Thread: How to do very fine beads on pens and chess pieces

I use a quarter by quarter inch skew for small turning! those small double beads look tricky!

I have a 6x3mm skew, 4mm spindle gouge and 3mm detail gouge for that sort of work in my mini kit, not that I have done much

Tiny spindle gouge. Tiny parting tool. Tiny skew. Pine is a hard (as in difficult) timber to get detail in.

Scrape them with a 3mm parting tool. This is what I did with the fine detail on the recorders, see pic. It is like using a small Bedan. By far the easiest way to do small beads but you do need to sharp tools and it works best with hard timbers. And there's nothing wrong with using a bit of sandpaper to refine the shape. Its all about the end result not how you get there.

The answer will be in comparing the originals. So it would be interesting to see the original pieces side by side to see how much variation is in them. Some sets would have been made using a profile cutter/s on fine grained timbers, others completely hand cut by very skilled and practiced production turners working on piece rates.

Looks like you are well on your way to replicating the original. Nice work!

Originally Posted by brendan stemp

Scrape them with a 3mm parting tool....

Beads should be cut not scraped. Scraping may be ok with some of the fine grained hardwoods, but not with softwoods, it will fray/tear the beads.

Hi bill,
Try using a harder timber, just finished
a small finial, after 6 attempts using pine
most of them snapped at the last minute
used a hard timber and the skew and hey presto
it worked well, hope this helps
cheers smiife

Thanks for all the tips.

Today I made a tool to give me identical bobbles on top of all the pawns.

Works beatifully.

Was quite surprised - spent a while wondering about building some sort of ball jig then remembered reading about this tool.

See attached. Made by drilling a hole in the end of a bit of steel.

I put a great big handle on it to control it.


Bill

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Beads should be cut not scraped. Scraping may be ok with some of the fine grained hardwoods, but not with softwoods, it will fray/tear the beads.

Neal, I have proved that scraping in a very good technique (not just "ok") to use to create small beads. I have done it hundreds of times and only started sanding them with 240 grit, suggesting no tear out.

As I said originally, it is better to use harder timbers and sharp tools.

To try to do a bead that measures 1mm across with a skew would be ridiculous and to try to repeat it over and over would be even more so. Even for the more experienced turner.

For the average turner who is not at it day after day, repeating the same action over and over, rolling regular shaped beads with a skew is a hard task. Many can roll a bead with a skew but getting them to look the same is another matter. Most turners don't want to spend hours and hours practising a technique just so they can, for example, make a few chess pieces. This is why I often encourage the scraping technique. It is so much easier to duplicate shapes. This is why pattern makers used to use it all the time.

I agree that scraping will leave torn grain on some timbers (especially when the scraper ain't sharp) but this is more a matter of poor timber selection than anything else. To say "beads should be cut not scraped" is like suggesting a bowl should be cut and not scraped. Horses for courses, certain techniques for certain timbers and tasks, surely.

I recall one occasion when I pitted my Henry Taylor beading tool against with his spindle gouge. We were doing comparos on NIP which when really dry is hard to cut cleanly. The HT did the cleaner job despite working in 'scraping' mode.

In fact with a burr it's working in cutting mode.

Downsides of the HT: it's another tool in the kit and that's more cost; it takes a bit of skill to sharpen and needs regular touch-ups to restore the burr; it has a short shank and std grinder platforms need a temporary mod to work. Upside: it does regular shaped beads easily and quickly. It beats shaping beads with tools designed for other purposes by a country mile. I've tried 'em: big beads are doable; small ones take a deal of skill. More here: https://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/usi...-tools-106862/

Note this is not a 'beading and parting' tool and doesn't look like a Dale Nish beader (and if not there's something else to explore). It's rectangular in x-section with a flute milled on the top face. At the cutting edge the flute section is square to the shaft in plan view. The sides at the tip are ground at maybe 45 degrees to the shaft in plan view. Scraper angles apply. Looks like HT may have stopped making them anyway. Can't find them on their website. Wasted my breath

This is interesting

Beading Tool

and the cheapest version I found was

"Cheap and easiest ... large cheap flat bladed screwdriver can be had for £1, mount a 4.5" angle grinder disc on a 'jam mandrel' on the lathe, grind the profile you fancy in a minute or two, job done. At that price I can afford to make a few variations and treat them almost as consumables."

Captive ring home made tool : Wood Turning - Lathes - UKworkshop.co.uk

http://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/d...hp?id=9459&t=1

and some mentions of using a dremel tool to grind a hole in a screwdriver or chisel

nothing really took my fancy - anybody out there done anything different ?

Bill

Gooday Bill. Henry Taylor make a fluted parting tool. Parting & Beading Tools

Ken Wraight uses one for that pupose. The Sorby equivalent is not sharp enough on the edges to leave a good cut.

When I can find my camera I will show you a cheat that I use for doing fine beads.

Robert Sorby make a similar tool as well.

A little ? while back I had a job replicating small beads. I ground a 6mm spindle gouge at about 45 degrees but square, like a parting tool, this was then turned upside down with the flute underneath on the tool rest. It worked very well making exactly the same size beads nicely semicircular in shape.

Jim

Bill, your first link shows something that's close to the HT that was.

The tool that basically has a hole seen in plan on the bar I can't recommend. There's too much scraping going on with it to produce a clean result and keep in control.

Jim's spindle gouge mod sounds like a good option and should be scaleable.