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Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

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I Remember That

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I Remember That

#1

I Remember That

I've been turning dry wood for a number years, mostly because I'm still working through the large stash of red and spalted maple i've held from the trees taken down when I built the new shop.

A friend offered me some fresh-cut cherry.   Picked up 5-6 log sections, waxed'em heavy and set them aside.

Got 2 requests for urns in cherry, so mounted one to see what I got.

Nice straight cherry (not very interesting by my standards) but the difference from dry wood was huge to say the least.  Actually turned 2 good size end-grain jars and caps in an afternoon!  They're waxed and bagged.  But the wet wood was so much easier to cut and hollow, I'd forgotten that quality over the years.

Now to see if they come out of the bags without cracking.


Re: I Remember That

#2

Lyle Jamieson

Re: I Remember That

I take them down from green to finished produce.  For an urn with a lid you might have to alter the lid to fit some distortion from drying but the distortion will be unnoticeable in an end grain hollow form.  Just do it with half logs because you can not leave the pith in it.  The pith will likely make the piece crack. 


Re: I Remember That

#3

agree

I remember how fresh wood turns -- like buttah

The good news is I have lots of nice dry wood of many shapes, sizes, and species...

The bad news is I have lots of dry wood of many shapes, sizes and species...


Re: I Remember That

#4

Logs

I actually prefer including the pith in my end-grain work; making it the center line of the piece.  Cracks do happen, but I accept and accentuate them as they often make a "statement" about the form of the piece.  If I turned bowls, it would, of course, be different.

After I true up the log between centers, I remount in a scroll chuck or screw on a faceplate.  I then drill out the pith to within an inch from the bottom.  Seems to work well at holding back the cracking.


Re: I Remember That

#5

Lyle Jamieson

Re: Logs

That would work for some varieties of trees.  I choose not to have cracks in any of my work. Piths are problematic.


Re: I Remember That

#6

Re: Logs




Re: I Remember That

#7

Outstanding figure and form and finish

Pith-in endgrain provides an excellent result.  


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