Padauk Thorny Vine Hourglass

Unique and beautiful work John. Was the carving difficult, take long? Looks great… well done.

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt!

Thanks, Chip. The time to make the spindles decreased with each one, but overall it took a while. I had a few thorns snap on me, they were getting caught on my carving glove a lot.

-- John

That’s a really good looking hour glass! Very cool carvings

-- Hey you dang woodchucks, quit chucking my wood!!!!

Impressive carvings – nice to hear of the tattoo inspiration as well. I assume the padauk was a challenge to carve.

-- Steve - Impatience is Expensive

Thanks :) The Padauk was no harder than carving with Maple or most other hardwoods, though the slightly open grain did cause a few headaches along the way.

-- John

hi John.

Was curious as to where you purchased the hourglass blanks…........I’ve made a few but can’t find the hourglasses any more.

-- scmichael

I got a few from woodcraft when they were on clearance, but it looks like rockler carries them now.

-- John

Wow. This is so cool.

-- I came, I was conquered, I was born again. ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν

Thanks!

-- John

Very cool! I made one with the same or similar hourglass bulb (from Rockler). Hardest part seemed to be sizing the posts. Too long, and the hourglass would wobble. Too short, and it would be cracked. I used 1/2 in. dia. brass, and didn’t want to cut and try (then grind) too much. So I erred on the size of too long and used some clear RTV (the special type used for glass block cement) to hold it in place. Any advice?

Thanks for the tip on the UV patina. Didn’t know you could do that with artificial light. What lamp did you use?

Thanks, j. For this particular piece I sat it in the sun for the UV exposure, but I have used tanning beds in the local tanning salon for some Cherry pieces. Got some crazy looks :p

To eliminate wobble, try heading to lowes and get some rubber grommets to slip over the ends of the hourglass. They should be in their specialty hardware section.

-- John