotary grinding wheel dresser with its discs flatted & smoothed applied to a slowly rotating turning could make evenly indented compressions and produce a pleasingly embossed texture?

Mick O'Donnell has pics and discusses dimpling in his book, "Decorating Turned Wood".

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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Reply to
Arch

Once again - nothing new under the sun.

Pimpling!? Think I'll go with ukbori - sounds nicer - and "artsy".

charlie b

Reply to
charlie b

Before someone who can spell and knows what they are talking about corrects me it's.... ukibori. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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Reply to
Arch

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