Thread: Cracked Oak Bowl Repair

Hi Derek , you have done a good job there , did you make the butterflies
yourself ? How do you cut the space for the butterflies ?
Have been thinking of trying this myself , but not sure where to start !

Thank you Smiife.

The holes and butterflies are all cut by hand. The larger of the two I did the butterfly first but when I did the second I made the hole slightly too large and had to remake the butterfly for that one. By this slight accident I found that by making the hole first then make the butterfly to fit was in fact the easier option, well for me it seemed so.

After doing this one I realised that I had a router set that allows the cut out of shaped holes and the patches I may make a jig for that as recommended by another turner to try on the next one.

Hi derek, I was thinking of using a dremel with a burr type fitting ,
I would lmagine getting it just right would be very challenging !

When I say cut by hand the dremel is what I used to remove the bulk of the material then files and a carving knife for the final clean up, the important thing is to make sure the sides are all in line with each other.

With the butterflies , do you go all the way through or just half way ?
Also did you glue them in or a tight fit ?

These are right the way through and glued as well. It is surprising the extra strength that they add as the rim could be flexed before I put them in but after it bound it all together