Month: May 2024

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Green turnings

Here are a few interesting things I’ve turned in the last couple months from wet wood. Two are complete, a couple are just rough turns.

Let’s start with the cherry that was cut down last October. Fortunately, we cut the logs longer than necessary. So although I have to take off quite a few inches from either end because they’ve cracked over the months, I do still get to good wood for more rough turned cherry bowls and platters. But what to do with the little bits left after I fussy cut for the big stuff?

Here’s one thing I tried. (Sorry I have limited photos of the process.) I had a slice of log about 2-3 inches thick. So I decided to try my hand at a cross grain tube, something I’ve seen Richard Raffan make. It’s actually quite a fun little project. I cut a spindle blank from just to the side of the pith. This gets mounted just like you’d mount a stick to turn a rolling pin, or ornaments.

But what’s different is that the grain is running in the same direction it would if it were a bowl. The grain is running the short way across the stick, not the length of the stick like it would be for a rolling pin. So you’re cutting a spindle, but because of the direction of the grain (across the piece, thus “cross grain tube”), you use bowl gouges. I didn’t find it technically challenging–it just reinforced in me that the wood determines the tool just as much as the shape.

Here it is just after it was turned, before it dried and warped and before I put any finish on it. (Keep reading for a photo of the final product.)

The next day, I took this scrap

…and turned this. I was REALLY happy with this. Finally figuring out how to do this was such a great feeling.

Here are the pair, all dried and warped and finished and beautiful

Before I close this post, I wanted to share some last bit of rough turned maple. Another crotch from the maple from July 2023

I made what I hope will be a matched pair of bowl and platter

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Holey cracks, Batman!

(sorry …. 🙂 )

Let’s see some success stories with blemishes! First holes and otherwise gnarly wood. These two are both maple. I knew going in that they might be a challenge. I think I just wanted to see what was up with them. Could I make something out of these less than wonderful lumps?

This one is pretty big. If I remember, it’s 8-9 inches diameter. It had a rotten spot where a branch was

Other than the hole, it was stable, so I kept going.

It’s drying in the loft.

The second one is smaller.

I followed Richard Raffan’s rule. First, remove what you can’t use and see what’s left. Only then should you decide what shape you make. This is the approximate shape I was left with when I finally removed the tunnel.

Here’s the final product. Remember that it was (semi) wet maple, so it distorted as it dried. I didn’t get it quite thin enough, but I like this shape. I want to try again sometime.

On to the cracks. First an ash bowl. It had a big crack that I started getting nervous about when I put it in my jumbo jaws to clean up the foot. So I took it back out without finishing the foot. It was a decent bowl, and it was the first bowl I rough turned. I held onto it like you see it here for awhile, with crack and ugly tenon.

Then I finally decided I owe it to myself to finish it. So I made a jam chuck (which is basically a rounded piece of wood that I jammed the bowl onto), held it in place on the jam chuck with the tail stock, and cleaned up the foot. It ain’t a beauty, but it’s kind of my first. So I even signed it.

I also finish turned a stack of beech. One of them had a crack. But the rest came out nice. I didn’t think to take a photo of the uncracked ones, and I think I’ve already given them away.