Quite by accident I discovered that my redwood burl veneer is breathtaking
when lit from behind, so I'd like to make a lamp using that veneer as a
lampshade. Has anyone here made veneer lampshades before? I've seen a few
places online selling them. Got any tips?
What kind of finish would you suggest using? I've been using the Formby's
"Tung Oil" (taken with a grain of salt of course) lately, how would that
work? Would it block any more of the light?
How much do I have to worry about flamability? As long as there are plenty
of inches between the bulb and the veneer this shouldn't be a problem,
right?
The devil...uh...Martha Stewart had a tip online about making simple veneer
lampshades and mentioned that the heat from the bulb will dry out the
veneer over time. But her directions didn't include a finish at all. Will
this make any difference?
If there are any other tips/suggestions/warnings please advise!
I anyone has some redwood burl veneer (mine is 1/40" thin) hold it up to a
bright light right now! It's quite a treat.
david
--
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
-- Thomas Jefferson
>>There was an article (FWW ?) on turned lampshades a while back. Some
>>guy was taking huge logs and turning them right down to veneer
>>thickenesses.
>
> i saw that guy doing his thing on DIY's "i did it myself" thing
> between shows...awsome lookin, but i wonder about splitting and the
> like myself.
>
> Traves
I found the page on him at DIY though and they *are* pretty...
but it seems kind of wasteful to me. Says he was using New England Aspen.
Although I think I'm going for something different than he is. I like the
redwood burl not for the light transmission, but I think of it as kind of
like a tiffany-lamp style shade. You're not going to light a room with it
very well, but the color is simply tremendous! But turning a block of
redwood burl into veneer-thin wood? not likely...
david
--
I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have
of it.
-- Thomas Jefferson
> but it seems kind of wasteful to me. Says he was using New England
Aspen.
> Although I think I'm going for something different than he is. I like
the
> redwood burl not for the light transmission, but I think of it as kind
of
> like a tiffany-lamp style shade. You're not going to light a room with
it
> very well, but the color is simply tremendous! But turning a block of
> redwood burl into veneer-thin wood? not likely...
You could always use a thin parting tool, and turn out *multiple*
venner-thin shades, kind of like the fellows that get multiple, stackable
bowls from the same block.
steve
On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 02:02:33 +0100, Andy Dingley
<[email protected]>Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:
>On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:01:44 -0500, D K Woods
><[email protected]> wrote:
snip
>
>There was an article (FWW ?) on turned lampshades a while back. Some
>guy was taking huge logs and turning them right down to veneer
>thickenesses.
i saw that guy doing his thing on DIY's "i did it myself" thing
between shows...awsome lookin, but i wonder about splitting and the
like myself.
Traves
On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:01:44 -0500, D K Woods
<[email protected]> wrote:
>What kind of finish would you suggest using? I've been using the Formby's
>"Tung Oil" (taken with a grain of salt of course) lately, how would that
>work? Would it block any more of the light?
Oil improves light transmission, but suffers from problems with age
yellowing. Try mineral oil, but I'd probably use beeswax instead.
>How much do I have to worry about flamability? As long as there are plenty
>of inches between the bulb and the veneer this shouldn't be a problem,
>right?
Flammability isn't a problem, but prolonged heating will discolour it.
Make a prototype, check you have enough ventilation, and measure the
surface temperature.
There was an article (FWW ?) on turned lampshades a while back. Some
guy was taking huge logs and turning them right down to veneer
thickenesses.