Indian Blanket Pattern Vase

A guide on how to make a beautiful patterned wooden vessel. I completed this project at the end of my first month of woodworking over the course of 4 days. It is still one of the most beautiful turned items I have made and has inspired me to do other vases with patterns.

I am currently 19 and attending school at the University of Maryland for mechanical engineering :)

Woods used:

Paduak - Orange wood used for the main rings of the vessel. Imported African hardwood. Good choice here due to its similar density to maple and walnut. Does stain maple very easily if care is not taken to prevent this.

Maple - White wood used in feature ring. Creates good contrast against padauk and walnut.

Walnut - Brown wood used in feature ring. Creates good contrast against maple and padauk.

Pine - I wanted something that was a slightly different color from maple and ended up using pine. This is not a great choice due to the density change but worked out because the rings it was used on are very thin.

Tools:

Table saw/miter saw - Cut segments to make rings along with angles on feature ring.

Lathe + turning tools - Turning final bowl.

Wide belt sander/drum sander - Flattening rings. Can be done by hand if desired, but is not easy to do.

Japanese saw - Removing tenon from bottom of bowl.

Hose clamps - Clamp segments into completed rings.

Misc. items - Clamps, glue, sandpaper, etc.

Before we can make any segments we need to do a bit of math. For this project here are all the values for the lengths and angles of the segments. If you are interested in seeing how the math works or want to change the size or the number segments here are all the equations.

A circle contains 360°

Circumference = Diameter x π(3.14) = 2 x π(3.14) x Radius

Diameter = Circumference ⁄ π(3.14)

Segment length = Circumference ⁄Number of segments

Segment Angle = 360 ⁄ (2 x the Number of segments)

Number of required segments = Circumference ⁄ Segment length

(Number of segments x Segment length) ⁄ π(3.14) = Diameter

There are two primary ways to cut segments: the miter saw or the table saw. I have personally never cut segments on the miter saw but I have cut several thousand on the table saw so I can address that.

To cut segments on the table saw you need to make a jig. One day I will write an Instructable about how to make one but for now the CAD for mine can be found here. Fairly simple build process if you are careful. Below are a few tricks to using a jig like this:

1. Switch which arm you are cutting the pieces on every cut. This will remove any error of the arms not being the same angle from the center or the runner on the bottom being not perfectly parallel to the blade.
2. I recently bought on of these and it is working perfectly. Amazingly the tolerance appears to be close enough to have rings which close perfectly every time.
3. Glue sandpaper on the outside where the wood you are cutting interacts with the jig. This will prevent the wood from moving as you cut it. My segments are consistently cut within about 5/1000 of an inch compared to each other.
4. If a segment is less than the height of a hose clamp make it thicker wide belt sand it more to get it to thickness. It is very difficult to clamp a thin ring. They tend to warp if given adequate clamping pressure.
5. Make segments wider than you think. When they are not wide enough you end up with a lamp shade instead of a bowl.

There are three primary ways to clamp your segments:

1. Hose clamps: This is what I use most of the time. I have hose clamps that can be made into any size and a bit so I can tighten and loosen them fast using a drill. The only problem is they are easy to overtighten and some hose clamps have a tail which hang on the inside that can effect the gluing of your segments.
2. Rubber bands: These are good if you are gluing a lot of rings that are the same size. The problem is you need lots of different sizes of rubber bands
3. Band clamps: Works really well for large rings.

Before adding any glue clamp all of your segments together using your preferred method. Hold up to a light. If you can see light coming through there is a gap. On the disk sander adjust the angle. If it is a minor adjustment change on segments. If it is a major adjustment you should probably make the ring again but if not adjust more than tone ring. If you adjust one segment to much you will end up with an oval. Most of my rings come out perfect every time so keep honing your jig until you get to the same point. Don't overtighten rings especially if they are thin to attempt to close gaps. You will end up warping the ring and ruining it. Make sure the outer corner of each trapezoid lines up. Remember that this is an end-grain to end-grain glue up so additional glue should be used.

There are three main options for flattening your rings once they are glued together

1. Wide belt sander: This is my preferred method and it works really well. A ton of material can be taken off at once and a ring of any size can be inserted. If the ring is to short it can be pushed through using a stick. Makes both sides parallel enough for this use case. If you every make really big rings you can hang the edge on the outside of the sander and it will works alright.
2. Drum sander: Similar to the wide belt sander but a bit worse. It works ok and has much of the same advantages but does not do nearly as good of a job as keeping it flat.
3. Sand paper on the lathe: Basically a giant piece of sandpaper spinning on the lathe. Flatten one side then once it is glued on turn the bowl and flatten the top gluing the next ring onto it. This is the most cost effective method but it can be hard to get the thickness of the ring correct.

Once your rings are flat they need to be glued together. Place glue on the top of the largest ring and place the following ring on top. Using a ruler center and align the ring to the one underneath. Add at least 3 drops of superglue in different spots and use accelerator. Repeat for as many rings as you can do in 10 minutes. I have a few 10 inch deep clamps that work really well for large bowls but for something like this you could probably use something you have on hand. Clamp lightly and wait for the glue to set a bit. If you tighten all the way the rings might move. After the glue has set tighten the clamp the rest of the way. I have had a fantastic amount of success making some surprisingly concentric blanks using this strategy.

For this vessel I clamped the bottom together with the feature ring connected. I then glued the top together. Both side had a tenon connected. As we will see later in the guide I clamped the top on after turning the inside.

Below is the cut list for a feature ring with 10 of the pattern. Keep in mind that one full pattern requires two groups of the trapezoidal pattern. We will see why later. I would also make many extra pieces. This will allow you to compensate for mess-ups and give you the ability to pick and choose which segments get used.

1. 20 large walnut pieces (1.3 inches corner to corner)
2. 20 large maple pieces (1.3 inches corner to corner).
3. 40 small walnut pieces (1/4 inches wide)
4. 40 small maple pieces (1/4 inches wide)

All segments should be as thick as possible but they should all be the same. If buying 4/4 boards I would plane everything to be about 0.9 inches. Cut the 1.3 inch wide segments along with 1/4 wide strips. Ensure neither board is tapering with a pair of calipers. I used my table saw jig to cut all the segments. The angle on all segments is 45 degrees. For the 1.3 inch long pieces I used the jig normally and simply flipped the board between cutting. For the 1/4 inch wide pieces I angled the blade to get a 45 degree angle on the end. Lightly sand all sides to ensure there are no burs which will create imperfect glue joints.

To glue the feature ring you need to make a simple jig. The jig, pictured above, is a think piece of MDF with the thicker piece glued on top on the edge. The width left between the edge of the piece glued on the thinner piece needs to be at least 1.3 inches. The length should be as long as possible. The longer this piece is the more sections of segments you can glue at once.

Look at the picture above for the pattern in the clamps. Lay one group of pieces into the jig. Push everything together except the one walnut piece in the middle of the section. Leave this piece a tiny bit pushed out from the back. Clamp down both maple pieces. Add glue to everything and start inserting the pieces. Once everything is together clamp the walnut piece so that the wedge pushes into the other pieces. This will create a tight glue joint. Repeat this process until you make all of your segments.

At this point you should have a fun pattern but it is not the correct pattern. We are now doing to cut what you have into 1/8 wide strips. Then once all the pieces are flipped over it will create the pattern. The kerf of the blade is what creates the pattern. For the pattern to work it is critical the pieces are all the same width and there is no taper when cutting.

I started by making the jig pictured above out of MDF. The length simply needs to be a bit longer than the length of your longest chain of patterns. You can also cut the patterns into more pieces if one is significantly larger. Place the pattern on the jig. While holding the jig tightly against the fence push the entire jig through the table saw. Repeat this process until all of the pieces are cut. Keep everything together as sets from where they will cut from to ensure they will match up during the glue up process.

The next step is to glue your 1/8 wide strips back together to make the pattern. After checking to ensure all the pieces are flipped the correct direction and each one is in the correct spot apply glue in the joints. A good pace to clamp this is in the same jig used to clamp the pieces originally. This will ensure one flat side which will be helpful later.

Once the glue is dry remove the strips and run them through the wide belt sander to flatten them. I then cut all of my segments into individual pieces using the miter saw. I then began matching up all the the segments. Since each piece is currently half a segment it needs to be matched to another. Most of the pieces were very similar but I spent the time to match up the pieces so they would be perfect. I simply super glued the two pieces together. Next I marked the distance and cut the angles onto all the segments. Each feature segment should be cut at 18 degrees and be 3.76 inches long. Using two hose clamps I glued my segments together with 1/4 walnut pieces in between each segment. I then using a large piece of sandpaper flattened the bottom of the pattern ring and glued it on to the bottom of the vessel.

I started by mounting the top of the vessel and turning the inside. I then took off the top and began turning the bottom of the vessel without the top glued on. I did this so I would be able to turn the inside. After turning and sanding the inside I glued on the top. I used the additional tenon connected to the top so I would be able to use a live center. I then turned the entire vessel. A few tips for turning segmented bowls:

1. Woods of different densities turn differently. When transferring between layers note how different it cuts.
2. When turning away the "steps" of the rings start with a carbide tool before using metal. This helps prevent catching and tear out. Don't turn the entire vessel using carbide.

Once the entire vessel was turned I removed the live center and turned off the upper tenon and hole. The vessel was now complete other than sanding. Sanding something like this is really difficult because it has padauk, a incredibly oily wood, and maple which stains very easily. I sanded the feature ring and the padauk sections with completely separate piece of sandpaper to prevent staining. Then using a Japanese saw and chisels I removed removed the bottom tenon and finished the entire vessel with Odies oil.

That is it! The vessel it complete. Happy turning!