Author: jhoyla
Date: 2008-04-24 07:08
Tying at 75 mm .. Are you using a particularly wide shape? I mostly tie at 73, and at 75 there's no way I would get a seal. Wider shapes crack more easily. Either that, or you are using staples with extremely narrow tips - which would DEFINITELY be a factor!
Also, you thin 4-5 mm from the ends. This means that you have almost no bark under the thread! Another contributing factor? I know many makers who do not thin the ends at all, and consider it a purely aesthetic thing so that there are no ugly edges of cane showing through their wraps.
When you thin the ends, do you use a piece of dowel? If you are thinning on a base with a circumference that is too "flat", you may be forcing the cane to flatten, which is a classic way to cause the cane to split. The equivalent of squeezing down a reed before doing any scraping.
When thinning the ends, leave a core of bark up the center, until about 1.5 mm from the extreme end where you taper off. Try thinning only 2-3 mm instead of 4-5 mm.
Keep the cane in your mouth around your tongue while you tie the thread to the anchor and wax the thread. Adds heat and moisture to the cane and really helps prevent cracking!
When tying on, wrap three times at low tension and then roll the mandrel towards the anchor, to mold and shape the narrow end of the cane. Then roll back toward the end of the staple, increasing tension as you go.
J.
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