A few years ago, I saw an ad for some wood finishing product (maybe
Formby's). The ad showed a photo of a stair post made of some really
rich, detailed wood, carved with one of those abstract fluer-de-lis shapes.

But the wood's surface had also been carved/punched/shaped into a mosaic
of little wood pebbling. Tiny beads, maybe 1/16" to 1/8" in diameter.
(Obviously, this was a fine-grain wood.) The distribution was pleasantly
random, and it had a nice, almost leathery look to it. It was a really
nice piece of woodworking.

I'd love to be able to use this pattern on a project or two, but I'm not
sure how it could be accomplished. It appears that the texture was
punched in, bead by bead. But it occurred to me that a fine-tip beading
bit and something like the Compucarver could, conceivably, be ginned to
turn this sort of pattern out. And then there's the possibility that
this surface could be ordered from a professional mill.

Assuming I'm doing a decent job of describing this surface texture, can
someone offer some insight into doing it? If it's done with a punch,
what punch'd be recommended? Are there mills that make this stuff? Etc.,
etc., etc.?

The most common tool I see that is popular in woodturning is the
pneumatic needle scaler. A small one will do fine, and the pebble
finish is acheived by rounding the heads of the needles. I see lots of
this on vases, pots, bowls, etc.

Go to WoodCentral. They were just discussing this on the woodturning
forum.

Robert

wrote:
The most common tool I see that is popular in woodturning is the
pneumatic needle scaler. A small one will do fine, and the pebble
finish is acheived by rounding the heads of the needles. I see lots of
this on vases, pots, bowls, etc.

Go to WoodCentral. They were just discussing this on the woodturning
forum.

Robert

On turnings try something like this
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,330,49233
for carvings
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,130,43332
Joe

Joe Gorman wrote:
wrote:

The most common tool I see that is popular in woodturning is the
pneumatic needle scaler. A small one will do fine, and the pebble
finish is acheived by rounding the heads of the needles. I see lots of
this on vases, pots, bowls, etc.

Go to WoodCentral. They were just discussing this on the woodturning
forum.

Robert

On turnings try something like this
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,330,49233
for carvings
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,130,43332
Jo
The second one is closet to what I was thinking of, tho the work I saw
had rounded pebbling and an apparently nonrepeating pattern.

I get the feeling that I ought to post a pictrue of this somewhere.

Brian Siano wrote:


The second one is closet to what I was thinking of, tho the work I saw
had rounded pebbling and an apparently nonrepeating pattern.

I get the feeling that I ought to post a pictrue of this somewhere.

Try searching for leather working stamping tools.

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA