Wood Turning a Christmas Ornament
Intermediate/Advanced Project
Icicles for the Christmas Tree
| This is a quick project and great skew or straight chisel practice. It will also use up all those scraps from woodworking and wood turning projects. To make an icicle you need straight grained wood blanks about 5 1/2" long by 1/2" square. Aside from a small skew or some small spindle gouges, you also need a four jaw chuck with small jaws. |
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| With the blank held lightly in the chuck, bring up the tail stock and center the point on the blank end. |
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| With the blank aligned, tighten the chuck and snug up the tail stock. |
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| Rough down the blank and taper it toward the tail stock at the same time. I like a roughing gouge but at this size a skew does a nice job as well. |
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| From here on in I like to do most of the wood turning with a 1/2" straight chisel that I reground from a Dollar Store carpenter's chisel. It is ground straight across and then beveled on both sides like a skew. I find it works at a more comforable angle than a skew and the carbon steel takes a sharper edge than does high speed steel although it does not hold it as long. The other tool I like to use, especially around the head near the chuck is a 1/4" round chisel made from a high speed steel tool bit. |
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| Back off the tail stock and using the chisel or a small skew, smoothe out the curve and biring the end to a point, remembering that you need to eliminate the dimple caused by the tail stock. You want the diameter of the icicle to be about 3/16" at around 3/4" from the tip. I do not measure and everyone of these is different but you want to aim for elegance and lightness. |
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© 2006 copyright Darrell Feltmate, Around the Woods, Wood Turning Techniques