Barley Twist Candlestick

 

Gary mounted a piece of pine measuring 1½” square by 9” long between centres, using a steb centre in the headstock. He turned it to a cylinder then marked it out with a pencil by first dividing it into three 3” sections, then divided each of these in half then each of these in half again to give twelve equal sized sections. He used the indexing on the lathe to draw four equally spaced lines along its length then drew a line from the end of line 1, diagonally across the first section to line 2, then from line 2 to 3 in the next section and so on along its length, until he had drawn a spiral along the whole length of the timber. He then drew a second spiral, starting at line 3, to run parallel with the first. This sounds complicated but photo GR_15 illustrates it quite well.

 

Using a microplane shaping rasp and starting half way along the first section on the first spiral line, Gary carved a groove gradually working along two thirds of the length of the timber. He then repeated this on the second spiral line. Next he changed to a bigger microplane and continued carving out the grooves. When the grooves were the right depth he took longer strokes, turning the lathe by hand to smooth out any flat spots. He used a small hand plane to take off the sharp edges, working along each edge with the grain. He then used a flat plane to smooth the curves. Gary demonstrated a variety of ways to sand it then turned a bead and cove at the tailstock end, in front of the start of the spiral, and  a variety of beads and coves on the section where he hadn’t turned the twist. Finally he turned a spigot which he would later use to mount it in the base. (See photos GR_16 & 17).

 

For the base Gary mounted a disc measuring approximately 1” thick by 6”-7” diameter in a screw chuck. He turned it down to the desired diameter, marked where he needed a hole to take the spigot on the top, turned it to shape then used a thread chaser to turn a pattern of narrow lines on the surface. Next he turned the hole for the top, taking care to avoid catching the screw chuck. He deliberately cut the hole oversized so he could demonstrate how to increase the size of the spigot on the top – he re-mounted the top between centres and turned two grooves in the spigot, this lifts the grain and the fibres and gives a tight fit. If you do this you need to glue it into the base immediately. (See photos GR_18, 19 & 20).