Simple Celtic knot questions....

[Warren White]

....from a simple mind.

I want to put a Celtic knot on a pen that is made with some yet-to-be-determined dark wood. Can I make the insert (Celtic knot) out of something simple, like fir or pine? Will it turn and finish OK, or should I use a light colored hard wood. If the latter, what suggestions do you have?

Thanks!
Warren

 

[Krash]

You can use any wood but matching the hardness as close as you can helps in the sanding and finishing. But, since the celtic slices are thin, you can get away with a softer wood with little problem. A nice harder light wood is maple.

 

[knowltoh]

I agree with Kelly. I like to use holly.

 

[StuartCovey]

Any wood will work. Like Kelly said try to match the hardness of the wood up. But it will still work with softer wood, just go slow. Watch out for extremely soft woods though as when you sand the dark wood dust will mix in with the soft light wood. Typically in times like this I will skip the sanding as it is impossible to not discolor the lighter wood.

As far as wood types, I typically just use whatever I have available. I find just using lighter wood like maple for the knot gets boring, so I am always using different woods.
I would also recommend using Maple instead of pine though.

Good Luck!

 

[Warren White]

Thank you ....

...for the excellent advice. After reading about the cautions using soft wood for the inserts, I went to my local Rockler's trying to find some holly, but they didn't have any. I found a piece of very light maple, so I will try that. I am also going to the Woodworking show in Sacramento next week, so I will look there as well.

Good advice from this site! I really appreciate the help.

Warren

 

[Sylvanite]

Just about any contrasting wood species will work well. I once made one using slices of blackwood, maple, osage orange, and redheart. You might want to avoid woods with a very open grain so that sanding dust isn't a problem.

Oh, and I also prefer to cut the segments at the same angle as the blank. That way the grain directions line up, which minimizes problems with wood movement over time.

I hope that helps,
Eric