[Dorkyducks] is a bit of a jeweler, a bit of a carpenter, and a bit of a hacker. They’ve taken some time to document their technique for making bentwood rings. Bentwood is technique of wetting or steaming wood, then bending or forming it into new shapes. While the technique is centuries old, this version gets a bit of help from a modern heat source: The microwave oven. [Dorkyducks] starts with strips of veneer, either 1/36″ or 1/42″ thick. The veneer is cut into strips 1/2″ wide by about 12″ long, wrapped in a wet paper towel, and microwaved. The microwave
heats the water in the towel, steaming it into the wood. This softens the wood fibers, making the entire strip flexible. The softened wood is then wrapped around a wooden preform dowel and allowed to dry for a day or two.
Once dry, the wood will hold the circular shape of the dowel. [Dorkyducks] then uses masking tape to tack the wood down to a new dowel which is the proper ring size for the wearer. Then it’s a superglue and wrapping game. The glue holds the laminated veneer together, and gives the ring it’s strength. From there it’s sanding, sanding, sanding. At this point, the ring can be shaped, and inlays added. [Dorkyducks] shows how to carve a ring and insert a gemstone in this gallery. The final finish is beeswax and walnut oil, though we’d probably go for something a bit longer lasting – like polyurethane.
honestly, to combat hand oils, the final finish should’ve been superglue as well.
Eh walnut is a drying oil, it should cure and be very durable.
I’ve never had superglue NOT dry cloudy. If there’s some secret to using superglue on any material without it turning partially opaque, I’d love–not sarcasm–to hear about it.
Use way, way more CA than you ever would if you weren’t sealing it. Use multiple coats of slow-drying CA (not gel) and smooth it with a paper towel while it cures. It actually works, believe it or not. Get a few exotic knife scale blanks from ebay and experiment.
The paper towel may catch on fire.
I turn wooden pens, and CA glue is a great finish for them. I use CA glue that requires activator. Spray in many coats, then sand down from 300 to 2000 grit. I finish off with a polishing compound buffed by pieces of paper towel. Clear finish that’s “almost optical”.
Derp. my brain is off today. The glue is out of a squeeze bottle; the activator is the spray can. Like Brian wrote, use many coats, each quickly leveled while still liquid.
I know this is an old comment…but do you mind letting me know what CA glue you use as well as activator?
If you layer Boiled Linseed oil and superglue the finish is awesome and is NOT cloudy. This combo is used extensively in the wood pens that are turned on the lathe.
Moisture and skin oils make super glue turn cloudy. Super glue fuming is used in forensics to reveal fingerprints on surfaces where powder won’t work.
The discovery was accidental. Someone noticed white fingerprints on everything in a closet where cyanoacrylare resin was stored and found they were difficult to impossible to clean off.
The discovery that cyanoacrylate resin made a super glue was also accidental. A plastics company was working on materials to make airplane windows from during WW2. One of their inventions was cyanoacrylate, but it proved to be useless for making windows, so it got tucked away with the reset of the failures. Some years later, a person at the company was doing optical tests on some prisms and went looking for something to get better coupling between them. He found a can of this clear stuff, spread it on the prisms and stuck them together. After doing the tests he couldn’t get them apart.
He went to his supervisor to explain how he’d destroyed a very expensive instrument, but the supervisor said, no, you’ve discovered a glue.
Part of the story you listed for super glue is true, it was found by accident during WWII. But, it actually was being used before the end of WWII as a type of field stitches for medics in the Army and Navy. My grandfather was a medic in WWII and he used it numerous times to do field stitches, almost like ‘New Skin’ or ‘DermaBond’, products created later on for the medical industry.
My rigs were hazy for awhile. I tried multiple coats without sanding, that worked ok. Believe it of not, I found Turtle Wax car wax to be the best. it shines the rings right up.
Her website is http://thetreehearts.com/
She says she uses wax finish because anything hard chips off, so poly is out.
Also, polyurethane finishes are hard to repair once they do get damaged, wax is more forgiving in this area
Just saw this today, thanks for linking me in!
No, a real hacker wouldn’t use veneer, they would plane the wood to micron thickness with a Japanese hand plane.
B^)
actually, for something this small, hand plane shavings are a real possibility…build up the ring layer by layer
And use different types of wood for effect.
I’ve tried that, works okay but splinters a lot more often and making shaving with hardwood is a bitch.
I make wooden rings too – don’t wear it on the right hand cause when you shake someone’s hand they will break it if they have a strong grip.
Will these wooden rings get destroyed easily?
Bentwood rings are very strong. It would take a mighty firm grip to break one.
Someone showed me this today through my Etsy! Thanks for crediting me in your article! :)
-Katherine