# Texturing wood with ukibori



## barry richardson (Sep 26, 2015)

My example is applied to a turning, but you can use it to embellish boxes and such too, and it is actually easier on flat stock. I have played around with the technique for a few years, so first I will share a few things I have learned. Softer wood with a finer grain works best, good choices are soft maple, poplar, cherry, aspen, alder, cottonwood, magnolia, etc.. I use ash on this one, which works fine, but is a bit too coarse grained to be ideal IMO. If you use the technique on flat stock, I believe air dried wood is best, kiln drying takes some of the resilience from the wood. But if that is all you have, it will work. On applying the technique to a turning, it works best on long grain faces, where the fibers run vertically, it doesn't work very well on end grain areas that you have from using a cross-section blank, if ya get my drift.... My example is hollowed through the pith, which gives you a uniform grain orientation all the way around, which makes the bumps more consistent IMO. So in my example, I started with a vase that was dry and finish turned. While it was still on the lathe I scribes lines with the point of a skew to mark my pattern area. Then removed it from the lathe and started dimpling. I take a 3/16 bolt, thread a nut on it, and grind the end round, then bring the nut back down to where a little less than 1/8" is protruding from the bolt, then give the bolt a couple of good whacks on the side with a hammer on an anvil surface to lock it in place. The nut acts as a depth stop for an even pattern.



I set the piece in a cradle I rigged and start hammering. this wood took about 2 whacks to make the each dimple.



The towel is to dampen and cushion the piece a bit.
Note, don't try this on a thin walled turning, 3/8" thick is about right.



here it is dimpled up, (lousy pic) . Carefully remove the wood to very near the bottom of the dimples with a skew or what ever works for you. do the final removal by sanding cause it is very easy to remove too much wood, and if you do, you ruin the effect. For flat work, a jointer works great for removing the bulk of the excess.


 The surface should look similar to this when you take it down to the bottom of the dimples, little bruised ghost spots where the dimples were, but smooth to the touch.
Next is the fun part, bring some water to boil in a wide pan, I use a frying pan, and holding each end of the piece, slowly spin the dimpled area through the boiling water, and I keep doing it till the bumps reach maximum loft, usually 2 or 3 rotations, it happens fast.



And this is what you end up with. Obviously you can't do any heavy sanding in the texture are, but you can gently sand with a sanding sponge. After this, I remounted it on the lathe and applied the beads and refined the shape a little. As you can see, the wood was kinda boring, so I played with some stains and paint...
Here is another example, one of my first attempts, the wood is aspen...

Reactions: Like 3 | Thank You! 1 | EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 18 | Informative 2


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## ClintW (Sep 26, 2015)

That is too cool!

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## woodtickgreg (Sep 27, 2015)

You are a master!

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 2


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## Tclem (Sep 27, 2015)

I get confused when you post stuff. Just turn a pen man

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 5


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## ironman123 (Sep 27, 2015)

That looks good Barry. Thanks for showing and telling about your procedure.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## ripjack13 (Sep 27, 2015)

Dude...seriously....just amazing. I gotta try this.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## gman2431 (Sep 27, 2015)

Yup.... Another one to add to the list of things to try! 

Sweet tutorial man!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## jmurray (Sep 27, 2015)

Super cool! Seeing it work doesn't mean I understand why it works.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 2


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## Kevin (Sep 27, 2015)

Thanks Barry - well done.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## DKMD (Sep 27, 2015)

Very cool! I want to give this a try.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## woodintyuuu (Sep 27, 2015)

@barry richardson nice job . Some food for thought as you continue the journey of this technique. Harbor Freight Needle Scaler , The entire surface in the undulating pattern - just kickin ya in the shorts so to speak. GO GO GO Man!!!

Reactions: Creative 1


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## Jerry B (Sep 27, 2015)

that is a very cool process/technique Barry, many Thanks for sharing 
I am presuming that if you use some sort of pattern for the dimples, that they'll get raised the same as the general dimples?
opens the door to a wide range of different embellishments, and definitely has my melon doing some extra thinking

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## barry richardson (Sep 27, 2015)

woodintyuuu said:


> @barry richardson nice job . Some food for thought as you continue the journey of this technique. Harbor Freight Needle Scaler , The entire surface in the undulating pattern - just kickin ya in the shorts so to speak. GO GO GO Man!!!


I really appreciate the tip and encouragement Cliff. I was thinking as I made this one, that I wished there was a way to automate the dimpling, one dimple at a time is slow going. I'm thinking a needle gun could create a lot of different effects. Thank you!


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## GeorgeS (Sep 28, 2015)

Very very cool! There are some seriously smart MFr's out there! I would never have thought of that but understood exactly what was happening when I read it. Seriously cool!!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## NYWoodturner (Sep 30, 2015)

Well done Barry - I wondered how you did that!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Graybeard (Oct 1, 2015)

Excellent tutorial and an amazing piece. Of course I'm not even wondering about the top at all.
Darn, that gets the old gray matter spinning.


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## Strider (Oct 10, 2015)

Oh, this is gold!


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