How to make a barley twist

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luthier49

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Gorleston-on-sea,Norfolk
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.

tools_used.jpg


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.

twist_marked_out.jpg


Here is the strecher with the saw cuts made.

saw_cuts_done.jpg


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.

carving_twist.jpg


To do the other side of the hollow the strecher is turned around in the lathe so you are always carving with yhe grain.

carving_twist2.jpg


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.

twist_bottom_rasped.jpg


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.

planing_twist.jpg


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

finished_twist.jpg
 
Hi Bob

What a beautiful piece of work. How long did it take you?

The only time I've seen this produced was using the Legacy Mill.

Cheers
Neil
 
Superb. I've never seen that done, nor documented so very interesting. Thankyou.

Adam
 
Thank you for that; Like all craftsmen you make it look and explain it in so straightforward a manner that the job looks easy.

We know different, especially in oak, but at least we now have some idea as to how to tackle it if we need to.

One more reference for the keeps list.
 
=D>
Superb, always wondered how you create them using a lathe - had visions of the thing spinning round and having to chase the slots.

Andy
 
Wow, and you make it look so EASY! :shock:

Until I saw this, if someone were to ask me to make one for them, I'd probably run a mile! :? But with a little woodturning practice, I'd feel quite happy to tackle it, though I'd probably make a pine test piece firstly.
 
Thanks for all the nice comments. Niel, it took me about four and half hours to make. In actual fact this is te second one I`ve ever made. I must be a natural.

Alf,Offcut, you`ve given me double clap. :D If anyone is serious about doing some of this in a future project, I learnt how to do it from one of the videos in the Dennis White wood turning series, Barley Twists. All his videos are still available.
 
Bob,

Thats very good. I have a router lathe but have still never cut a twist. There are limits on what you can do with it but your able to cut any pitch you want. As others have said thanks for posting the pictures, I love seeing how things are done. :D
 
Bob,
This looks amazing.

I'm just wondering if you could give a little more detail about how you marked out the twist before you started cutting anything. It's probably something really simple, but I just didn't get how that was done.


Ta
J
 
J,
I will leave Bob to explain his method. I have marked out twists in the past with a piece of string wound round the cylinder (as many turns as need to give the desired pitch) Then used a soft pencil to mark alongside the string for saw cuts.

You have to nudge the string about a bit until the "threads" look evenly spaced. For double start threads, just rewind with the start and finish offset by 180 degrees.
 
OK J, here we go. We`ll stay with the example in the photos previous. What was required was a pitch to the twist of 100mm and a double barley twist. First, divide the spindle horizontally into eight divisions. I used an indexing plate and the tool rest as a guide to draw the pencil lines across the spindle. Then measure off in 100mm steps from the right of the spindle and draw these lines around the spindle. You might not get an exact mutiple of 100mm sections, you might get an odd measurement at the other end which you just ignore. Because this is a double twist, these 100mm sections have to be divided in two to accomadate the extra twist. What you have now is a spindle marked out in 100mm steps and these steps further divided into 50mm steps. Now all these segments are futher divided into another four equal segments. You now have a spindle marked out into little oblong boxs, a combination of the horizontal and vertical lines. These are used as a guide to draw the twist. I used a piece of milk jug cut straight with a straight edge rule and craft knife. Eight spirals now have to be marked around the spindle laying the milk jug around the spindle joining the segments corner to corner. The unoptimized photo shows this more clearly. The scribbled lines are the saw cuts and the lines either side are the limits of the the hollow.

Phew #-o . I hope this is clear enough for you now.

twist_marked_out2.jpg
 

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