Exotic wood dowels?

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jrista

jrista

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So, I am on this binge to create retro-styled pen designs. I'm playing with very basic layered segmenting for some things right now, with either resins or woods, to get some of that 60s and 70s retro look. So far its all just strait and square...and I was wondering what it might take to get some circles involved.

I have found some nice walnut dowel at the local woodcraft and rockler. However upon deeper investigation, either locally or online, I have had a tough time finding dowel in any other kind of wood other than your basic cheap lighter-colored dowel. I'm thinking along the lines of redheart, yellowheart, purpleheart, bloodwood, etc. Do dowel in such woods exist? Is there an easy way to make truly strait dowel out of maybe a pen blank?

I would basically be using these as segmenting material...so, I'd drill a moderately sized hole in a blank for a moderately sized dowel, then when that is glued in and cured I'd drill a smaller hole, and insert another type of wood. Maybe a walnut blank with a redheart circle, then a yellowheart circle, etc.
 
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This guy cuts them custom. https://www.dowelsondemand.com/

I thought about ordering some to use for wood hinges on boxes. But they are pricy. You might try getting a dowel cutter and cutting them yourself. Especially is you don't need them that long.
 
Wife and I built a new home, and move everything from the place he had been in for 29 years. A few years later, when I started turning, I found a couple of 1/4" dowels in what I think was bloodwood among the various ends and odds of stuff in the basement. Obviously, since the basement hand been totally empty when we moved in, it was something that we had brought from our old place, but I knave no clue where it originally came from.

A few years later, I was looking through one of the general woodworking catalogs (I don't remember which company) and noticed that the did have a small selection of dowels in something other than the usual maple and oak.

So the point is that they exist - it's just a matter of finding them.

That said, since you don't need long lengths with uniform diameters, and since you have a lathe, why not just turn your own from whatever timber you want. Not difficult to do, and great skew practice.
 
Fred Bruche said:
There ya go :)

1" Exotic Wood Dowels | Exotic Wood, Birdseye Maple, Curly Maple, Tiger Maple - Bell Forest Products

1" Exotic Wood Dowels - Exotic Wood, Birdseye Maple, Curly Maple, Tiger Maple | Buy online!
www.bellforestproducts.com www.bellforestproducts.com
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I found this earlier. It looked like the smallest ones were 3/4", which would normally be the size of the blank I would be starting with. I think I'd need from at most 5/8" down to 1/4".

monophoto said:
Wife and I built a new home, and move everything from the place he had been in for 29 years. A few years later, when I started turning, I found a couple of 1/4" dowels in what I think was bloodwood among the various ends and odds of stuff in the basement. Obviously, since the basement hand been totally empty when we moved in, it was something that we had brought from our old place, but I knave no clue where it originally came from.

A few years later, I was looking through one of the general woodworking catalogs (I don't remember which company) and noticed that the did have a small selection of dowels in something other than the usual maple and oak.

So the point is that they exist - it's just a matter of finding them.

That said, since you don't need long lengths with uniform diameters, and since you have a lathe, why not just turn your own from whatever timber you want. Not difficult to do, and great skew practice.
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Yeah, I should probably do that, try to turn my own and use it to practice working with a skew. I just bought a radiused skew from Carter and Son, but haven't used it yet. Maybe this is the time...
 
You can turn your own wood dowels. Just match them to your small drill bits. Many turners have access to old trees and we all have cutoffs from previous projects. Another idea is solder which is solid, no flux in the core. Someone on this sight used it in a "30 Pieces of Silver" pen a few years ago. I tried it and turned quite well.
 
Years ago I had a source for 1/4" and over exotic dowels and for the life of me I can not remember the place. But I just recently download my old drive onto new computer and copied my favorites list so I will try looking through them and see if anything rings a bell.

I just checked and it so happens back in 2010 I ordered from the same place as Eric mentioned and linked to. Was very happy with results and still have a few. I use them when making my desk watches. I use to put dots within the bands. Sorry I did not take any photos back then because I was not big into that stuff. I also used them for the pins to hold the bands on. Also I looked at one time back then Woodcraft was selling out of all their exotic dowels and bought them out. I use to have a woodcraft store here in NJ back then.

Heck I just wanted to try my new computer and my data storage update and see if my files got transfered and it looks good to go. I am a happy camper.
Copy of IMGP0509.JPG
 
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gbpens said:
You can turn your own wood dowels. Just match them to your small drill bits. Many turners have access to old trees and we all have cutoffs from previous projects. Another idea is solder which is solid, no flux in the core. Someone on this sight used it in a "30 Pieces of Silver" pen a few years ago. I tried it and turned quite well.
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One of my favorites - I have it saved to admire: 30 Pieces of Silver.
 
gbpens said:
You can turn your own wood dowels. Just match them to your small drill bits. Many turners have access to old trees and we all have cutoffs from previous projects. Another idea is solder which is solid, no flux in the core. Someone on this sight used it in a "30 Pieces of Silver" pen a few years ago. I tried it and turned quite well.
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I saw the 30 pieces of silver pen. AMAZING PEN. I don't seem to have indexing worked out yet. This is a real, real WEAK area of Laguna lathes. You have to screw their indexing pin in and out...which makes it basically an unusable feature, it is so mind-numbingly tedious. I'd say, outside of the poor tailstock design, its the thing I hate most about the Laguna lathe... I've seen third party indexing wheels, which I'll probably have to get in order to do any kind of indexing in a convenient manner.

Even with an indexing wheel, though...I'm not real sure how to go about drilling sideways into a rounded pen blank in a consistent manner. I suspect I would need to build some kind of jig to hold the drill, or maybe my Dremel, so I could just kind of move it strait in and out at the exact same midline level on the blank...

For the basic dowel stuff here, though, I would just drill the holes and fill in the dowels while the blank was still square, before even boring the tube hole.
 
jrista said:
I saw the 30 pieces of silver pen. AMAZING PEN. I don't seem to have indexing worked out yet. This is a real, real WEAK area of Laguna lathes. You have to screw their indexing pin in and out...which makes it basically an unusable feature, it is so mind-numbingly tedious. I'd say, outside of the poor tailstock design, its the thing I hate most about the Laguna lathe... I've seen third party indexing wheels, which I'll probably have to get in order to do any kind of indexing in a convenient manner.

Even with an indexing wheel, though...I'm not real sure how to go about drilling sideways into a rounded pen blank in a consistent manner. I suspect I would need to build some kind of jig to hold the drill, or maybe my Dremel, so I could just kind of move it strait in and out at the exact same midline level on the blank...

For the basic dowel stuff here, though, I would just drill the holes and fill in the dowels while the blank was still square, before even boring the tube hole.
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Will say this about using dowels in that manner. I think you would be better served in getting plug cutters and drill out plugs in face grain woods for a better look. Using end grain for dots is actually dull looking. Might as well as use plastic dowels of varied colors. Just an opinion.
 
jttheclockman said:
Will say this about using dowels in that manner. I think you would be better served in getting plug cutters and drill out plugs in face grain woods for a better look. Using end grain for dots is actually dull looking. Might as well as use plastic dowels of varied colors. Just an opinion.
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That, actually, is a really intriguing idea... I have wondered about the difference in the end-grains of the dowel, vs. the face grain of the blank... Looks like Harbor Freight has a 4-piece plug cutter set for under $4, too. Easy way to get the idea going and give it a try!
 
jrista said:
That, actually, is a really intriguing idea... I have wondered about the difference in the end-grains of the dowel, vs. the face grain of the blank... Looks like Harbor Freight has a 4-piece plug cutter set for under $4, too. Easy way to get the idea going and give it a try!
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Huge difference. Yes experiment and see for yourself. Seems cheap enough.
 
jttheclockman said:
Huge difference. Yes experiment and see for yourself. Seems cheap enough.
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Much cheaper than dowel making tools I've found. Looks like there are some dowel making lathe tools out there, that basically operate like a pencil sharpener. But, they are far from cheap, and they only seem to make dowels in a couple specific sizes, probably larger than I need. The plug cutter, on the other hand, given it will give me face-grain plugs, sounds perfect.
 
jrista said:
Much cheaper than dowel making tools I've found. Looks like there are some dowel making lathe tools out there, that basically operate like a pencil sharpener. But, they are far from cheap, and they only seem to make dowels in a couple specific sizes, probably larger than I need. The plug cutter, on the other hand, given it will give me face-grain plugs, sounds perfect.
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Dowels and plugs are similar, but quite different.

In dowels, the fibers in the wood are lengthwise. As a result, if you plug a hole with a dowel, you will see end grain. While dowels can be used for decoration, which is what Jon is trying to do, a more important use for dowels is to align and strengthen joints. When inserted into a joint, the long grain fibers in the wood are in tension, and therefore resist joint separation. Dowels can be any diameter, and any length.

Conversely, plugs are made from face grain - that is, the fibers in the wood are parallel to the face (ends) of the plug, Plugs are great for decoration, or for hiding screws or other metal fasteners, but the have no tensile strength and cannot be used to reinforce joints. Also, the joint between a plug and its surrounding hole is mainly an end-grain joint which means that its not as strong as a the joint between a dowel and its surrounding hole which is mainly long grain. Plugs can be any diameter, but the length is usually limited since their main function is as surface decoration.

When restoring old furniiture, a common problem is repairing female screw threads that have worn away. While drilling out the hole and inserting a dowel is an option, using a plug rather than a dowel means that the replacement threads will be stronger.

While there are bespoke tools for making dowels, and likewise for making plugs, it is possible to quickly make either dowels or plugs on a lathe. In theoretically, dowels are limited by the bed length of the lathe, but a more practical concern is that they are turned as spindles and the skill of the turner in maintaining a constant spindle diameter is a major factor. Likewise, the maximum possible diameter of a plug is limited by the throw of the lathe, but in practice is rarely more than an inch or two., and more often much smaller.
 
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