luthier49
Established Member
Just finished making a barley twist replacement chair stretcher for Dom Vilente, thought I`d document the process for the benefit of the members. He sent me some white oak for the job as the rest of the chair is made in oak. Right, to start with here`s a photo of the tools I used for the job. The carving gouge was purchased from Craft Supplie some years ago and is a special tool for doing this type of job. I`ll mention what tool I used as I go along.
The next photo shows the strecher marked out. Eight horizontal lines are marked equidistant along the strecher and I used my indexing plate for this. The pitch required was 100mm, so I measured from the start of the right hand cove, 100mm. Then from that mark 100mm etc. These marks were then drawn around the cylinder. This was to be a double twist so these marks were then divided in two for the second twist location. Then these were further divided into four. The lines that have a sqiggly pencil line drawn on them are where the saw cuts will be made. The masking tape on the saw is a quarter of an inch which is the depth required. I used a piece of milk plastic jug wrapped around the cylinder to draw the spiral lines.
Here is the strecher with the saw cuts made.
Now comes the hard bit. This was a lot easier when I made one in pine, but this oak is much more difficult to carve. The lathe toolrest is used here as a rest for the carving gouge. The gouge is turned over on it`s right side and you twist the workpiece onto the gouge to make a cut.
To do the other side of the hollow the strecher is turned around in the lathe so you are always carving with yhe grain.
Once the saw marks have been carved away, the hollows were further deepened and smoothed using a round surform and a large course rat tail file.
At this stage the twists now need to be rounded and to do this I use a small block plane. The plane is cupped in the hand and held at about 45 degress to the tops of the twist. As you plane around the twist you also turn the spindle with the other hand into the plane.
Some of the lumps and bumps left from carving is hand sanded using a piece of 15mm MDF rounded on one edge and a piece of 80 grit abrasive stuck on. Then the twist is sanded with the lathe switched on and at about 400 rpm. You soon get into a rythem doing this. It`s a bit like thread chasing for making screw on lids for turned boxes. Here`s the finshed twist
The next photo shows the strecher marked out. Eight horizontal lines are marked equidistant along the strecher and I used my indexing plate for this. The pitch required was 100mm, so I measured from the start of the right hand cove, 100mm. Then from that mark 100mm etc. These marks were then drawn around the cylinder. This was to be a double twist so these marks were then divided in two for the second twist location. Then these were further divided into four. The lines that have a sqiggly pencil line drawn on them are where the saw cuts will be made. The masking tape on the saw is a quarter of an inch which is the depth required. I used a piece of milk plastic jug wrapped around the cylinder to draw the spiral lines.
Here is the strecher with the saw cuts made.
Now comes the hard bit. This was a lot easier when I made one in pine, but this oak is much more difficult to carve. The lathe toolrest is used here as a rest for the carving gouge. The gouge is turned over on it`s right side and you twist the workpiece onto the gouge to make a cut.
To do the other side of the hollow the strecher is turned around in the lathe so you are always carving with yhe grain.
Once the saw marks have been carved away, the hollows were further deepened and smoothed using a round surform and a large course rat tail file.
At this stage the twists now need to be rounded and to do this I use a small block plane. The plane is cupped in the hand and held at about 45 degress to the tops of the twist. As you plane around the twist you also turn the spindle with the other hand into the plane.
Some of the lumps and bumps left from carving is hand sanded using a piece of 15mm MDF rounded on one edge and a piece of 80 grit abrasive stuck on. Then the twist is sanded with the lathe switched on and at about 400 rpm. You soon get into a rythem doing this. It`s a bit like thread chasing for making screw on lids for turned boxes. Here`s the finshed twist
