BALLS!

Thanks for the links Charlie,

If you've never seen David Springett's Book these things will wow one. Every time I see some work like shown on these two websites, I feel like my five level Chinese Balls are pretty whimpy. Bonnie Klein brought back a Chinese Ball from France that was 40 mm in diameter and had seven different balls inside. That made me feel like mine were not up to snuff, but then my tools made by Crown Tools in England only handle a five level ball. Most of those Chinese Balls andother stuff are made from good boxwood, which is hard to get here in the United States. In the 10 years that I've been making the Chinese Ball, I've only made two of boxwood, but I've made them out of practically every US grown hard wood and one out of spalted Tamarac that was extremely soft. My best ones have been made from Alternative Ivory and cast acrylic, not grain to contend with on those materials.

Fred Holder

"BALLS!"

said the queen, "if I had 'em, I'd be king."

India has some incredible ivory carvers who have been doing balls within balls for hundreds, if not a thousand years. Incredibly delicate, covered in detailed carvings on the non pierced surfaces, they're more like little gems. I picked up one in a Hindu Shop in Panama City, Panama for one of my college roommates. He was taking carving lessons from an old man who carved barrel lids, doors, etc. for many of the California wineries. He was blown away by the 1 1/2" diam. 7 balls within balls.

These things left almost no material on each ball in order to have the inner ball almost touching the surrounding ball. The fact that they could carve on what was left and do everything with carving tools and a drill still astounds me.

Though machines and special tools make things easier, they can't do what a good carver can do.

charlie b

Balls cried the Queen, if I had two, I'd be King.

Balls cried the King, if I had three more, I'd be a pin ball machine.

Twas the night of the King's castration he was giving a ball, a Royal Ball that is.

Man did this one go off on a tangent.

Now to try and find the French woodturners manual from the

Some of the jigs this guy designed look like something developed for brain surgery.

This type of turning would probably appeal to segmented turners, hours and hours of planning but with plenty of multi-parts jigs and designing, making and then working out the sequence of use.

Sure are a lot of paths in the woodturning landscape - and so many folks blazing new trails - some literally - as in scorching and charring.

Fun this turning thing.

charlie b