Thread: Small detail makes big difference

I spend as much time as I have to on getting these sorts of problems sorted. As its here that I look at other turned objects and some years ago I was challenged by another turner to always endeavour to obtain a museum finish.

Having said that, I use sometimes a very sharp knife edge upper most and trailing to just lightly pare away at the corners of a bead and often have a narrow single layer of sandpaper held tight into the corner like a strop to finally smooth it over.

There are many different ways to get into these tight spots. But a lot of the time we need to pay particular attention to our initial tool cuts. As here I often find the is the start of my problems, razor sharp tools, pointy purpose sharpened scrapers held in a trailling position, ideally with a small burr.

Any fancy stuff I try and choose a compliant timber to lessen my aggro levels

As hughie has indicated sharp tools help to get the detail correct.

Once you have the detail you do as little sanding as possible.

You may well be starting at too coarse a grade and making more work for yourself.

Thanks Hughie and Jim. My tools are generally razor sharp and I get a good finish straight off the tool except for as I said in those areas near beads and at the bottom-most part of the beads. I may try to give the tools a quick hone before I do the final cut and see how that goes.

Hughie, the knife/scraper idea sounds interesting and I may experiment with that to see if I can get into those narrow intersections.

Try using a natural fiber paint brush if it's not to bad it always seems to clean up my beads



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Bellas Nebular

A way I can see all my scratches etc before I put any finish on is take a close picture of the item (you may set your camera to macros) then put up on your computer screen maybe zoom in and everything should show up.
I am learning here how to rid these tight ones...

Two things I would add:
One - timber selection is very important. Select the right timber and (with sharp tools) you can get a very good finish off the tool, one that requires little sanding. As a rule of thumb hard, close grained timbers tend to cut very well.
Two - use paper sandpaper rather than cloth backed. Paper backed,when folded in half is thinner and can get into narrower spaces.

[One - timber selection is very important. Select the right timber and (with sharp tools) you can get a very good finish off the tool, one that requires little sanding. As a rule of thumb hard, close grained timbers tend to cut very well.

absolutely!

Two - use paper sandpaper rather than cloth backed. Paper backed,when folded in half is thinner and can get into narrower spaces

This I forgot to mention and on occiasion I have used wet&dry paper as its the thinnest of all.

I reckon Jim has the right of it... and that it's still better to do as little sanding as possible.

It's one surefire way to improve your tool techniques; not being able to hide the mistakes behind grits!

For final cutoff at the bottom of my miniature cupcakes, I use a utility knife on the stub tenon, with the knife upside-down prying against the tool rest, and pushing the blade upward. This only works if the tool rest can get close enough to the work. No sanding whatever.

Just after step 6 in pic #3 at https://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/abo...-early-131032/

For occasional fuzzies on larger work, a utility or craft knife works well too; best with a fresh blade, and usually off the lathe.

Cheers,
Joe

Thanks to Brendan and co. for further good information and tips. I particularly like the "thinner" sandpaper, I've been using cloth-backed sandpaper for so long that I'd completely overlooked using paper based sandpaper. Joe, I like the idea of using a knife, had thought that there was a safety issue with it but sounds like a good idea the way you're using it.

Skew totally agree with you when you say that you should strive to get best possible finish straight off the tool. I've found that with very detailed stuff that you only get one or two opportunities to get it right and if you miss on these it's hard to get the tool back in there to correct as you may not be able to rub bevel etc. Question now is what can you practice on to become better and getting that great finish when doing detailed work? Was thinking that miniature work might help .

Originally Posted by Tiger

Question now is what can you practice on to become better and getting that great finish when doing detailed work? Was thinking that miniature work might help .

Broomsticks from the local $2 store are great for spindle work practice. Lots of finely detailed finials... And if you have/know kids, I'm sure a few magic wands would be appreciated.

It's one of the reasons I like turning so many small goblets when I've nothing "special" in mind.

They're great practice at a wide variety of techniques, don't take much timber and are easy to give away.

(Along with the fact that if I break the stem, I can then practice converting the foot to make it a small lidded bowl. )