Pine Cone bottle stopper

[jason_r]

Saw one of these on here a couple years ago and finally tracked down the right kind of pinecone. Here's my first attempt.

CA finish to coat the otherwise pretty soft material. Comparable to cork or punky spalted wood.

One challenge in turning these is that it's not a super-solid material. I roughed this to round on my disc sander before turning on the lathe. The other challenge is that the good part isn't straight, and is usually off-axis. So when you drill the hole in the base you have to get it very centered and line it up with the axis of the core- not necessarily the axis of the whole cone. (if that makes sense). This one isn't lined up right, so the other side cut through the pretty part into the boring heart- hence the unfinished bottom.

 

[ctubbs]

That is wonderful work. Pine Cones have some of the most beautiful texture in them. One question, what if the Pine Cone were stabilized first? Would that make the filling and turning easier? Maybe use Curtis' Cactus Juice and then some PR to fill the voids. Just thinking, not always successfully.
Charles

 

[vallealbert]

I really like that one...beautiful eyes...

 

[jason_r]

That is wonderful work. Pine Cones have some of the most beautiful texture in them. One question, what if the Pine Cone were stabilized first? Would that make the filling and turning easier? Maybe use Curtis' Cactus Juice and then some PR to fill the voids. Just thinking, not always successfully.
Charles

Stabilization would definitely benefit these, but I wanted to work out how to do them first.

Before screwing onto the mandrel for turning, I soaked the interior with CA. On earlier attempts where I didn't do this the threads stripped.

After roughing on the sander I turned it at the fastest speed on my lathe- the idea being lots of little cuts instead of bigger cuts.

The finish is CA.

I really like that one...beautiful eyes...

If you want to make your own head over to the Classifieds where I have some for sale.