Writer’s note: What a pleasant surprise! I thought this was going to be a scroll saw demonstration and it turned-out to be a geometry exercise. I heard lots of skepticism regarding rhombuses, and rightly so. But there’s nothing wrong with a good parallelogram, in any case! They both offer us a new slant on woodworking and an opportunity to test the nimbleness of our fingers on a complicated glue-up. I for one can’t wait to try my hand at snowflakes this winter, after some long observation sessions in Taos. I hope you will try as well! Let’s set the February Paxton’s meeting as the time and place to display our snowflakes. We might even be able to come up with a flaky reward for the best two or three!

Ron started-off with some good advice, no matter what you’re making: "Measure, cut and adjust until the fit is perfect!"

He showed us his sled with pressure clamp, which he uses to hold the wood while cutting the parallelogram strips which are the basis of the six or eight sided flakes he makes. A raised front and back to the sled would accomplish the goal he expressed of keeping the stock from being pinched between the blade and the fence, and off the table saw top altogether. It would also obviate the necessity of a zero-clearance throat plate on the table saw.

He confirmed you can not use the splitter/guard while cutting the parallelograms. He uses the first cut-off (a triangle), glued or taped behind the saw blade, as a splitter to help separate successive rips away from the saw blade.

With so many long pieces to hold, glue-up is tricky! Ron cuts a groove in the ends of the adjacent sides, in which he inserts a spline to help align individual pieces of the "loaf."

He reviewed several options, but seems to recommend gluing them all together at once using rubber bands or radiator clamps. He uses Titebond II and recommended Adhesives, Inc. as a glue source. He cautioned warping becomes a problem with water based glues, but had not tried resorcinol or hide glue.

For a six sided flake, you need to cut your base angle at 60º (360º in a circle / 6).

For an eight sided flake, use a 45º angle (360º / 8).

All the detail is cut on adjacent sides surrounding the long diameter of the parallelogram. The other two adjacent sides become part of the glued-up central core. So if you want any detail in the center of the flake, you must cut it before the glue-up. Ron distributed a handout with several sample flakes. It was not intuitively obvious what cuts in what order produced which patterns.

It seems to me that creating your own patterns much be most of the creativity of the flake effort. So practice, record and be prepared to exchange recipes in February as well!

According to Ron, a flat ground blade in the table saw works best! We had an excellent explanation of precise angle cutting by Helmut Wolfe who promises to deliver his article for publication in our newsletter. Look for it in this (or a soon to come) issue!

So, now we’re ready for the bandsaw. Ron tries to slice his flakes to 1/8 inch in thickness. He does this by eye. He uses broken pieces of flakes to form a jig to hold the good flakes for sanding. Don recommended his $125 stellite blade for such cuts, so you better plan on making more than just a few snowflakes, so you can average your cost down to merely extravagant!

Ron estimated his time invested for a loaf of flakes averages-out to 9-10 minutes per flake. That sounds just perfect for your flaky relatives, but you better hurry if you still need gifts for this year!

Reference: Snow Crystals by W. A. Bentley and W. J. Humphreys, Dover Press, 1962.