Making a "What-Knot?" May 1994
Multiaxis Turning
If you are like most woodturners, you have a number of oddball
pieces of wood that just aren't usable for bowls or hollow forms. The
pieces may have a knot, void, or crack that makes you toss them in
your reject pile. I have found a use for these pieces by making simple
multiaxis turnings I dubbed What-Knots.
My inspiration for What-Knots came when Darrell Rhudy brought a multi-axis turning to our Triangle Woodturners of North Carolina meeting in January 1994. He was experimenting with multiaxis turning with his inspiration from Stoney Lamar of Saluda, North Carolina. I too have admired Stoney's work that I have seen in the AAW Journal and Woodturning Magazine, but never really tried it since it looked like it was too complicated. One day I noticed that the reject pile was getting a little deep so I decided to play around with multiaxis turning. I chucked up a ugly piece of spalted oak, 4" diameter by 6" in length, between centers with the grain running perpendicular to the lathe bed. I made sure that the ugly knots were on the outside where I wouldn't turn them away. My intention was to turn the piece into a slab with two sides that I could decorate with coves and beads. This piece turned out to be very interesting and I got a number of positive comments about it.
At left, is an example of a What-Knot? that I made in Pear in 1994. It is made from a cracked piece that I couldn't use for anything else. This crotch grain is embellished with some carving, but the features I want to explain are the sets of slits that are made in the top right and bottom left of the piece.
Turning A What-Knot Chuck up a piece of wood between centers as shown in Figure 1. Turn one side of the piece almost flat, reverse the piece, and turn the back flat so that you have about 1 1/2 inchs of wood left. (You make the judgement on your specific piece of wood.)
This is when you decide which side will be the front. Try to put the best grain patterns forward. Chuck the piece with the back toward the tail-stock and turn the back into a concave shape as shown in Figure 2. Rechuck the piece by moving the tail-stock up about 1/4" toward the top of the piece, then turn away the concave on the top so the piece won't be top heavy. This gives you a base for the What-Knot to stand on. By moving the tail-stock up in this manner, you will have a wider base than top since your tool will only cut on the top part of the piece.
Return the tail-stock to the center and play with the back, turning beads and coves. Once you have the back finished, un-chuck the piece and chop off the excess stubs from the back and front of the piece leaving about 1/4" on each stub.
On the front stub, pencil a rough X on the stub diagonally from the rough corners of the piece. This X along with the mark made by the cone center gives you a good estimate of the future chucking points where the X and the cone center marks cross as shown in Figure 4. If you use a different type of center, just mark a circle about 5/8ths of an inch in diameter around the middle to determine the intersection.The Front. Reverse the piece between centers so that you can work on the front. Don't bother to get the chucking perfect since you are going to resurface the front anyway. In the middle of the piece, turn a couple of pretty beads and coves while cutting away much of the remaining weight in the center of the piece. Try for about 1/2 to 1 inch thickness in the center. It really isn't important how thick the piece is, it only matters if you like the shape. Next, surface the outside of the piece (the top and bottom of the piece) using a gouge with a shear cut.
Now the fun really starts. Rechuck the piece by backing out the tail-stock and rechucking the tail-stock point into one of the four intersections of the cone center and the "X" you made before. This actually moves the point of the tailstock about 3/16ths of an inch in one direction (e.g., in NE direction). Depending on the length of the piece, you can move it more or less.
Now carefully turn a "vee" into the piece with a skew or small gouge. Turn of the lathe and check that the "vee" is in only one side of one end of the piece. Turn several more "vee"s and re-chuck the piece on one of the other directions, repeating the "vee"s. You can experiment with chucking at other points, but don't overdo it or you won't have a flat surface left to show the "vee"s. After you are satisfied with the cuts, return to the center mark and cut down the stub (Figure 5.) Unchuck the piece and get rid of the excess stub by carving and sanding. Reverse chuck the piece onto a faceplate with a pad and get rid of the back stub just as you would a bowl or hollow form.
Final Embellishing. The last phase of your project is all hand work. Use your carving tools to decorate the What-Knot to create visual interest in the piece. I usually judge how much enhancement to give to a piece by how much interest is already in the grain. Don’t redecorate what mother-nature has already given us! The interesting part of What-Knots is the play of shadows in the different "vee"s. As the direction of light changes, the What-Knot gives different patterns due to the shadows.
My What-Knots aren't in the artistic range of a Stoney Lamar, but making one will give you experience in multi-axis turning. Pay attention to how the changes you make in the chucking points affect the different areas of the piece. I hope that you folks enjoy making them as much as I do, so start getting rid of your reject pile.
This article was adapted from an article first published in the May 1994 issue of the Journal of the North Carolina Woodturners Association, Ken Bachand, Editor.