Walnut Rounds

[Daniel Warren]

Hi All,

I'd appreciate your opinion on processing some walnut.

I typically rough out leaving about 10% wall thickness based on overall diameter. However being new to this, all my rough turned bowls are still drying so I don't have an outcome to base my decision on.

OR

Which I have not tried, turn to finish diameter and see what happens. I am fine with warping, but want to avoid checking.

Forgive me if this topic has been covered!

 

[hockenbery]

Walnut makes great natural edge bowls.
With fresh cut wood the white sap ring makes a great looking bowl without the bark
Walnut bark will often just fall off

Below are a couple threads in the tips you may find useful

1. working with green wood for successful drying
First thing rip those blanks through the pith

http://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/working-with-green-wood.11626/

2 turning a natural edge bowl from a crotch
Except for aligning 3 rims everything is the same for a 1/2 log bowl
http://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/naural-edge-bowl-from-a-crotch.11058/

 

[hockenbery]

One caution - inspect the end grain for any sign of a wind shakes

walnut is especially prone to wind shakes. This is a separation of part or all of an annual ring from the one inside it.

There is no structural integrity across the shake making dangerous flying object likely.

Hopefully your blanks are free of defects

 

[Fred Belknap]

I like walnut, it is fairly forgiving if you don't do everything right. I think it is some of the best looking wood when finished. See my avatar.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Process the logs into blanks and get the end grain sealed as quickly as possible to minimize checking and cracking. Walnut turns like butter.

 

[Steve Doerr]

Daniel, I have a couple of logs of some walnut similar to yours. I have sealed both end with paraffin. I have used one of the logs to finish turn an end grain HF. I tried to keep the pith at the center of the turning as much as I could. I turned it to about 3/8" thickness. As these were wet green logs, after I turned the HF I soaked it in DNA (denatured alcohol) for two days. After soaking it, I let it air dry until the surface no longer has any moisture on it. I then place it in a brown paper bag and staple it shut. I weigh it on a regular basis until it no long loses any weight (about 2 to 3 weeks). The turning turned out with only one very small crack.

 

[hockenbery]

Below you can see the difference in the hollowform turned from fresh cut walnut and the small fluted bowl turned from walnut that passed its use by date. Bowl lost the white. Still looks ok but i’d Like to see with white sapwood.

 

[robo hippy]

I have found walnut to be one of the easier woods to dry. It will warp some, but generally won't crack too much. I green turn to final thickness as my 'style', and the more they warp, the more I like them. Turn to 5/16 or so thick, make sure to round over the bowl rim, inside and out. One reason is so that it doesn't slice you if you brush up against it while it is spinning, and the other is that the sharp/square edge is more prone to splitting. I wrap some stretch film around the outside and over the rim, then let it dry on the shop floor (maple will mold under the stretch film). They are pretty much done drying after a week or two max. Sanding a warped bowl can be a problem unless your lathe goes down to about 15 or so rpm. Hard to keep the abrasives on the spinning wood. See the thread about Sanding Speeds for my articulated arm for sanding....

I don't work Walnut any more. It makes me a bit itchy and can feel some congestion too.... Lemon juice can pull some of the stain off of your fingers... Hot foods in walnut bowls can pick up some of the 'taste' of the walnut wood. Not a good thing. This gets to be a lot less as the bowl ages.

robo hippy

 

[Daniel Warren]

Thanks for all the info. I will get to it today and see how many I can knock out. I like the idea of turning to final thickness first go round and may do a little of both.

 

[Daniel Warren]

Two logs sealed with anchorseal.

3 blanks in buckets of water

1 bowl turned. My "finish" cuts leave much to be desired.

Do I address the crack with CA glue now or later?

I'll need a few lemons for my hands...

 

[Ed Sandle]

My experience with walnut has been that it turns some what easy, if it isn't dry, but the last four pieces I turned were completely dry wood, mostly burl, and required a lot more tool sharpening than normal. Not only was the wood dry and very hard, but mostly came out of the stump area of the tree. It would destroy freshly sharpened tools almost instantly. Beautiful finished turnings, but not a wood I care to turn when dry anymore, even with a strong fan pulling the irritating sanding dust away.

 

[John Jordan]

You need to split the blanks along the cracks so you don't have that problem. The cracks will twist along the length of the tree, so cut the lengths the same as the diameter, then look at each end, average out the crack to cut it in two. If you start with a crack, you always have a crack, and while there are various ways to deal with them, and some people like them, a bowl like you have turned there would be better without it. IMO

If you use an air hose and blow the free water from the sapwood, it will stay white. If you leave the free water the piece will stain gray as the water supports fungal growth which will stain it overnight. The staining will also occur in those logs, so turn it up if you want it white. I wouldn't saturate blanks you will use in a day or two, it just makes a n]mess when you turn it and prolongs the drying time.

Plow your way through those and get some more, its the best way to learn.

Walnut is awesome, and one of my favorites. I just noticed you are in CA-if that's claro walnut, it moves a bit more than eastern walnut. With eastern walnut your finished bowl will not distort much, the claro will. you'll know in a couple of days.

Have fun,

John

 

[Paul Sook]

I recently made this out of a super green walnut log. If you get bored of just making bowls.

 

[Daniel Warren]

I am not sure of the species, but yes I am in Northern California. That's great insight on keeping the white sapwood. I have my air compressor filling up now. If it is claro would you advise rough turning and then re-turning?

Paul, I like those quite a bit. My wife asked if I could something other than bowls, and there are apprarently!

 

[John Jordan]

I am not sure of the species, but yes I am in Northern California. That's great insight on keeping the white sapwood. I have my air compressor filling up now. If it is claro would you advise rough turning and then re-turning?

Finish turn a couple green and rough turn some. If you pay attention, its a good and quick education. Its how you learn what specific woods do-this stuff is all quite predictable.

Knock out a hundred (or two) bowls and you'll be ahead of many woodturners. You'll find that skills developed that way will translate to pretty much any kind of turning. A lot of people turn a simple bowl into a major project, but its best to turn it, learn from it and get on to the next one.

There's several articles about wood on my website.

John

 

[Daniel Warren]

John, that's advice well taken. Analysis paralysis!

I wound up turning 3 of the 4 blanks I cut today. Two finished turned and one rough turned with shavings in a paper bag. I'll rough the last one as well and see how they all fare. I"ll get to the other logs this week.

Thanks!

 

[robo hippy]

For reasons unknown to me, walnut seems to dull all of my tools more than about any other wood I deal with... Chainsaw, gouges, scrapers, skews, bandsaw blades,,, just every thing. No idea why. Like John said, try to split the blanks with the cracks. I don't like having to fix cracks. Too much time, and wood does grow on trees. Many varieties of walnut down in California...

robo hippy

 

[John Jordan]

Eastern walnut is almost always better turning and more stable than what you get, but some of thsat west coast stuff is mighty pretty.

John

 

[Donovan Bailey]

Eastern walnut is almost always better turning and more stable than what you get, but some of thsat west coast stuff is mighty pretty.

John

Agree. However, I have noticed that I've been getting a ton of ring shakes out of the eastern black walnut I'm gathering. A ring shake happens in a tree when it gets some kind of trauma...like high wind, a heavy ice storm, etc. Maybe just a bad run of luck I'm having but I'm beginning to think there is a pattern here where it might be a bit more prone to it.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I recently made this out of a super green walnut log. If you get bored of just making bowls.

The form that you have tried will develop radial cracks to the point of being useless. The flared top, the larger diameter midpoint and the natural edge base will be the first areas to crack and eventually the entire piece will likely split to the pith. I have done many end grain, full round hollow forms in many species including American black walnut and have found that the only way to success is to turn a classic form with a small base (where the pith is closest to the out side) and hollow the piece to a uniform wall thickness all the way to the base. The wall thickness can be less than what would be needed for a face grain bowl if the blank is uniform gain that will distort less (it will not go oval but rather it will shrink in diameter). The hollowing process should remove the pith from the open end and the end grain areas should be coated with anchorseal to control the drying process.