Maple Leaf Scroll Sawing Thoughts

[WoodturningVern]

So I have this beautiful piece of maple that I thought I would make into a maple leaf shaped bowl on my lathe.  Easy right.  I trued it up on the lathe and cut a mounting tenon on what will be the bottom.  Then I laid out the maple leaf shape on the top side.  That's the dark black line.  After that I roughed cut the shape on the bandsaw.  The six little holes laid out in a circle are for the mounting flange that I'll attach to shape the bottom of the bowl.  The next step is to scroll saw out the maple leaf along the black line.  I need to get a pretty good shape now while this is still a blank that is flat on both sides.  I double sided taped four small pieces of scrap to the bottom side to give myself a more stable base rather than just trying to hold it on the tenon.  The thickness I need to scroll saw out is 1-7/8" and it will be 1/2" raised above the table on the scrap.  So, what size blade should I use and what speed on the scroll saw?  Any other thoughts?  I attached a few pictures of the project.

 

Thanks..... Vern

[TAIrving]

Vern,

Looking good so far.  I can see where you had your faceplate attached.

To answer your question, a #5 blade should work for this.  Or even a #7.  Practice on a scrap to see what you are comfortable with.

Go very gently on the turning.  You could snap off the stem or one of the outer pieces of the leave if your gouge should catch.  

Please show us the bowl when you finish it.

[barb.j.enders]

I would use a #5 or #7 skip tooth blade.  I would be cutting small sections instead of a continuous line.  Start at a point and cut to the next point.  (hope that makes a bit of sense.)  

[WoodturningVern]

8 hours ago, TAIrving said:

Vern,

Looking good so far.  I can see where you had your faceplate attached.

To answer your question, a #5 blade should work for this.  Or even a #7.  Practice on a scrap to see what you are comfortable with.

Go very gently on the turning.  You could snap off the stem or one of the outer pieces of the leave if your gouge should catch.  

Please show us the bowl when you finish it.

I deliberately left the leaf's stem overly large because I was concerned about snapping it off.  We'll see what it looks like once I get it shaped into a bowl.  I might carve it down the a thinner more realistic shape at that point.