One of my favourites, the Celtic Knot

[stevemorris]

Curly maple with a 6 loop celtic knot
Matching pen and letter opener with curly maple case
The celtic knot starts with a hexagonal blank, kerfs are cut with my bandsaw with a sled
Walnut is 0.032 thick cut in my shop

 

[1shootist]

Great job !

 

[Angela S]

These are beautiful.

 

[stevemorris]

thanks guys, i have some pics off the setups if there is interest

 

[Angela S]

thanks guys, i have some pics off the setups if there is interest

I would love to see the set up.

 

[stevemorris]

Here is the shop made sled for cutting the saw kerfs on my old bandsaw (1915 Crescent 20)
the kerfs are cut almost all the way through. the sled has a guide bar that fits the track seen on the left of the table

A couple of partially completed blanks clamped up

an accurate hexagon is critical, my tilttop tablesaw set at 30 degrees

and an almost completed blank ready for its last insert

 

[magpens]

Thank you Steve .... it is very interesting and useful to see the details of your setup.

Your Celtic knots are perfect !!!! . Very beautiful indeed !!!!

For someone doing their first Celtic knot, would you recommend that they do a "four-loop" with a square cross-section blank ?

 

[hbillings]

Fantastic set! And thanks for the pics & description of your setup.

 

[mark james]

Awesome! Your final pen/opener is a great set. I love seeing your set-up. Many ways to do this, and yours worked great.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[dogrunner]

Very nice

 

[leehljp]

EXCELLENT! Not only do I love that precision cuts, but your obvious dedication to precision. Thanks for posting this.

 

[bsshog40]

Awesome job!

 

[stevemorris]

precision is the key to a successful knot but it doesnt require fancy new equipment.
that bandsaw is over 100 yrs old, the tablesaw is from 1935 and my lathe is 1946
i have a video tour of my shop, i'll post it if i can. its all antique woodworking equipment
my lathe is shown in my profile picture, 1946 Henry craftmaster from London Ont, 1 hp hoover motor(ca 1950's) with reverse and a 16 speed belt drive system

 

[stevemorris]

Thank you Steve .... it is very interesting and useful to see the details of your setup.

Your Celtic knots are perfect !!!! . Very beautiful indeed !!!!

For someone doing their first Celtic knot, would you recommend that they do a "four-loop" with a square cross-section blank ?

yes a 4 loop is simpler, you can start with any 3/4 inch pen blank, just make sure its square

 

[Alan Morrison]

Great pen and pictures. Most interesting

 

[Ironwood]

Nice work, thanks for showing.