Segmented Bowl

[Doug Reesor]

I inherited a lathe last fall and started following my ambition of turning bowls with a particular interest in segmented bowls. I found a reference to cutting triangles at 45 degrees to the grain and gluing to get an end grain effect for a braclet and thought it would make an interesting bowl using the heartwood/sapwood effect on some naturally dried walnut in a bowl. This is some pictures of my first effort.

My question is aboout gluing. In my search of the internet I have been unable to find pictures of similar gluing techniques for segmented bowls and am wondering if there will be any long term problems. I used Titebond III. Feedback would be great.

[David Walser]

Doug,

The effect is fantastic! I love the way the wood appears to swirl.

As to the long term durability of your glue up, walnut is a fairly stable wood, so you might be okay. However, it appears that you have glued it up in such a way that the natural movement of some of the pieces will be in opposite directions -- leading to cracks. A lot would depend on how large the bowl is, how thin you turned the walls, and how consistently dry your walnut was.

It would be safest if you could find a low humidity location where the bowl won't be subject to seasonal fluctuations. May I recommend Arizona? I'd be glad to place the bowl on my mantel and let you come visit it anytime you'd like...

[Bernie Weishapl]

Wow that is a nice piece. I like the way the wood looks like it swirls.

[Nathan Hawkes]

I like the swirl effect too! Its like a walnut kaleidoscope or a pinwheel. Very nice. I really like the almost purple transitional wood in it. Very nice.

[Dave Stoler]

Very nice..The swirl effect really adds alot.Also the form seems to lend it,s self to the swirl.

[robert hainstock]

David Waiser gave you realy ood advice. always remember that wood WILL expand or contract across the grain. This was always taken note of in early furniture pieces.large panels were place in sloted pieces loosely so they could move. That is a strikigly beautiful piece by the way. Don't woory be happy! Titebond is good stuff.
Bob

[Steve Schlumpf]

Welcome to the Creek Doug! Very impressive first post! Beautiful wood and design!

[Tom Sherman]

Very nice bowl Doug, looks like you have very tight joints time will tell about the durability. Nice job.

[Mike Golka]

Great looking bowl, well done

Mike

[Paul Engle]

Doug, nice work. In 15 yrs of pro work I have never had a piece that used Titebond come back for seperating/cracking . I have pieces in Eruope, Japan/Asia all across the US. I use it exclusively for ALL my wood projects.

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Doug, David has stated the situation much as I would have. While Titebond (I, !!, or III) is very good glue, it won't stop wood from moving, so the best construction is to always align wood grain the same direction. Of course, this is not always possible. You have created a lot of 45-degree cross-grain joinery, which is certainly more stable than 90-degree joinery. However, over time (perhaps a long time), some joint stress will probably appear. And then again, it might not; it's very difficult to predict. I just did a repair to a walnut bowl about this size. It was constructed from angle-cut (probably band saw) rings which were stacked into the bowl shape and then turned. The alignment of the grain was all over the place as opposed to being all the same direction. The bowl was delivered to me in four pieces where the glue joints had completely failed. I re-assembled it with the grain all aligned and turned it on the lathe. From the information that I received about this bowl, it had been in the family for at least 30 years.

By the way, very nice job on the alignment of the center points in the bottom - not an easy thing to do.

[Paul Engle]

Doug, you may want to look into using traditional hide glues for cross grain work, a lot of "older " wood working was done with this type of glue recipe and can be found still together after hundreds of years.As ligum type glues dry they will shrink over time ( many years) where the hide glue has less shrinkage and will not become as brittle as the titebond and will not lose " grip" over the end grains as well.End grain to face /edge grain is always risky due to the wood movement in two directions. Good luck.And of course as Malcolm pointed out ,not knowing what sort of glue was used on the bowl he fixed .... if you use a cheap glue you risk loss from movement also.

[George Guadiane]

Hi Doug,
As my Icon probably suggests, I have been doing off axis segmenting for a while. The icon piece is over 2 years old and it is doing fine (so far).
I don't know where on the planet you are, I live in UpState NY, but I have done a few demos on the topic. I have even devised a sled that allows for safe cutting of long large triangle staves.
As an early effort, yours looks good, and I like your use of heart/sap wood and grain orientation, but you might get more of a fluid rotational effect with a curvier outline.
I have included a couple of pieces that I finished. The open form was a scrap from the vase. You could see a little more on this string: Round Piece or check out my website.
Happy to answer any questions you might have...
For whatever it's worth, I didn't "invent" this idea either. After coming up with it on my own, I found out that Mike Morley and Jack Cox in England had done it more than 10 years before me, and had written articles and a book about their work.
After strutting for a while, a couple of my friends pointed me to the earlier work. It was disappointing at first, but on reflection, it is a really good feeling to know that your mind is working in interesting directions and that you don't need a handbook full of ideas to come up with something cool.

[Ben Gastfriend]

It looks great! I'm not a segmenter and will not attempt to contribute to the discussion on wood movement. All I know is that your work is fabulous, and.... show us more!

[Don Orr]

Very nice work Doug. I don't do any segmented work yet, but I can appreciate when it's done well. Nice job ! So what's next.


And George, I'm still sorry.