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tristania laurina stump turning and drying tips?

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Leland Frayseth

Leland Frayseth

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Apr 25, 2018
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Concord, CA
I responded to a wood alert this morning for tristania laurina, cut the stump off at grade for the owner, brought it home and am turning it. I will put the tenon at the grade cut because I think that will be strongest. Do you have any experience or suggestions, it is very wet, sprays me at 540 rpm, do I want to turn it to final form and thickness so I don't have to finish turn it again? From what I read water gum does not dry well, splits, cracks, twists and does not sand well either and I have 5 little trunks inside 1. As usual thank you for your experience and suggestions. LelandIMG3321.jpg 20180606_125552.jpg 20180606_134043.jpg
 
I would turn small natural edge bowls from it.
Cut a blank from each branch.
With an even wall under a 1/4” thick these will have a high probability of drying crack free.
They will look great with or without the bark,
Possibly do a crotch bowl
See
http://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/naural-edge-bowl-from-a-crotch.11058/
Wash each bowl when it comes off the lathe, towel dry, and put it in a cardboard box. Flaps closed 1day, 1 flap open 1 day, Both flaps open 1 day, shelf for 1day. Sand and fininish.


You have already decided on a plan I would not have recommended. Kudos if you end up with something nice.
Do check carefully for bark inclusions. A bark inclusion in the side wall can make the bowl fly apart.

In the photo you show the bowl mounted end grain.
This is tough bowl to turn and for the most part they don’t look real good unless there is a great heartwood pattern and spectacular bark edge. This will be especially challenging for a novice turner.

The bark edge has to be cut cleanly to show then edge pattern (Looks like you have lost the bark edge edge with saw cuts) The bowl interior will be endgrain the stuff furniture makers have been hiding for 2000 years. The five piths are likely crack. Unless you get an even wall the cracks will get large.

It can work with an 1/8” wall thickness and a curve where the piths are so they can pooch out.

It will be good practice.
 
Thank you hockenbery for the link to the video I will try to make some bowls like you did using the crotch pieces that were on my cart. That stump was mean to turn you are right about that it went from 15" to 14" to 11". I like the 5 little piths making blossoms out of the grain but as you wrote it will probably crack I will slap green wood sealer on it in the morning.
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Love the pictures!

For what it's worth, I've been having a lot of luck with wet turning 14" and under stumps, side grain, and center turned bowls that I suspect would crack. I've been putting my new favorite tung and citrus oil blend on wet, and I keep adding more oil as the wood slowly dries. It ends up going on too thick, but can be sanded lightly once dry and a very thin rubbed out coat completes it.

I have tried this with walnut oil, and it didn't seem to like the moisture, but tung oil & citrus oil seems great so far.
 
Zach LaPerriere said:
Love the pictures!

For what it's worth, I've been having a lot of luck with wet turning 14" and under stumps, side grain, and center turned bowls that I suspect would crack. I've been putting my new favorite tung and citrus oil blend on wet, and I keep adding more oil as the wood slowly dries. It ends up going on too thick, but can be sanded lightly once dry and a very thin rubbed out coat completes it.

I have tried this with walnut oil, and it didn't seem to like the moisture, but tung oil & citrus oil seems great so far.
Click to expand...

Thank you Zach. I just found your thread and ordered Corey's Amazing Tung Oil. I was intrigued when I read your post about it earlier and wanted to try it. It should not take long to get to California, I will keep my roughed out bowls in a plastic bag until Corey's oil arrives, I grew up in Bellingham Washington and was intrigued when I read about you and Cory building a canoe, can you post a picture of the canoe? Thank you. Leland
 
Water gum live edge crotch piece, it was not easy to turn, would've been easier on a $3,000 dollar lathe with a different designed banjo and tail stock but I am liking my lathe for bowls which is what I want to turn so I will not be upgrading soon. I got a shipping notification Corey's Amazing Tung Oil shipped from Anacortes Washington and will be here in 2 days. He must have been out in his canoe, anyway I put green wood sealer on the water gum stump bowl and core earlier this week when I could see it would take a while for Corey, no problem I am eager to try it on the next project, I can't wait to smell it and watch the wood figure pop when I spin it on and polish it.

Hockenbery I watched your video in the link at the thread you referenced above and it was very helpful. I have 3 more of these water gum pieces to turn today and am going to try turning between centers as you did in your video, the design of my tailstock (my base is swept forward) chews up a lot of clearance under a piece which makes that kind of turning difficult but I will give it a try and see how I like it. Thank you, Leland
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Leland Frayseth said:
Water gum live edge crotch piece, it was not easy to turn, would've been easier on a $3,000 dollar lathe with a different designed banjo and tail stock but I am liking my lath
Click to expand...
:) It’s a poor craftsperson who blames their tools but we all do it because we know it could not be us :)

Seriously : I’m going to suggest that as long as the blank does not wobble you will be able to turn the bowl nicely on your lathe.

What tool(s) are you using?

Turning the natural edge with the interrupted cut is perhaps one of the most challenging thing we do in woodturning. Lots of folks avoid turning NE bowls because they have not mastered the skills to do it.

When I teach a 3 day bowl class, NE are done on day 3 sort of the final exam.
You have just started turning so you might need to wait for your skills to catch up to the level needed for NE bowls. You did an ok job on the natural edge live oak bowl so it may be a matter of consistency.
On the other hand once you master NE bowls you can turn pretty much anything. You may need more practice or perhaps some mentoring.

Try a few of modest size like an 8” x 6” blank. These will go much faster. When you have them down wove to larger pieces.

An even wall is one of the essential elements to have the bowl look good and dry without cracking

A side ground bowl gouge makes the job go a lot smoother a Michelson grind will do as well.
A traditional grind can do it but more sanding.
 
Leland Frayseth said:
Water gum live edge crotch piece, it was not easy to turn, would've been easier on a $3,000 dollar lathe with a different designed banjo and tail stock but I am liking my lathe for bowls which is what I want to turn so I will not be upgrading soon. I got a shipping notification Corey's Amazing Tung Oil shipped from Anacortes Washington and will be here in 2 days. He must have been out in his canoe, anyway I put green wood sealer on the water gum stump bowl and core earlier this week when I could see it would take a while for Corey, no problem I am eager to try it on the next project, I can't wait to smell it and watch the wood figure pop when I spin it on and polish it.

Hockenbery I watched your video in the link at the thread you referenced above and it was very helpful. I have 3 more of these water gum pieces to turn today and am going to try turning between centers as you did in your video, the design of my tailstock (my base is swept forward) chews up a lot of clearance under a piece which makes that kind of turning difficult but I will give it a try and see how I like it. Thank you, Leland
View attachment 25771
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Your lathe is not the reason for having a chunk missing from the rim, and tear out on the other side of the rim. It's tool control and direction of cut. Finding a mentor would be a great step for you when doing that kind of work.
 
Dangerous is based on the experience or lack of experience of the person using the tools. You can make the safest equipment and require the most stringent of safety protocols and a person with no training or little experience will still manage to hurt themselves. A craftsman that has used tools and equipment for decades usually recognizes the hazards and knows their limitations. As far as a lathe goes there are some people that should never be allowed to run one, along with a table saw, bandsaw and power tools. These people are usually missing several digits have one eye and everyone calls them lucky.
 
Warnings listed for most equipment these days are written by a group of corporate lawyers that have one main concern, liability. I see warning signs on chainsaws that warn you not to hold the wrong end of a chainsaw while operating.
When you purchase fireplace logs they come with a warning label Caution Risk of Fire.
When you purchase fishing hooks the have a warning label that states Harmful if Swallowed.
We have members of our society that will eat Tide Pods (detergent) as a challenge which boggles the mind and defies all logic. But we have fewer and fewer people that are able to use logic these days. Too much fluoride in the water these days.
 
Leland Frayseth said:
Thank you Zach. I just found your thread and ordered Corey's Amazing Tung Oil. I was intrigued when I read your post about it earlier and wanted to try it. It should not take long to get to California, I will keep my roughed out bowls in a plastic bag until Corey's oil arrives, I grew up in Bellingham Washington and was intrigued when I read about you and Cory building a canoe, can you post a picture of the canoe? Thank you. Leland
Click to expand...

Let me know what you think of the oil. I'll get a photo of my kayak when the rain clears up. All my photos are on film...somewhere!

As for drying and applying the oil, I think cooler temps is ideal...but that may not be practical in California. It'll take some experimenting, and some failures. The thinner the better, within reason.
 
Zach LaPerriere said:
Let me know what you think of the oil. I'll get a photo of my kayak when the rain clears up. All my photos are on film...somewhere!

As for drying and applying the oil, I think cooler temps is ideal...but that may not be practical in California. It'll take some experimenting, and some failures. The thinner the better, within reason.
Click to expand...
Thank you Zach I am excited about getting the oil. I look forward to smelling it. We'll have some cooler days at the end of the week but tomorrow will be in the 90s. My labs and I are going out on the Sacramento river swimming and chasing sticks in my homemade 16' dory with 25 hp Yami I built in 2001. Our river salmon season opens July 16 and it is not going to be good we have a bag limit of 1 Chinook per day. I like to brine mine in salt and apple juice and smoke in applewood, you just cannot buy it like that in the store.
 
Hockenbery, I finished rough turning my water gum natural edge bowls. The stump and core I waxed with Rockler greenwood sealer 4 days ago is actually looking quite good. The limb and crotch pieces have wide annual rings the tree was in a neighbor's garden and got a lot of water. Our trees tend to have the same size growth rings for spring and summer not highly differentiated like back east. Here's my latest photos I put 2 in DNA overnight soak and 2 waxed with greenwood sealer. The alcohol soak ones I will wrap in clean newsprint tomorrow. I left the foot on Richard Raffen in his book "Turning bowls" says we can leave the foot on and he leaves it on. I recommend you read that book it is much better than the book you recommend I buy Hoadley "Understanding Wood". I had to laugh about him going on about angstroms and black lights, it would have suffice to say these woods can be identified by florescence under black light, he went on and on. I am going to be out in the river, please be safe. Leland20180610_102918.jpg 20180610_104705.jpg 20180610_105008.jpg 20180610_105042.jpg 20180610_111036.jpg
 
Unfortunately, The discussion has gotten out of hand with some rude and slanderous posts by the thread starter. As a result I have found it necessary to have the unpleasant task of deleting a number of posts including some posts by other forum members only because they were responding to deleted posts and sometimes quoting deleted posts. Anyway, this thread has run its useful course and it is now closed.

Having such a wonderful group of people participating in this forum makes makes my job as moderator a real pleasure. But, on rare occasions I actually have to do some real work to earn my pay (currently $0.00 per year). Thanks for your understanding.
 
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