Fresh cut wood

[John Walls]

I filled my trailer (30ft flatbed I built 3 foot high sides on, filled really makes my 1-ton dually work hard) with ~6 cord of fresh cut red oak today. Took 2 of us working hard all day but we just cut it, have not split it yet. Most will be firewood but some show a potential for spalting/figures so that will go in the turning pile. Also picked up 1/2 cord of cottonwood, cut 24 to 30 inches long, 16-20 inch diameter. I have already turned some of this, absolutely love it. Made a nice bowl for a fruit bowl for the guy giving me the cotton wood. I'll have to post up some pics. My wife saw it, took it, walked off and said you better start making another one to give to him... LOL, she really fell in love with the spalting in it. So I guess I'm going to get started on another one and will hide it from my wife this time. I need to spend more time working on the inside of bowls, the outside is a breeze now but can't quite get the inside cut smooth. I can't quite figure out how to do a decent transition from side to bottom, yea, I know, practice practice practice. Yes, a mentor would be nice but with this virus, I'm only allowed to be in contact with 2 guys I hunt with and family. I also received 1/2 cord of some box-elder and some piss-elm. Both of those have lots of color in them and some small burls. I'll cut out the burls and save for when my experience level goes up. Most this wood was blown down/over last fall during a heck of a wind storm. What we cut today was leaning/laying on other trees so alot never touched the ground until we cut it today. There's enough wood left there for me to fill my trailer a good 5-6 times. Atleast I'll have enough firewood to last a few.... years. I'm tired, feel llike this old fart has been ran over a few times.... LOL, night.

 

[Ron Vasser]

If you turn the green Red Oak be sure to clean your bed ways and tools immediately as it will cover the metal with a rust-colored film that's hard to remove, dulls tools quickly, and cracks easily. Sounds like you got a nice load of wood. I know the tired old fart feeling. I sawed some walnut logs yesterday for bowl blanks and ended up with lots of spindle material because of ring shake.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Red oak makes excellent bark natural edge bowls the only question is if the annual growth is far enough along that the bark is bonded after the spring sap rise. It has been my experience that red oak does not rot in the way that you are expecting as in the black lines etc. The bowl pictured is from a live tree that was cut down in September 2019 and it was once turned down to about 1/8th" wall thickness.

 

[Glenn Lefley]

Cottonwood is one of my favorites.

Platter

• Glenn Lefley
• Dec 14, 2019
• 6

A Christmas platter in which my wife will build a Christmas table arrangement on top for a...

 

[Dean]

Cottonwood can be challenging to cut John, that transition gives me trouble everytime.Very sharp tools and light cuts will help with tear out. Go to the traditional bowl gouge and stay on the bevel with a light pass

 

[John Walls]

I have learned cotton wood is not a .... fast cut... wood. The only way I can get a somewhat clean cut is to go very slow and keep my tools very sharp. Turn a minute, sharpen, turn a minute, sharpen. I'm trying to stay on the bevel but I still keep getting tear-out. It's getting better but it is still there. Lots of sanding/sealing/sanding/sealing is turning out decent bowls for me but I need to continue practicing/learning. Darn virus... I was going to attend some classes/seminars but that is shot in the back side for probably a couple years. Last cotton-wood bowl I did has some very nice lines (spalting?) with very little tear-out but alas, still has it. Like previously mentioned, the oak I have probably won't have spaulting, but there is some pretty nice grain in many pieces, some with old growth knots but I don't think any burls. Some of the box elder has burls but I will probably cut those out and place in the back of the turn pile waiting on me to gain more confidence/experience.

 

[hockenbery]

I'm trying to stay on the bevel but I still keep getting tear-out. It's getting better but it is still there.

Maybe you have tried the pull cut. If you are using a side ground gouge in most cases this will be your best cut on the outside of the bowl.
1 keep the Handle low against your thigh
2 the wing edge is at about 45 degrees to the rotation of the wood
3. Keep the tip out of the wood and you cannot get a catch.

this is “pulling the pull cut

Thus is “pushing the pull cut

 

[John Walls]

I do both those you show but I only have a fingernail grind on both of my bowl gouges. I will practice more. I'll post a couple pics when I get my iPhone to co-operate with me.

 

[John Walls]

Here's the cotton-wood I recently finished. Comes from the same tree I just unloaded from my trailer. All the wood has the same marks through-out. This is called spaulting, right? It's the wood that is giving me fits with tear-out. Sealed, then 2 coats of butcher block, sanded back to fill the the tear-out areas (was sucking the sealant in leaving divets) then 2 final coats fairly smooth.

 

[John Walls]

 

[hockenbery]

Pretty good job. This snap is particularly difficult to hollow.
In the corner you have two rings of tearout.
Cause ??
One likely cause is coming off the bevel and scraping with the tip.
It is difficult to make that turn smoothly. This area needs more sanding. On an area of tear-out that I would stop the lathe and work that area turning the bowl by hand as I work around it them blend it in with the lathe turning the bowl.

One suggestion is to try a hemispherical bowl. The hollowing will be easier without a corner to deal with.

 

[John Walls]

Thank-you. Hemispherical bowl? I admit I am having difficult doing smooth corners. I even picked up a normal (straight, no fingernail?) bowl gouge for the corners/bottoms and find I am having a harder time using that than the other 2 fingernail ground bowl-gouges.

 

[hockenbery]

Hemispherical bowl?

Not sure if that was a question

but basically the outside curve is similar to a sphere. This make the inside curve from rim to bottom center Smooth and continuous.

look at the curve on Jeff Hornung’s segmented bowl in the gallery.
2 Nd one now until something new gets posted.
A nice curve going from the rim to the little bead on the foot
Don’t let the dark segments on the curved edge fool you it is a sweet curve.

 

[Tom Gall]

Thank-you. Hemispherical bowl? I admit I am having difficult doing smooth corners. I even picked up a normal (straight, no fingernail?) bowl gouge for the corners/bottoms and find I am having a harder time using that than the other 2 fingernail ground bowl-gouges.

Any bowl without corners (hemispherical or not) is less problematic....and IMHO is more aesthetically pleasing. This should also improve the overall form of the bowl.

 

[John Walls]

Kewl, thanks! It was a question albeit short. Had a feeling that's what you were referring to. A continuous curve top to bottom but was not sure. I'll have to give that shape a try until I can make better cuts on the inside. I don't know why I had it in my mind I had to make it like the above pictures. I do like the resulting appearance but it's not quite in my ability yet, but will be, some day. I think mine's more like a dished platter with high sides. I have quite a few cotton-wood with the spault (?) going through it like above, I'll have to sharpen up my skills and do up another one. Got half a trailer load of oak spit today, hopefully finish tomarrow. I set aside all the cotton-wood and a big bunch of box elder with some piss elm thrown in. Will keep some of the bigger oak logs for some bowls and boxes. Got alot more wood than I thought I had, yippee! (my back disagrees with that!!)