Thread: Which wood good for finials?

Straight grain, on the harder end of the spectrum. I have turned a fillial in Ironbark, sharp tools and very small cuts. Avoid timber with defects, they may look good in bowls or lidded boxes, but have a nasty habit of exploding.

agreed. Straight grain. Hard. Something that you can turn very exactly and with minimal finishing. African blackwood is top of my list.

I think good wood for a filial (filly's - referring to heather mills anything wood do.)

But in your case i think you mean FINIALS - in that situation hard close grain wood - Ken referrs to Desert Timbers as his favourite.

(sometimes i cant help myself can i)

Cheers

Originally Posted by Calm

I think good wood for a filial (filly's - referring to heather mills anything wood do.)

But in your case i think you mean FINIALS - in that situation hard close grain wood - Ken referrs to Desert Timbers as his favourite.

(sometimes i cant help myself can i)

Cheers

Too late. 's corrected my spelling error already.

Originally Posted by tea lady

Topical question at the moment, as everyone is assessing their wood piles for the up coming challenge/turn along. What wood is good for fillials? Some are better than other aren't they? Ken Wraight told us a few on the recent "sharp Weekend" which also turned into a turning demo. (We had to test the chisels. ) But I can't remember what ones he recommended. I'm hopeless with names.

So any suggestions out there?

Originally Posted by Pat

Straight grain, on the harder end of the spectrum. I have turned a fillial in Ironbark, sharp tools and very small cuts. Avoid timber with defects, they may look good in bowls or lidded boxes, but have a nasty habit of exploding.

Sure looks like it

BTW i notice the Axe Weilding Mongrel has adopted a new "hero" "cult figure" or is it just a case of coming out of the closet.

Cheers

about 2 lifetimes ago when i was a member of the QLD woodturners i was given a small piece of gidgee from WA or way out west some where ,i turned an egg cup from it .
it was very hard but great to turn needed no sanding was shiny straight off the chisel and i rekon it would be great for finials .
i would like to get hold of some more of this wood

Agree with KW but would refine to the Acacias. Mulga, Dead Finish, any of the Gidgees.

Ironbark is a good hard timber but I think you would be fortunate to find suitable pieces for finials as it is quite fissile.

I acquired some gidgee from the rubbish bin at the woodworking club. Its amazing what people through away. Might try it at 's next week, cos I haven't tackled such hard stuff before, unless you count one of his telephone poles. But that was a bit bigger. Anyway, my centres don't line up well enough for little finials I think. Might manage the box bit as long as I don't need the tail stock.

If your tailstock doesn't line up accurately, you can turn finials without tailstock support. You might find you're better off without if your tailstock is out more than a mm or so.

I simply hold the blank in pin-jaws, carefully round the whole thing so I can safely use my fingers as a steady, then turn in stages from the tailstock end towards the headstock. But cutting downhill from the headstock towards the tailstock. (I'm sure you know what I mean. )

You do need steady fingers and once you've moved along, closer to the headstock, there's no going back... so you pretty much want to get it right the first time around.

Dunno about the pro's TL but I don't make my finials between centres. I mount the blank in a chuck - long nose jaws if it's a skinny blank - and turn them from the point down a little bit at a time, finishing/polishing as you go. That way you can make them skinny as you like - betwixt centres would crush a fine finial


edit! - Skew 'beat me by that much'!!!

Ah yes! I do remember Ken easing off the tail stock as he worked so it was only just on enough to go round, but not enough to push the finial out of whack. And the blank in pin jaws. (Oh no! Another thing I need. I will just have to look weird gluing my finial blanks to big waste blocks. ) (Gee its hard not putting "ll"s in the middle of finials. Why does it seem so wrong. )

I am not known for my Finial's (Fillial's ) but I was mucking around on the lathe and grabbed hold of a Jarrah offcut some 25 mm ish square ish. The end product is 142mm with the widest part 12.7mm and the thinnest 2.7mm. It looks pretty ugly, but it was more to see if I can do the long thin variety without a steady, as I don't have one

I used my 1/2" skew to shape the finial, then sanded to 800, then two coats Trad wax followed by EEE. All with very soft hands. Lathe speed Maximum (3000rpm for me).

I know the likes of Ern, Skew, DJ, Titt and of course the infamous could turn longer, finer, prettier finials, but I thought I did well for my second finial

OMG!!!!



(that's exactly what my daughter in law says all the time, she is so funny)

I think that maybe, possibly, perhaps, with some reservation I can say that I have a head start on finials!

After all - they are just little hair sticks...

heehee




As to what wood, I guess that the hard woods are easier to work with, and you want something that doesn't have any faults in it because it's too small to work around. But what makes me use a particular piece of wood is that it's in my shed, available to my hand and about the right size!

Different if I were going out to buy a piece of wood specially for the job, especially if I had an unlimited budget - then it would definately be African Ebony all the way!

Here, have an elephant, it's kind of African.

Eliza, I have two offcuts of African Ebony, definitely not for Finials . . . I got them for knife scales