My First Blue Spruce Experimental Bowl

[William Young]

When inquiring about the validity of trying green blue spruce for a bowl I was told everything from it is useless to it is just fine. Being just fine gave me encouragement and being useless gave me determination to try it.
This was also my first alcohol curing attempt . It was rough turned on Jan11 and given a 18 hour alcohol bath and then weighed daily . After three day of no more weight loss, I finish turned it today. Only thing that cracked was the knot in the bottom and it is now filled with CA and is as smooth as glass.
The end grain was a bear to turn when green but when dry and using shear cuts I was able to start sanding with 60 grit paper. This was also my first trial with Norton 3X paper and it proves why I was getting the scratch lines with my cheap hardware store variety paper because the 3X has given me a smooth as glass finish with half the effort.
Another interesting fact that I have to give that 3X paper credit for was that I had turned some things previously in dry fir and spruce and I could always see high and low spots in the hard/soft grain growth ring pattern. With this one it feels very smooth and that wavy pattern is practically non existent even when examining it at different angles under proper lighting.
I am not the least bit proud of this particular bowl because of the ugly knot on the rim and the rather attractive knot except for the cracks in it in the bottom of the bowl. But I am sure one of my kids or grandkids will be proud of it .
I will be more selective in future ones when chainsawing out the blanks.
My main objective was to practice on cheap wood before going to expensive hardwoods as well as trying out the alcohol drying process which I will certainly try again. I also got a little more practice at turning a foot and recess in the bottom.
Many thanks to all the good tips I pick up from the seasoned turners here and elswhere.
W.Y.

 

[waltc]

You done good1

Thanks for the report--as well as reports on 3Xsandpaper and alchol drying.

I like the grain pattern on the inside.

Walt c

 

[Glenn]

That's a nice looking bowl William. I like the bark inclusion along with the grain pattern. Well done.

I too am in the early learning phase of bowl turning. I agree that it is best to learn on whatever you can scrounge. Where I live (near Buffalo, NY) there seems to be an abundance of maple trees being cut down, much of it ambrosia. I did the soap soaking in about 20 bowls I rough turned last summer. I was using a borrowed Oneway Stronghold chuck. I finally baught my own chuck so I can finish the bowls. I started on the small ones 5-6 inches in diameter. Some have turned out ok, some didn't.

GL and keep turning!

 

[Martyn]

Looking Good

William,

Looks very good to me also. I like the knots and grain patterns. How large is the bowl? I'm going to have to look into trying the alcohol drying method. I'm new at turning but have got hooked up with the AAW and a local Chapter of the same, lots of stuff to try out.

Marty 🙂

 

[William Young]

Marty;
It is about 9.5" x 4.5"
I will be joining a chapter of AAW out west here in another couple months after the roads through the Rocky Mountains around here where I live are safer from avalanches and mud slides.
W.Y.

 

[dkulze]

Bill, ya got a winner there.

For just your standard utility bowl, the bark inclusion/knot might not be that attractive but, for a bowl used as a display or fruit bowl, it is actually kinda nice. Attractive wood too. I'd wonder if the alcohol soak helped with any residual pitch. Would be curious if you did a piece with sapwood included and soaked it first (although I'm not going to volunteer to try it myself cause that pitch can be a PITA). Looks like you've got a good local wood to use now.

Congrats,
Dietrich

 

[William Young]

Dietrich (and others)
Thanks for the kind comments.

I will try some with the sapwood included to see how it works out. I still have half a dozen big pieces that I can take the chainsaw to. We had some very cold weather a week ago and the frost got right into the wood and upon close inspection, the frost has actually cracked some pieces. Now that it is well above freezing and the snow is all gone, I am going to see what I can salvage for bowls with the peices I have left. I may even go out and do that this afternoon.
W.Y.

 

[William Young]

This is just an addition to my last post. I did go out and chainsaw 10 more blanks . I took a picture just before sawing. Too dark for pictures after I got the blanks sawed out . I made them all between 4 to 6 inches thick because I dont have a riser block on my bandsaw.
I am going to bandsaw them round and most of them close to the full 14" inboard capacity of my lathe. This way I will get some sapwood in them and I'll see how that goes. If the sapwood is a problem I can always make them smaller. Then I will rough turn them in the next week or so in between catching up on other things. That aughta keep me out of mischeif for a while 😀
Foggy here today as can be seen by the trees in the background.
W.Y.

 

[dkulze]

I'll say it again, Bill. You live in the midst of some real beauty.

If you can get ahold of some of those spruce as intact logs and turn them endgrain with a ring of branches as part of the turning, you can make some really interesting bowls. Look up Ron Kent's site and see what he does with Norfolk Island Pine.

Dietrich

 

[C Edward Moore]

I second Dietrich's comments. Where is Wynndel located in BC?

 

[William Young]

ED.
Wynndel is a small villiage (one store and PO) in the southeast corner of BC about three hour drive from of the Alberta border. Dont know if it shows on the map but it is just about 6 miles north of Creston which is also about 6 miles north of the Canada / USA border at the top of the Idaho panhandle. I have a USA PO box as well as a UPS parcel depot address directly over the border (almost a stone's throw) so it is handy for me getting some supplies that I need to get from USA and I dont have to pay brokerage fees because I act as my own broker at Canada Customs on the way back.
W.Y.

 

[devonpalmer]

Blue Spruce Endgrain

William,

Excellent finish on the bowl. I recently completed a Communion Goblet and two platters for a local Church made from a large blue spruce log they had given me. I struggled to get a decent finish on them using Waterlox tung oil and a beall buff, but, then again - I'm a newbie and consider it lucky when I can just keep in on the lathe 🙂

You've inspired me to tear into some of the large 15-16" blue spruce log sections that I'm going to attempt to turn endgrain. I'm going to try Pentracryl to keep the center rings from separating, but, will definately try one with Alcohol.

Any advice from anyone on turning pine endgrain? Any concern with it being weak/difficult to cut once it starts getting thin becuase of the grain direction and the fact I'm turning the whole log section and leaving the pith in?