Wend
Established Member
I came across a video on youtube of someone making a spiral Christmas tree:
and thought I'd give it a go. Presumably the author doesn't have a lathe, as they use a bandsaw to make the initial spiral. I also don't have a lathe, but didn't fancy trying their bandsaw technique either, so I wondered whether hand-shaping it with rasps would work.
I wasn't sure how well this was going to go, so I just raided the off-cut bin rather than getting wood specially for it.
![DSC_8571.jpg DSC_8571.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94282-5918d836f86a2cb9cd5bf96cfbad969c.jpg)
Any off-cut large enough to make a spiral Christmas tree has long since become a reindeer, so I cut up what I had into strips, to glue together to make a stripey tree. Beech and ash aren't really a great combination for this, but it's what I had, and as I had no idea how it would turn out, I just charged on regardless.
![DSC_8575.jpg DSC_8575.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94283-3252fbfcf74bd562b85780bdbbe22ce3.jpg)
Some of the offcuts were longer than others. I added some pine in the overhanging area, so that I could clamp that end in the vise while shaping.
![DSC_8588.jpg DSC_8588.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94284-5c7f52c9cd6cc29067c44dadf3b0b0b3.jpg)
Then I started off by cutting it into a pyramid shape.
![DSC_8607.jpg DSC_8607.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94286-48c743216e77bcb19fa5d8b45f8359a5.jpg)
Then I used a 9" Shinto saw rasp, mostly on the coarse side, to get it into a roughly conical shape. This was my first time using a rasp, so I'd deliberately left myself a lot of material to be removed so that I could get the hang of using it. If I do it again, I'd definitely take the time to work out where I'd need to cut to make an 8-sided pyramid, though, as that would have made the process take a lot less time. Although the picture show it pointing to the right, I (being right-handed) found it easier to do when pointing to the left, so did most of the shaping that way.
![DSC_8611.jpg DSC_8611.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94287-11b865c54b313476f9ce9838f3b6f292.jpg)
I cut some circles of different sizes out of card to get an idea of how far off circular I was - although in the end I didn't really bother getting it very circular: With the circles on you could see it was way off, but without the circles to reference to it looked perfectly fine in my opinion.
![DSC_8613.jpg DSC_8613.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94288-aac568eab02ead17d75c0c574f4814e8.jpg)
I was pleasantly surprised to find that my flattening and glue-up hadn't left any voids; so far so good!
and thought I'd give it a go. Presumably the author doesn't have a lathe, as they use a bandsaw to make the initial spiral. I also don't have a lathe, but didn't fancy trying their bandsaw technique either, so I wondered whether hand-shaping it with rasps would work.
I wasn't sure how well this was going to go, so I just raided the off-cut bin rather than getting wood specially for it.
![DSC_8571.jpg DSC_8571.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94282-5918d836f86a2cb9cd5bf96cfbad969c.jpg)
Any off-cut large enough to make a spiral Christmas tree has long since become a reindeer, so I cut up what I had into strips, to glue together to make a stripey tree. Beech and ash aren't really a great combination for this, but it's what I had, and as I had no idea how it would turn out, I just charged on regardless.
![DSC_8575.jpg DSC_8575.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94283-3252fbfcf74bd562b85780bdbbe22ce3.jpg)
Some of the offcuts were longer than others. I added some pine in the overhanging area, so that I could clamp that end in the vise while shaping.
![DSC_8588.jpg DSC_8588.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94284-5c7f52c9cd6cc29067c44dadf3b0b0b3.jpg)
Then I started off by cutting it into a pyramid shape.
![DSC_8604.jpg DSC_8604.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94285-69807b5abce2506bed0e7aa5e2a76cc6.jpg)
![DSC_8607.jpg DSC_8607.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94286-48c743216e77bcb19fa5d8b45f8359a5.jpg)
Then I used a 9" Shinto saw rasp, mostly on the coarse side, to get it into a roughly conical shape. This was my first time using a rasp, so I'd deliberately left myself a lot of material to be removed so that I could get the hang of using it. If I do it again, I'd definitely take the time to work out where I'd need to cut to make an 8-sided pyramid, though, as that would have made the process take a lot less time. Although the picture show it pointing to the right, I (being right-handed) found it easier to do when pointing to the left, so did most of the shaping that way.
![DSC_8611.jpg DSC_8611.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94287-11b865c54b313476f9ce9838f3b6f292.jpg)
I cut some circles of different sizes out of card to get an idea of how far off circular I was - although in the end I didn't really bother getting it very circular: With the circles on you could see it was way off, but without the circles to reference to it looked perfectly fine in my opinion.
![DSC_8613.jpg DSC_8613.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attachments/94/94288-aac568eab02ead17d75c0c574f4814e8.jpg)
I was pleasantly surprised to find that my flattening and glue-up hadn't left any voids; so far so good!