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Woodworks by.John
Carved Fans: Frame for a Dancer
Inspiration and trial piece
Lay out and starting technique
Those of you who follow my work know that I’m often inspired to create a frame when I go into Diane’s studio and see a work in progress. Well, recently I saw a dancer that she was painting and immediately thought Flamenco and visualized the fans I’ve seen Flamenco dancers use. Next thing you know I’m searching the net for pictures!! Once I found a picture of the fan to use the next hurdle was figuring out how to make a pattern and transfer that to each corner of the frame. Adding to the challenge is that the frame has a 15° slant to it so using a compass wasn’t an option. The frames size allowed for a circle with a 2″ radius so the first step was to use the Pages program and print off a couple of circles of that size, that’s the gray piece in the right photo. I’m a big fan of using plastic from lettuce containers to make my templates. The paper is attached to it with spray adhesive then cut to shape. For the circular piece in the center I used a 7/14mm gouge to not only cut the template but also the wood. The outside was carefully cut out with scissors and the location of the frame miter was marked on it as well.
Line the template up with the sight edge and the miter to draw the circle (3/4 of one actually). you need a way to divide the circumference into an even number of parts. The only way I know to do this is to use dividers , if you’re not familiar with these they’re the black tool in the right picture. Set up the dividers on paper, not your wood — you’ll be doing a lot of trial and error work to do this so paper is easier to erase! As a furniture maker I use them a lot to divide a given space into equal sized parts and layout dovetails. To use them you “guesstimate” a size you think would work, adjust the dividers to that size and then “step it off” from end to the other end. The goal is for the last step off to end exactly at the end of the piece. Until it does you’ll need to make very small adjustments spreading the legs more or less until you get equal sized fan blades. Keep the dividers at that setting, you’ll need them for each corner. Note: I’ve tried to explain this the best I could but it is confusing, here is a LINK for a short article I found on the net.
Here are the tools used. After using the template to draw the outer circle and the inner circle on the wood I first used a 7/14mm gouge to outline the inner circle. Start at the sight edge and use the dividers to divide the space, I’d suggest using a pencil rather than the point of the divider as it could show in the carving. Now, use a flexible straight edge lined up with the corner of the miter to draw a line to the marks you made using the divider. See the picture, top right. This line is the high point of the fan blade.
Use dividers to find center of fan blade
Draw arrows to show direction of slope
Once your corner looks like the left hand picture it’s time to divide the fans — I strongly suggest only doing two blades at a time to save confusion. Measure and make a mark at the center on one blade. Use the dividers to mark the centers of all of them, you may need to eyeball and adjust if it doesn’t look quite right to your eye. The right hand picture shows the arrows drawn to remind me which way the slope goes. Here’s the order that worked for me and the tools I used for this project:
- Use 1F/8mm skew to cut angled line from outside to middle line at the bottom of 2 blades, draw your arrows to indicate slope direction
- Use 3F/6 to cut to desired depth at end of the blade. I also used a 2/10mm and 2/14mm to blend the carving into the rest of the frame
- I used what I call my golf ball skew, it’s an old Marples skew fitted with a golf ball which lets me make curved or straight free hand cuts. Make a straight cut down the middle line from the inner circle to the end of the fan blade
- The goal is to have a tapered cut that slopes to the middle line and down to the end. For me, the best tool was a 3/4″ very sharp bench chisel. Take very light cuts and work from both sides trying to stop your cut before hitting the other side. Definitely practice these, you can’t put the wood back!
- You will probably need to deepen the cut at the end of the fan blade to maintain a sharp edge.
- The grain direction changes on every cut due to the miter and to add to the challenge my profile has a 15° angle too.
I needed a lot of practice before I got what I considered acceptable results. The profile is about 3″ wide and what I call my 15° profile. I plowed a 1/4″ bead on the sight edge for a detail and also to create a definite stopping point for the fan. The tool I started with at first was a 1/16mm double bevel skew since that’s a “carving chisel”. Wasn’t happy with how it worked, difficult to create that smooth slope I was after. Then tried a 3/4″ cabinet chisel and it gave a much smoother cut. Also easier to hold and control than the fishtail skew.
Here’s one corner of the 18″ x 24″frame freshly finished with RMP finishes milk paint in Arabian Night Black. I’ve used their product on quite a few frames and like its appearance. You can mix up a small amount so there’s very little waste. To apply it they sell quality foam brushes which leave a nice finish. I usually apply 2 coats and then smooth them out with a 2500 grit nylon pad. To seal the milk paint my preference is OSMO 3043, satin. A thin coat is applied with a chip brush and then wiped dry with blue shop towels. Don’t rub it down too hard, some of the milk paint will come off and you’ll see it on the towel! After 24 hours or so, apply another light coat and since the first coat sealed the milk paint there won’t be any transfer. I’ll post a picture of the completed frame and painting on my Instagram once they’re both dry and assembled.
Cutting Coves on Table Saw
What you need
My cove cutting jig
Cutting coves seems like a job more suited to a shaper or perhaps a very large router. However; did you know your table saw is a great tool for this purpose? When building a piece of furniture you won’t find moldings to match the wood species you’re using so need to make your own. I use the same technique to create larger coved picture frame moldings — let me share it with you. As it happens all too often, an internet search will yield many methods, many of which contradict each other. My method simplifies the process, making it much easier to create coves whether it’s for a picture frame or molding for furniture.
All my jig requires is a straight, sturdy piece of material. Mine is Basswood 1″ thick x 2″ wide and 52″ long — cut-offs from frame making material. About 9″ from one end I centered a hole for a 1/4″ bolt. This is to attach a 3″x 6″ piece of wood; install a threaded insert for that. The purpose of the 3×6 piece is to let the cove cutting jig lay flat on the table; size yours to your saw, mine was a little over an inch thick. To keep it from slipping around while you clamp it down use double stick tape and apply a piece of sandpaper to it. This is the key part to simplify setting the angle for your cove. You will also need a block for the outfeed end of the jig to bridge the distance between the table top and the back rail.
Step 1:
Mark tooth where blade enters and exits
Setting angle with parallelogram
Your first step is to determine how deep your cove will be and set your blade at that height. I use a Tenryu Gold Medal 40 tooth combo blade. I’ve experimented using 8″ dado blades as well but the Tenryu works fine. For reference, these pictures are from the infeed side of the saw. Make a mark where the tooth of the blade enters and exits (I put down a piece of tape). After lowering the blade use a shop made parallelogram set for the width of your cove. Angle the parallelogram until it aligns with the marks you made on the throat plate. Draw a line on the inside as shown by the arrow. Note: a parallelogram is relatively simple to make. Make it from straight material, mine is 3/4″ square material and the pieces are 16″ and 6″ long. Set the measurement between the two long pieces and tighten the screws.
Step 2:
Adjust fence to angle and tighten down
Add the width of shoulder and move fence as required
What really simplifies this process is to using the jig I described above. Most methods have you try to place a clamp at either end of this long piece while keeping it aligned with the line you drew — no way; you’ll need another pair of hands. Align the fence to the line you drew on the inside of the parallelogram and tighten securely while putting pressure against the block to keep it tight against the table — this is where that piece of sandpaper comes in handy! My cove has a 3/8″ shoulder on one side so the fence needs to be shifted away from the blade. If you have set up blocks use them to draw that line then slide the fence to it and securely clamp it in place. You can also just make a mark.
Step 3:
Now it’s time to start the cutting. I always recommend having a short piece of stock to make trial cuts. Mark one edge of each board and make sure that all pieces are run in the same orientation each time. I put a couple of X’s on the edge facing me. For safety use a push stick and it also doesn’t hurt to have a feather board. This process creates a lot of dust so wear a dust mask. It’s safest to make very shallow cuts, 1/16″ or so. It’ll depend too on the species of wood you’re using, I’m using Basswood which is fairly easy to machine. Concentrate on having pressure above the blade to keep the board flat on the table. When you’re almost to depth take a light cut and use a slow feed to get your cove as smooth as possible.
Step: 4:
The final step is to sand your freshly cut cove! Which abrasive you need will depend on the smoothness of your cut and type of wood. For hardwoods a curved scraper might be your best choice but with the Basswood 150 and 220 grit sandpaper was all I needed. As a retired shop teacher I’ve found that old school, chalkboard erasers work the best, these are the last 2 that I have. I’d always ask other teachers for them and an untold number of students used them to sand lathe projects. You can also use round pieces of foam — whatever works!
Creating detail at sight edge
Final profile
The final steps to create this profile was to first use a Veritas skew rabbet plane to add a detail to the sight edge. This was followed by cutting the rabbet for the canvas to eventually fit into.
This is the method I use all of the time and certainly not the only way to go about it. For me, it’s relatively easy and quick for creating the occasional coves I need in my work. To do production runs of this process you may want to consider a more complex set-up. Appreciate any comments if you use this and it works out for you too.
Wood or Plastic: What’s your Choice?
I’m sure I’m not the only woodworker who enjoys creating something that’s relatively simple and challenging that will serve a purpose. I love the challenge of making furniture and picture frames but this had some techniques not usually used and would be useful — enter the bathroom drawer tray! I have some leftover Beech which was resawn from furniture projects that required 8/4 material, the pieces were approximately 3/8″ and 3/16″ thick.
The first step was making the tray, it measures about 1 1/2″ x 7″ x 12″ and is 3/8″ thick. Hand cut, dovetailed construction and the bottom was rabbeted for a 1/4″ plywood bottom which was glued into place. No pictures on that but same process I always use. To house the lapped dividers the first step is making mitered pieces that fit snugly; these will eventually be slotted for the dividers. Begin by cutting them on the miter saw but slightly over-sized. They are fine tuned for a snug fit with my Donkey Ear miter jig. If you’ve never seen or used one of these I really like it. Unlike a typical miter shooting board this allows you to hold the piece on either edge so that should there be any tearout you can plan for it to be on the bottom. Some time ago I posted a blog about it — here’s a link to that post.
After those mitered pieces fit snugly on the inside of the tray it’s time to cut the slots and ends so the dividers slot together. To figure out how to space them I made a full size drawing and laid the items out on the drawing and took the measurements from that. This picture shows the tools I used. First off was a Japanese Dozuki saw that has an adjustable depth. I used that during my Kumiko building phase — much cleaner. accurate, and quieter than a tablesaw! The depth gauge was set to the thickness of the wood which is slightly less than 3/16″. The 1/8″ chisel was used to remove the waste. A line was first drawn to locate the divider. Next, a scrap of the divider material was lined up to the line with a small square so the other side could be penciled in. Those lines were cut to the depth set on the Dozuki saw and the waste was chiseled out, any needed fine tuning was done with chisels.
Holding and cutting these thin and small pieces isn’t easy. I took a scrap piece of wood and cut in a notch. The notch is slightly deeper than the needed depth and is wide enough so the the depth stop has room. It was clamped between bench dogs and the pieces are held firmly while sawing. As you can see, adjoining divider members are taped together to be as accurate as possible. After all the pieces were cut and dry fit they were lightly sanded and given a coat of Osmo #3043.
There’s a number of parts and they need to be assembled in a specific order. I don’t use glue, if your mitered perimeter pieces are tight it’ll hold together without any problem. To start place #1 in first and lock it into position with #2. Next, slide the short divider #3 into #2 and lock them in place with #4. The #5 piece locks across #1 and now the mitered piece #6 locks everything into place. Follow this with #7 and finally #8 is what could be called the Keystone which locks the entire assembly into the tray. When you put in numbers 6,7, and 8 you’ll find you need to push them into the tray evenly. This is where getting a good tight fit with the miters is important.
That’s about it, fun project to make and helps to maintain my hand tool skills. Used the table saw and planer to rip to width and surface to thickness. I aways use hand planes to remove planer chatter marks. The miters began with a miter saw but were fine tuned with the Donkey Ear shooting board.
Two Frames: #270 & #271
Things have been somewhat disorganized in the shop lately! I needed to replicate a previous frame (#256) to send to Diane’s gallery in Carmel to replace a painting sold there, somewhat confusing but it involved a commission Diane received through the gallery so a frame was needed. Diane sent the commissioned painting separately since making the frame required time, it was shipped last week. We are also getting ready to send 9 paintings to her Charleston, SC gallery so I’m busy with the packing of those. In the meantime these are the two frames recently completed.
Frame # 271
This frame is for a 24″ square, stretched canvas for another painting by Diane. The frame is of Basswood and about 3″ wide. I wanted to carve some type of floral design in the corners so searched the internet for it and this is what I came up with. My process is to screen grab and then use the pages program to size the design to fit the frame. The next step is to glue the pattern onto a piece of plastic; salad containers work great! They are flexible and can be flipped over to duplicate the opposite corners.
It may seem like more work than what is needed but for consistency I make a cutting diagram and annotate the exact chisel/gouge used to cut out the design. It helps me to make a left and right side since the design will be flipped and for me it’s real easy to get confused. At the bench I have the pattern clipped to the tool holder, after doing 3 or 4 of them I start to remember which tool to use but at 75 I like having that pattern to keep on track. For me, using specific tools for each curve helps to keep the design consistent. These pictures below show some of the progress, my goal was to have a consistent flow of the design on all sides. This frame started with what I refer to as my 15° profile and has 1/4″ beads that border the carving.
Plow plane for 1/4″ beads
Beginning carve, small tools needed to remove waste
Progress being made
After the basic design had been carved all around the frame it was time to detail it. You can see the original drawing I found was quite detailed with lots of flourishes. Diane’s work is more contemporary so that wouldn’t be appropriate. My take is more modern and “flat”. The finish is Real Milk Paint’s Blue Spruce, top coated with OSMO #3043 satin finish. The picture shows how the top coat really enhances the color and also seals the milk paint. I experimented with the social media “stuff” and created this instagram Reel to show off this frame — Enjoy! You may be prompted to sign in to an Instagram account but if you X out that box the reel should open.
Frame #270
This profile is for a 1/4″ panel so it can be made from material that is 1″+ thick. The width could be whatever you want but I generally stay about 3″ wide. The first step is to cut a 1/4″ bead on the outside edge which, cut #3. You could use a router but I prefer my Veritas small plow plane with a 1/4″ beading bit. Once that’s done use a 1/2″ dado head to make cuts #2. The depth is roughly 5/16″ and the technique is to leave an area wide enough to support the board when using the dado, it will be removed by setting the board on edge against the fence and creating the recess on the face; cut #1. The final table saw work required is cutting the rabbet. Please note: when creating a profile I always cut one or two test pieces about 12″ long for doing the setups. Lay out both ends of the test piece. After each cut is correct I orient the frame pieces the same way and cut them all before going on to the next setup.
Once the profile is cut it needs to be mitered and joined. I use biscuits and allow glue to fully dry overnight. I used a 8/6 mm gouge to form the peas and the tools shown are needed to lay them out evenly on all sides. I did go into quite a bit more detail in my about initially making this frame. Here is a LINK to that one. The finish for this frame is identical to the original #256; composition gold with my Iced Gold finish.
Hope this blog helps any of you who are discovering new ways to make custom, closed corner frames. When I first started writing these many years ago it came about because of the frustration I had then trying to find information about how to do this “stuff”. Appreciate those of you that read this and the occasional comments and question you ask.
Keep making Sawdust (and chips!) — John
Have you missed me? I’m Back!
Due to some technological mishaps my blog has been “incognito” for the last 3-4 weeks! I didn’t realize it until a couple of my followers told me about it. The problem was with my domain registry but happy to say it’s been resolved — I do have a love/hate relationship with technology for sure!
What you may have missed is the latest project which was my Danish inspired love seat, here’s the link for the first blog about it: https://woodworksbyjohn.com/2025/06/07/danish-inspired-loveseat/
….. and here’s the link showing the completed project : https://woodworksbyjohn.com/2025/06/28/danish-loveseat-finished/
Hope these come through for you; if you feel so inclined I would appreciate a quick note to confirm the the technical issues have been resolved, thanks — John