# Wooden Leafs



## BrentWin (Dec 2, 2013)

For those of you that don't know me, I'm a wood turner and call maker. If it's not spinning, I don't know what to do with it.

That being said, my sister has found a wall hanging that she wants me to make for her. It is basically 8-10" wooden plate with a cluster of oak leafs and a couple of acorns.

The plate I can do, the acorns I can do and I can even cut the leafs out with a bandsaw. The problem comes in when she said that the leafs were wavy, just like a real leaf that has fallen. My question to you guys is, how to make the leafs wavy.

I thinking about cutting them out of 1/8 thin stock, soaking them in water and letting nature take it's course as it dries. Any other ideas or suggestions? Type of wood?

Thanks
Brent

Reactions: Like 1


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## rdnkmedic (Dec 2, 2013)

Carve them from basswood or similar. Or better yet find a carver here and trade it out.


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## RBcarving (Dec 2, 2013)

If you can send me a pic, I will see if its something I can do on our 3D CNC.
Brad


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## DKMD (Dec 2, 2013)

You can give the leaves some shape with a Dremel and do some veining with a small v carving chisel or pyro pen. You could cut them from veneer and steam (or soak) them then wrap them around something like a piece of PVC until they dried. You could also cut them out of very thin green stock and microwave them... Madrone(not boiled) would be an interesting choice for the latter route.


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## ButchC (Dec 2, 2013)

I have an article on how to do just that. Lemme see if I can find it.


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## ButchC (Dec 2, 2013)

OK, I found it. Do you have access to old "WOOD Magazine" issues? If not, I found the online version here:

https://ia801600.us.archive.org/12/items/WoodMagazine111/Wood 111 1999.pdf

It's issue 111 from winter 1998; pp 50-53 (pages 52-55 in the pdf file)
There's an article on how to carve the leaves, and also a pattern for cutting out the leaf pattern. I have the hardcopy, so if you need the pattern, lemme know - I could probably mail the pattern to you.

EDIT-looks like the pattern is page 110 of that pdf file.

Butch


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## BrentWin (Dec 2, 2013)

I appreciate everybody's suggestions, but given my limited skill set, I think that I am going to give David's veneer idea a try.

Thanks to all for your help.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ripjack13 (May 5, 2015)

I know this older than dirt...but did you ever veneer this project or carve it?
@BrentWin


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