Mike,
You've already heard quite a bit of feedback on the safety aspects of applying a sharp tool to wood when you don't have a basic understanding of how to safely do so.
This is so important that I recommend you not try turning again until you can spend a little time with a local turner--one-to-one time can get you a solid, safe start, very quickly. The Dakota Woodturners, a chapter of the AAW, meets at the Bismarck Vo Tech, and someone from the club will undoubtedly be happy to provide this free service to you. (dakotawoodturners.com)
Responding to your question about grain orientation, in my experience helping high school students get started in woodturning, I've learned that it's one of the most important concepts for woodturners to grasp. Spindle orientation or 'between centers' involves the wood positioned as if the tree was lying on the lathe bed--the fibers run between the headstock and the tailstock. Face grain or cross grain or flat grain orientation means that the tree is standing straight up and down, until the lathe turns a quarter turn, and then it's lying down facing away from you, and with the next quarter turn, it's up and down again, over and over again. The orientation of the grain is very different in these two ways of mounting the wood on the lathe, and the best, safest way to cut the wood will also be very different.
You've already heard quite a bit of feedback on the safety aspects of applying a sharp tool to wood when you don't have a basic understanding of how to safely do so.
This is so important that I recommend you not try turning again until you can spend a little time with a local turner--one-to-one time can get you a solid, safe start, very quickly. The Dakota Woodturners, a chapter of the AAW, meets at the Bismarck Vo Tech, and someone from the club will undoubtedly be happy to provide this free service to you. (dakotawoodturners.com)
Responding to your question about grain orientation, in my experience helping high school students get started in woodturning, I've learned that it's one of the most important concepts for woodturners to grasp. Spindle orientation or 'between centers' involves the wood positioned as if the tree was lying on the lathe bed--the fibers run between the headstock and the tailstock. Face grain or cross grain or flat grain orientation means that the tree is standing straight up and down, until the lathe turns a quarter turn, and then it's lying down facing away from you, and with the next quarter turn, it's up and down again, over and over again. The orientation of the grain is very different in these two ways of mounting the wood on the lathe, and the best, safest way to cut the wood will also be very different.