Scalloped bamboo ring

(Originally posted on October 27, 2009)


My wife is an interior design consultant, and she routinely updates her library of material samples. That gives me access to a stream of small chunks of interesting stuff.

In this case, I was given a box of bamboo plywood samples. Some are cross-laminated, and others have plies aligned for appearance. The piece I picked up first was of the latter sort.

Without the cross-laminations, the gluelines would probably be too weak for a bangle, and the sample was too small for that anyway. So a ring or earrings it was, and I’m on a roll with rings.

I started by marking out a 5/8 inch diameter hole in the sample and drilling it with a hole saw. I then cut the workpiece out square and contemplated it. Too chunky -- wearing it would spread your fingers and be uncomfortable.

I mounted a 1.5 inch sanding drum to the drill press and hand-shaped the scallops and rounded over the outside corners. The shape looked better with curves and more interest, and my wife pronounced it wearable. Some tearout and face damage remained from the machining, so I sanded the faces flat and the finger hole round and smooth, rubbed in a couple of coats of walnut oil, and called it done.

The exciting tiger figure on the face was a result of the scalloping process revealing portions of different layers of plant cells. I didn’t plan it, but I sure am pleased with it.