Richard Findley takes a look at the technique known as ring, or hoop, turning.
I first read about ring (or hoop) turning in an article by Stuart King way back in issue 164 of Woodturning, when I was a keen hobbyist, reading and absorbing everything I could lay my hands on. So keen in fact that I would cut out and save interesting articles in a binder. Turns out that was a very good idea, because I can now re-read the said article as research for this article!
Ring turning, known locally as ‘Reifendrehen’, which translates literally as ‘tyre turning’ is the technique of turning a profile into a ring of timber on the lathe and, once parted off, it is sliced or split to reveal the shape of, very often, an animal of one sort or another.
History
This technique seems to have originated in the Erzgebirge region of Germany, where the production of wooden toys and ‘folk art’ has been the mainstay of the local economy for generations. Animals are the most commonly made items using this technique. To give the legs and necks of creatures such as horses, elephants and giraffes strength, the rings are cut, end grain, from whole logs of green spruce (Picea abies), which are kept wet in the river that runs through the mountainous area. This means that the rings are essentially large diameter spindle blanks, rather than cross grained bowl blanks that we would be more used to seeing in this sort of size – ranging from 250mm upwards, from the information I can find. The grain running like this means it runs in line with the legs, necks and tails, keeping natural strength in these parts.
The theory
Once I have a suitable piece of wood and a design that I wish to make, I will need to make some templates to make sure I can achieve the correct shape without properly being able to see the profile I’m turning. It seems like, once I have these three steps covered, the turning is likely to be reasonably straightforward. The difficulty is going to be making the templates accurately and trusting them to guide me in the shapes I turn. If it goes to plan, when I split or cut the ring open, I should have the profile of my chosen design, but we shall see!
The plan
Because I don’t have a source for such large logs or spindle blanks in a suitable timber, I decide to cut a cross grain bowl blank from a 280mm-wide board of 50mm-thick tulipwood (Liriodendron tulipifera) that I have in the woodpile. Because it is cross grain rather than a spindle blank, I can’t make the usual animals because the legs would all have ‘short’ or cross grain, making them weak. I need a design that has no long legs, something compact where grain direction won’t matter. After giving it some thought it seems like a car would be a good profile, being compact but easily recognisable.
I could either go for a generic ‘car’ shape or chose an iconic car which will add to the recognisability of the segments. I decide to base it on a classic small car of my childhood which I hope will look great in this form and immediately set to work researching the shape of these little cars.
Research and drawing
I run a Google Images search and I’m shown various pictures which include different elevations and even technical drawings of different models of the car I’m basing my design on. I print a few pictures off, reducing sizes to a usable scale and make a few sketches based on the most useful aspects of what I see. Bearing in mind this is supposed to be a toy (for children over 3 years old) I borrow a couple of my son’s toy cars to get some idea of the right size. With several sketches made and useful notes taken, the next step is to make the templates.
Templates
Speaking to the Editor, he mentioned he uses metal or acrylic/plastic for the templates. I have neither, so rightly or wrongly opt for some 3mm-thick MDF, which I do have plenty of.I find it difficult to fully visualise exactly how this is going to work, but it seems like I will definitely need a template of the top and bottom of the car and most likely one of the back. It’s a tough decision as to whether I should turn in with the front or the back of the car to the outside of the ring, but I decide that it might be easiest to make it with the front pointing towards the centre of the blank. My intention is to turn the shape up to the front bumper bar and part it here, this being a detail that would be easy to shape or re-shape to hide any mismatch in the parting and turning of the two halves.
I transfer the drawings to the MDF and, once I’m happy, cut out the waste on the bandsaw. Because of the complex shapes (although the beauty of using this profile is that it’s probably as simple a shape as one could hope for in a car) I don’t attempt to simply follow the lines, but cut from the edge of the template to my lines to form relief cuts. These ensure the blade doesn’t bind as I form the profile. As I cut, I leave the pencil marks visible and will use several rasps and files to shape them right up to the lines as accurately as possible.
In my barley twisting kit bag I have several small Microplane rasps and a round chainsaw file which I find are perfect for refining the curves and lines of the car. With the three templates cut, I put them all back together, just to make sure they look right. So far I’m encouraged by the results.
Mounting the blank
Traditionally the German Masters use a ring chuck to hold the blanks. A ring chuck is a completely alien concept to most modern turners outside of Germany. I’ve never seen one but have read about them. By all accounts they are just a ring of sharpened metal which holds the wood, simply by it being forcibly driven onto it with a large hammer. While that description would make most turners wince and fear for their headstock bearings, the traditional German lathes are specially designed to withstand this type of work and the forces involved. Despite my old Wadkin having some of the biggest and most sturdy bearings I’ve seen on a lathe, I don’t have a ring chuck so decide to work with a more conventional method. Traditionally, the turned rings are formed from a large blank in one mounting, no reversing or re-chucking, just turned in one hit. I’m going to give this a try, so decide that a faceplate ring on my chuck will give me the best access to the underside of the ring of cars.
Forming the profile
Having cut the disc on the bandsaw and attached the faceplate ring, my next job is to true up the edge and then reduce the thickness of the blank to that of my toy cars. With the blank prepared, I’m ready to begin the shaping. The turning itself is all very straightforward. The fact that this is kiln-dried timber makes it more difficult to turn than the green spruce would be, but it is well within my comfort zone. With it being a cross grain bowl blank, rather than a spindle, I just need to be aware of the grain direction, cutting as I would a bowl or plinth, working with the grain as much as is possible.
As the car begins to take shape, I start to apply the first template and it becomes apparent that I need to remove all but the essential part of the profile to avoid binding and an inaccurate reading. I mark the limits of the shape that I need and flare the rest of the template to give full access. I am happy that the profile I have turned matches the template, but as I look at it I can’t help feeling the boot is too pronounced and rounded. The trouble is, it matches the drawing and the template so, despite my reservations, I decide to trust the template and leave it as it is. Will this be the right decision?
I move to the face of the blank, or the roof if you prefer. I mostly use the wing of my spindle gouge to gently refine the shape of the windscreen and the curve of the roof. Once again, I need to remove a large piece of the template to make it work in practice, but once I can comfortably hold it up against the work, I am able to get a pretty close match.
Turning the underside
Despite my best intentions, I find access is really restricted at the rear of the blank and the front of the car is just too close to my chuck to make it feasible to work on, so I drill an 8mm hole through the centre of the blank and switch to my screw chuck. While this is still held in the same chuck, it does mean I can consistently reverse and re-mount the blank in either orientation, giving full access to both sides and making my life much more simple. With the blank reversed on the screw chuck, turning the underside of the car and its wheels is a simple job, using my spindle gouge in a push cut around the wheels and a negative rake scraper in a shear cut to flatten the space in between.
I take the curve of the front of the car round as far as I am comfortable and approximately to the position of the front bumper, and reverse the blank again on the screw chuck, so I am once again working on the top of the car. My next concern is that the cuts on the top of the car line up with the cuts on the underside. A few adjustments and double and triple checking measurements and my templates leaves me feeling confident that I should break through in the right place. I refine the curve on the front of the car that will form the headlamps and begin to work towards parting the ring from the blank.
Parting
Having developed the shape on both sides as far as I can, I sand to 240 grit and start thinking about parting off the ring. I take a few more light cuts, just experimenting a little with the remaining thickness and see some light coming through the ring. After my experiences last month using light to tell me the thickness of the material, I am aware that the sight of light coming through the wood means it’s thin, but still with surprising strength. Before I could take any additional safety precautions I take one more light cut and there is a light ‘pop’ sound as I get some breakthrough. I immediately stop the lathe and take a look. As is usually the case, I have just broken through in a couple of areas, with it still holding in others. I gently apply some hand pressure and the ring easily comes away from the central boss, which remains firmly fixed to the screw chuck. The ring looks promising, but it remains difficult to see if it is a success without cutting it open.
Health and safety – parting precautions
I was comfortable throughout the process and never felt out of control as I was constantly checking the remaining thickness of timber and taking very carefully controlled and measured cuts. To make the parting process safer I could have applied layers of tape to the rear of the ring to ‘catch’ it as it became free, or even wrapped it in cling film, which is a common technique for removing the centre of hollow forms that might have potentially decorative but weakening cracks, voids or other flaws in them.
Splitting the ring
Because the rings are traditionally made in end grain, they are usually simply split into animal-sized pieces once the ring is parted off, using a sturdy knife and a blow from a hammer. Rings of horse blanks can be split into dozens of individual animals. Because my blank is cross grain, like a bowl blank, it won’t split and so needs cutting on the bandsaw. It immediately becomes apparent that cars are nowhere near as economical to make as horses. Animals lend themselves to being split from a ring as their rumps are invariably wider than their noses, so the natural taper that occurs from splitting like this is not an issue. Cars on the other hand are largely the same width at the front and back, and are much wider than horses, so I mark out the width of my car, which I estimate to be around 35mm, and cut it out. To continue this around the ring, I would probably only achieve eight or 10 more cars with considerable wedge-shaped wastage. There is no waste from splitting horses from a ring.
Out of interest, I cut out a second, thinner car, which could perhaps become a badge, brooch or pendant, and lay in the templates I have been using. I’m pleased to say that it matches pretty closely, but I can’t help thinking that I was right about the boot being too bulbous. This tells me that I need to make some changes to the templates, should I try this again, but over all, it definitely looks like a car, and does indeed have a hint of the small cars I remember – if you squint and try not to think about London taxis!
Embellishment
Usually this would be the end of an article like this. With the turning done, I would reflect on the job, but I can’t help feeling it could be improved somewhat and the German ring-turned animals that I am basing this on would now go to a carver and painter to be given further embellishment to make them more lifelike. To fully explore the technique I decide to see if I can improve the car and make it more like the little car I’m aiming for with some carving and a paint job.
During my research I watched a YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoRJT9L-kf8), despite the commentary being in German, I could follow what was going on, thanks to my very rudimentary school-boy level of the language and by watching very closely. The video showed that, after splitting the animals, they are boiled before being carved. Unfortunately my grasp of German doesn’t reach far enough to work out exactly how boiling works but it seems to make the wood easier to carve, and is not a local speciality soup, as the narrator seems to suggest!
The carvers use knives, which cut through the wood like slicing vegetables for a Sunday dinner, before they are beautifully hand painted. I am aware that my carving and painting skills are way below the German masters, but I feel I should at least give it a go. After an enjoyable hour of whittling my toy car with a chip carving knife and small chisel (I skipped the boiling stage) I feel it does indeed look more like I wanted. I am aware that I would need to spend several hours, or perhaps days, to make this entirely realistic, but feel the hour was time well spent. I tried to focus on areas that really give the car character, such as the headlamps, the curve of the bonnet and grill, the shape of the roof and the curve at the top of the doors.
I bought a can of British Racing Green car paint from a local car shop, along with a pot of white paint, a silver paint pen and fine marker from a local stationer. I focussed on areas that lend themselves to a car of this sort, so the colour was an easy choice. I painted the roof white and added some stripes to the bonnet. I used the black marker to line the doors and the sliver pen to make the windows stand out. Once these were dry I finished with a spray coat of gloss lacquer.
Conclusion
This was a real challenge for me. Not so much in the actual turning, but in the planning and the visualisation that I needed to form the correct shapes. I have mixed emotions about whether or not it is entirely a success though. It certainly looks like a car, with more than a hint of a car from my childhood about it and I feel that a second attempt would certainly improve the shape. My attempts at carving definitely improve on the turning alone, but even as I painted it, I wished that I had spent more time and removed wood around the door cills and wheels. My painting skills are marginally better than my six-year-old son’s, but again, they need some serious practice and improvement.
The thing that surprised me most, and probably shouldn’t have, is the amount of inward curve that shows on the front bumper. I don’t think it has a particularly detrimental effect to the overall job, but it did surprise me and I wonder if this could be used to an advantage in future attempts – if I ever do try this again!
One Response
Love it thankyou