My brother lost a lot of trees in an early spring nor’easter. I went out to NH to help him clean up and bring home some wood. I’ve been turning for a year, but this is my first “green” wood. The rough bark is oak, and the smooth bark is American beech.
A family member helped me cut up that large chunk. We got one round, two slabs for quarter sawn, and some large bowl blanks. It was a large, somewhat intimidating chunk of wood. May not have been the perfect breakdown, but we got lots of good pieces to start with.
The quarter sawn slabs after going through the band saw to remove the piths. Removing the piths helps the wood dry more predictably, with less of a chance of cracking and warping. The fact that it’s quarter sawn also means a more stable drying outcome. I’ll seal the ends and leave these to dry for a year or so.
The first of the big oak bowl blanks mounted up. It was the smallest, but it still started out around 12 pounds. I probably could have used a bigger face plate (put it on my shopping list!), but this is all I had. I just put the lathe on Low, set the RPMs low, and was patient.
My first beautiful shavings from my first green wood turning. (Cory’s chickens are probably laying eggs in these by now). So much to learn, I kept the profile simple for my first attempt. The wood is beautiful. The astute viewer will notice that it’s daylight out the window when I first mounted the blank, and pitch black by the time I was done. S’okay, just means there’s room to improve.
The “finished” rough bowl. This will now sit for a year or so to dry out. Then I can finish turn it. Those brown spots are actually a bit of rot. TBD if this bowl survives, or goes in the burn pile. But what’s most important … I did it! I turned a big bowl and had no surprises.
My second bowl. A bit bigger (10-11″ diameter), and a more involved profile.
Bowl #3, I went for a working bowl look. This one started out at 16 pounds. It has a gorgeous grain pattern. I really hope this one makes it all the way to complete. Right now it is about 3 pounds.
The fourth bowl blank had some issues. This is the same rot that was in the first bowl. No big bowl from this one….but I did salvage a couple chunks for spindle turning later, and got this small 6″ bowl out of it.
More oak, These four bowls all came from a 12″ by 6″ piece. I hollowed these out after this photo. There were a couple hairline cracks on two of them. These should be ready for final turning in about 6 months.
