As the weird world turns

Re: As the weird world turns

Sam Dean

>I read this too in the book. I really questioned the validity because it just doesn't seem right. Kind of like the myth about toilets spinning the opposite direction between northern and southern hemispheres.

Jim King, you're in the south half; is this true?

Sam

Re: As the weird world turns

John K Jordan

>From http://itotd.com/index.alt?ArticleID=498

"If you had an extremely large sink (as in, say, the size of a hot tub) with no imperfections, and if the water had been carefully kept still and protected from air currents for a day or so, and if the drain were very small, and if the act of removing the plug were done in such a way as to prevent any influence on the water�s direction, then you could reliably expect counterclockwise drainage in the northern hemisphere due to the Coriolis force. In fact, just such an experiment was performed successfully in 1962 at M.I.T. But under ordinary circumstances, regardless of your location on the planet, the water will go down the drain pretty much however it wants to. You may discover, as I did, different directions in different sinks�or even different directions in the same sink on different occasions, depending on how you filled it. Another legend down the drain."

But the only thing I know about reaction wood is to keep away from it. I've had horrible luck with splits and checks and shakes from limb wood when the trunk wood was fine.

JKJ in East TN

Mic O'Donnell Says....

Jennifer@Indy.USA

>Carole,

I took a class at Arrowmont with Mic O'Donnell and we asked the question about this part of the book (Northern/Southern hemispheres) and he said that the verdict was still out on that. I got the impression that the facts came from another source and that he wished it was not in the book.

Jennifer

Re: Mic O'Donnell Says....

Carole in VA

>What about the hardwood/softwood thing? Does softwood build reaction wood on the opposite side of the limb from hardwood? Don't want to have to go out and cut a limb off my pine tree to find out! :)

Re: Mic O'Donnell Says....

echo8287

>Oh No, yall are killing those age old myths for me.So does hot water freeze faster than cold water? Physics say no,with a temp rise calculation BUT those pesky molecules are some trickey little dudes when they are moving real fast. David

Re: As the weird world turns

Doug Trembath

>Carole, I by no means, have the definitive say-so on any of this, but it has been my experience that reaction wood can be tamed just like any other wood, if you apply the basic understanding of wood shrinkage and growth ring orientation. Limb wood, and tree sections that grow on an angle other than 90 degrees from level will have the pith offset from the center. Twists and curves notwithstanding, if you orient the growth rings evenly in the turning, all "reaction" stresses become moot, and you can enjoy the figure benefits from reaction wood without the reputed tribulations. So many problems you will see and read about on forums can be alleviated by proper grain orientation, but sometimes the best result comes from challenging conventional wisdom. The absolute best teacher is experience. Try some of each, and see what you find. This approach does take time, but what are any of us doing that is more important, that we don't have time to truly experience the results of our labors? So often we wish to circumvent the learning process in order to achieve the desired result quickly, without any effort on our part. The problem associated with this approach is that you don't actually learn from the process, you just achieve a satisfactory result. Hell, anyone can stumble on the correct technique to do almost anything. The true test of capability is to be able to reach a predictable outcome, no?

Let your psyche roam, try different things, and learn from the results. You may surprise yourself in how intuitive this really is. Again, as I make certain to tell all of my students and fellow woodturners, this is a journey, this woodturning obsession, not simply a destination.

Doug Trembath

Studio in the Woods

Re: Bruce Hoadley Says....

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Carole,

Softwood forms compression wood on the underside of a leaning stem.

Hardwood forms tension wood on the upperside.

This is from "Understanding Wood" by Bruce Hoadley.

Gary

Re: Bruce Hoadley Says....

Carole in VA

>So, you (or he) is saying that compression and tension wood are formed the same way on both hardwoods and softwoods...makes more sense to me.

Re: As the weird world turns

Carole in VA

>Doug, I'm not that worried about reaction wood in turning. So far, I have usually managed to orient the piece to compensate. I was just pointing out a "fact" that I had read that caused my brain to say "wait a minute...let's think about this!" LOL

Still would like to hear from someone in the southern hemisphere on this...truth or fiction or somewhere in between?

Re: As the weird world turns

Barry Irby

>I cut a cherry tree a few weeks ago. It was leaning way over at the edge of the woods (probably trying to make a run for it) and the pith was way out of center. On the tension side, there was only about three inches of wood, but on the under side or compression side, there was about nine or ten inches. So there is a twelve inch tree and I figure I will get shallow bowls from one side and deep ones form the other. The shallow ones will have very dense growth and the others will have very widely spaced rings.

Re: As the weird world turns

bill Crommett in seneca

>As far as this hemispherical aberation is concerned, It appears to me that o'Donnell must have gotten that piece of information off the internet !

Re: Bruce Hoadley Says....

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Hi Carole,

It has to do with where the tree forms the abnormal cells. Softwoods form the reaction wood on the underside, hardwoods on the upper. Therefore, compression wood on softwoods, tension wood on hardwoods.

Don't know what happens in the Southern hemisphere.

Gary

Re: As the weird world turns

Bob Hackett

>Probably at the same site that says the whirlpool in your sink turns clockwise above the equator and counterclockwise below.

MB