Wood Lathe Texturing Tool

General Description

So, you created a bowl or any other woodwork but there’s something off about it. What could it be? The answer is uniqueness. The work looks exactly like any other woodwork made by any other woodturner. How do you make it unique? That’s where the texturing tool comes into play. The tool is equipped with the gear-like cutting wheel beveled on both sides to create wonderful patterns and unique ornaments. Cutting wheel rotates freely when it touches the work, you just need to change the angle of the tool to get a different kind of texture. Another important thing is that wheels are interchangeable. This way you can change ornaments any time you need it. You can buy a texturing tool here.

Purposes of the Texturing Tool and How to Use It to Fulfil These Purposes

General Information

The purpose of the texturing tool is clear, it creates different types of patterns and textures. Below you’ll find the description of how to create the most popular textures.

The first thing that you need to know about texturing is that any type of wood can be textured. There’s no problem with hardwood and there’s one thing that you need to remember about softwood the more the tool is opened out the heavier and more aggressive the cut becomes.

Another general recommendation is to sand the work before texturing it. This is better than sanding the work after texturing a part of it.

The tool rest is positioned at some distance from the work because there’s no need to push the tool into the work, in most cases all you need is a slight touch.

The speed of the lathe can range from 500 RPM to 1000 RPM. There is no need to run it too fast.

Orange peel

The cutter is being held with the teeth of the wheel vertical to the rotating work. The tool rest is just below the center height of the work allowing us to trail the tool slightly downwards to provide a safe method of working. Hold the cutter vertically and by moving the tool from side to side. That’s how you get the orange peel.

Spiral

For this one you will need a tool with a micro cutter wheel. Start at the center of the work. Pivot on the tool. Count to five and then move across in steps. Moving from step to step to the left (or to the right if you’re a left-handed person) you need to slowly open up the angle tipping the wheel slightly further across. As you make your way across, you will see it develops the spiral. Burnish off the surface with shavings to take away fuzzy tone grains, and it’s done. Now you have a very nice spiral pattern.

Grooves

All you need to do here is to position the cutter wheel vertically perpendicular to the floor. Move slightly to the left of the center (or to the right is you’re a left-handed person) and then present the tool to the wood. Don’t push too hard at first, let the wheel rotate and do all the cutting. Watch until you get small grooves on the wood. Stop the lathe, estimate the result and push harder but not too hard if you need to go deeper. How to find the grooves on the rotating work if you need to make them deeper? You need to put the tool in very very lightly and move it across the area. This way you’ll be able to find the grooves again and continue cutting.