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knot

Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Messages
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Location
Montfort, Wisconsin
I've got a piece of cherry that has little knot on the inside of the bowl. What happens is my gouge must bounce when it hits the harder wood leaving a high spot around the bowl.

How do you deal with a situation like that?

Thanks for your help.

Dave Fritz
 
some guesses

Some guesses from another beginner while waiting for the more experienced turners to post. Make sure your gouge is sharp, really sharp. Get your tool rest in close to your work. You may need to take a firmer grip on the tool. If you are choking up on your tool handle slide your hand back and use the leverage you have. You shouldn't have to force the tool into the wood. If it is cutting cleanly you barely notice a knot.

All I got for now, just took a break from sanding a bowl.

Hu
 
I've got a piece of cherry that has little knot on the inside of the bowl. What happens is my gouge must bounce when it hits the harder wood leaving a high spot around the bowl. How do you deal with a situation like that? Thanks for your help. Dave Fritz
Dave
You knew the answer. Don't let the gouge bounce. Easier said than done. :-(

The knot is usually harder and has a different grain orientation so when the gouge contacts it the smooth flow of the cut is interrupted. Light cuts, sharp tool, bevel riding, tool handle in to your side, tool rest close.
Try to make the cut just by rotating your body or shifting weight from one foot to the other this give maximum control.
Thumb and forefinger on the forward hand hold the gouge gently against the tool rest.
Resist tightening your grip. Let the tool do the work

Once you get a bump ride the bevel not cutting up to the bump or back the bevel up over the bump and then push forward.
The idea being to cut the bump and nothing else.
If you keep making a long cut through the bump there is a tendency to keep following the bump.

Most of the time when you use a good bevel riding cut turning your body to make the curve, knots are seldom a problem.
But they pester everyone from time to time.

Al
 
Last edited:
Hu is dead on. The gouge will slow down as it tries to cut through the knot. If you force the cut or the tool is dull it will want to ride over the knot. You also may be pushing on the bevel too hard. Pushing hard on the bevel will cause the tool to bounce across the hard spot and sometimes dig in more after it passes that spot. This can cause problems with woods that have hard winter wood and soft summer woods as well, or even softer punky woods and harder good wood on the same rotation of the bowl. By learning to not force the gouge and using very light pressure on the bevel you can override these problems. I like to call it gliding the bevel rather than riding the bevel.
 
If your tools are sharp, then mostly you have to ease up/slow down your push rate when you come to the hard knot. It won't cut as fast as the softer stuff around it, plus you are cutting through end grain rather than side grain. If you bear down harder on your tool, you can make it bounce more. Odds are that the knot will fall out some day eventually.

robo hippy
 
Thank you all for your responses. I guess my tendency is to hold on harder and push harder, just the opposite of what I should be doing.

Thanks again, I'll work at it.

Dave Fritz
 
Thank you all for your responses. I guess my tendency is to hold on harder and push harder, just the opposite of what I should be doing.

Thanks again, I'll work at it.

Dave Fritz

Most everyone here is zeroing in on the sharpness of the gouge.....and, that's my thought as well. Dave, your choice of words in your last post seems to indicate it, because you have to hang on to the gouge harder, and push harder, in order to keep it steady and cutting. You should be thinking about the drag on the tool and how that is increasing. More drag means more dull.

How difficult it is to maintain a steady tool through a cut, is a main indicator of how well it is cutting......and, the "light bulb" should turn on, saying it's time to re-hone, or re-sharpen........

If your bowl is standard grain orientation, then you are already alternating between long grain and end grain anyway......so, a knot will probably (or should) make little difference when a sharp tool cuts through it.......

ko
 
Dave, one thing i dont think i read was if you start a bump you need to go back before the bump and start over. Everything else you have been advised of I agree with. Sharp tool and slow feed rate. I do lots of knots in norfolk pine. They need treated so kind.
 
Can't add anything substantive to what's been already said, but will tell you that inclusions, knots, and other grain aberrations are things some of us look for when selecting wood for turnings. Once you get the hang of how to handle the tools so that changes in hardness don't affect your surface, you too may really like "strange wood."

Anyone have some good crotch wood or burl they'd like to send me? ;-)
 
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