Shopsmith Forums

Can anyone help as to how to turn barley twist on my lathe? They are used as candle sticks in England.
Thanks

If "barley twist" kind of looks like strands of rope in a twist - the stuff I've seen in magazines is done by hand. That is, hand turning the lathe while putting on pencil marks, then hand turning more while carving the spiral grooves.

Thanks Chuck, sounds like the way to do it. I was familier on how they do it on a machine lathe but not wood. Thanks again. J601

Your post got my attention so did a little research on the barley twist and found a couple of web sites on both how to do them by hand turning on the lathe and also using a rather expensive tool combo utilizing a lathe like device and router like device. Also the Woodright has had an episode that showed him making the legs for a table however you would need to purchase the video for this as there were no dates showing a future showing of the episode. I enjoy turning but I think this particular method is more involved than I would want to spend time on or money for a machine to do this.

http://legacywoodworking.com/technique. ... hniqueID=2
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~rhaslip/Re ... odyswa.htm
http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/tvschedules/ ... up#details

Sears/Craftsman once made a router attachment that would rout barleycorn turnings called a "Router Crafter." Maybe search Ebay?

With all good wishes,

If you happen to have access to the October 1972 issue of Popular Mechanics they have a nice method shown starting on page 178. "An old twist to woodturning".

Ed

There is a book called Router Magic that has a section on Router Lathes you may want to check out.

Ron, Nick and ED all jogged my memory about a home made jig used to make these things, like twisted bed posts, or candle sticks. Now that I am curious, I will take the time to look up the magazine and article. I'll tell you where it is, after I find it. The set up - as I remember - was a jig to hold a router and a hand turned pair of centers that hold the work piece.

rkh2 wrote:Your post got my attention so did a little research on the barley twist and found a couple of web sites on both how to do them by hand turning on the lathe and also using a rather expensive tool combo utilizing a lathe like device and router like device. Also the Woodright has had an episode that showed him making the legs for a table however you would need to purchase the video for this as there were no dates showing a future showing of the episode. I enjoy turning but I think this particular method is more involved than I would want to spend time on or money for a machine to do this.

http://legacywoodworking.com/technique. ... hniqueID=2
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~rhaslip/Re ... odyswa.htm
http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/tvschedules/ ... up#details

Thanks Ron, looked at the sights you mentioned and you are right, this really gets involved, for just making a few would not pay, will have to look for something else the wife wants.
Johnny601

Johnny, like Charlese signature line says "update your location" if you were close to me I would lend you the router crafter to do those things just to keep your better half happy!

I have one of those router crafters, as long as you do just facial twists its ok but to do hollow requires special longer bits if they are of any size and hollow are a real PITA to finsih up, I have some large candle holders around someplace that I did and will probably never do again lest the price be worth it!

I am in Pa.