# Pierced Maple Leaf (Oh Canada)



## holmqer (Feb 13, 2011)

Airbrushed and burned maple leaf, with an airbrushed blue rim. Free-form pierced everything in between. Quite similar to the Royal Canadian Air Force Roundel. Finished with Wipe-on-Poly. Around 10" (25cm) diameter.


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## randyrls (Feb 13, 2011)

Very Cool!!!  I'm trying to turn other objects than pens.


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## BRobbins629 (Feb 13, 2011)

Very nice.  Note to self - More piercing on the to do list.


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## greggas (Feb 13, 2011)

Nice work Erik...looks like alot of hours went into that


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## Ruby pen turning (Feb 13, 2011)

That looks like a lot of work there and a back ache. Looks very nice though.


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## bobjackson (Feb 13, 2011)

Great job.


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## LEAP (Feb 13, 2011)

I like it!


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## seamus7227 (Feb 13, 2011)

That is Fantastic! How many hours did that take you from start to finish, just a guess?


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## Rick_G (Feb 13, 2011)

I was in the RCAF for 10 years can I have it?  Pretty please!!

Nice job, a lot of work involved that I just don't seem to have the patience for any more.  Did I say I like it?  Hopefully the wood is maple.


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## Jim15 (Feb 14, 2011)

Awesome work.


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## holmqer (Feb 14, 2011)

Thanks everyone.

This has quite a few hours into it. The turning was a few hours, I still struggle to turn things this thin, wall thickness ia 1/16th at the rim to 1/8th near the base. The piercing was a lot of hours, but some of them were not very efficient, I took this to the Woodworking Show as a demonstration and spent 8 hours piercing and talking about the process in our booth, and got mayby 10% done. A few more solitary 2-3 hour sessions finished it off. Masking and airbrushing was maybe another hour, and I probably have another hour or two of touch time on the finish. I am guessing that I have close to 20 hours into this piece.

The wood is mystery wood, it is twice turned, and I knew what it was a year ago when I rough turned it, but forgot to label it, so by the time I had second turned it and decided what to do with it, I had no clue what it was.

I had it second turned for months while I tried to decide what to do with it, and eventually hit on the maple leaf idea. Once I had the maple leaf center, I realized that adding a blue rim would match the RCAF roundel.

I am not sure what I will do with it, I will probably donate it to a charity auction in Hollywood, where it will most likely go home with some Canadian celebrity. The problem is that auction is right around the time I plan my annual vacation in Canada, and I would like to bring it with me to show some Canadian friends before parting with it.


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## matt112981 (Feb 17, 2011)

Wow that is nice! Where can I find more info on free form piercing , I have seen it before on here and it is always impressive to me. Good work!


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## holmqer (Feb 17, 2011)

matt112981 said:


> Wow that is nice! Where can I find more info on free form piercing , I have seen it before on here and it is always impressive to me. Good work!



The closest thing I've seen to any instruction on free form piercing is in the DVD "Surface Design on Thin Wall Turning" by Binh Pho, but the free form part is just part of one chapter.

http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/s..._on_Thin_Wall_Turning___pho_surface_vid?Args=

I'll describe my design method. I'll skip an explination on how to use the tool itself (NSK Presto, Turbocarver)

Before trying this with a tool, do the following.

1) Print some representative line art from Google or other source. 

2) Draw a large circle around the image or arc across the top representing the rim of the turning

3) With a pencil, following the outline of the image draw a series of similar sized, but varying shape blobs where one edge is the image, and one edge is the adjacent blob. Maintain an inter blob rib of 1/16" to 1/8". Draw each blob in a clockwise direction (You need to use the tool this way and this gets you in that habit)

4) Repeat step 3 for the rim

5) With a pencil, draw another line of blobs offset from either the image or rim blobs, once again maintaining the 1/16" to 1/8" ribs between the blobs.

6) Repeat 5 until you have thoroughly "blobed" the region between the image and the rim.

What you will discover is that you need to put some thought into blob shape when close to sharp corners (like the tips of the leaves, or the gullies between tips in my bowl). 

You will discover that similar thought is required when a line of blobs is about to intersect another line of blobs. The end of step 3 when drawing the last couple blobs to make them look right next to the first blob is one example. Another example is when the rim blobs are about to intersect the image blobs.

This free form piercing does not have to be between and image and a rim. The blobs can form an image like I did here

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=69922

In this case the image was a simple spiral, but the image could be more complex like this leaf

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=66829

Where the freeform piercing is inside the maple leaf rather than outside.

All three of these used the same fundamental method of blob design.

Once you a comfortable with drawing the blobs on paper, you just use the same basic design technique with one of the super high speed (300,000 RPM+) rotary tools. These tools are the rough shape and weight of a pen so the techniques you develop when drawing blobs will feel similar to cutting blobs with these tools.


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## jaeger (Feb 17, 2011)

Nice work and I appreciate the information on the techniques you use.
 This type of carving could be incorporated into many types of applications.
Thanks again!


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