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Where do you get your bowl blanks??

J

Jerry Bailey

Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
198
Likes
7
Location
Boulder City, NV
1st of all, Greetings! as I'm new here ........
been a custom cabinet maker/ custom furniture maker for last 30+ years
now "retired" and getting into the turning bug (need something to keep me busy :rolleyes:

So far I have ordered bowl/platter blanks from RJ Cutler, and recently the guys from Got Wood ........
Really like the species available from Got Wood, and they have very reasonable pricing, and a nice variety in woods

having a tough time finding suppliers of larger sizes/blanks that I can use for deep bowls and possible vases, and would rather not have to laminate pieces together to get size I want ........

Any suggestions on suppliers?
My tastes range in rather exotic & wild woods
Spalted Maple, Spalted Tamarind, Mesquite, Rainbow Poplar, Select magnolia, etc etc

TIA for any help
 
Hi Jerry,

Welcome to retirement. The suppliers for most of the species of bowl and hollow form blanks are all around you. The stuff grows on trees and, for the most part, comes free (if you already own a chainsaw or know an arborist). Most of what I turn is 'found' wood. The exotics will have to be purchased. Just look in the last few pages of any issue of the the American Woodturner and you will find some pretty reliable suppliers of the more exotic species.

Matt
 
Jerry,
Good advice from Matt and Bill.

If you can, hook up with a local chapter of the AAW. many clubs have a "wood dump", wood auctions, wood give aways.
Many turners have more wood than they can turn an would rather you have it than see it go to waste.

Check with your county waste management. Some have places where you can cut firewood. These were real common 15 years ago but many counties have closed this service or don't allow chain saws to keep away from law suits.

Drive around and listen for chainsaws,
In the western cities they have been planting hardwoods for a long time and they get cut down or fall down.

A good source for ordering is Blanks4u a local dealer here in Florida that ships all over. They get most their wood from city trees and have some tropicals that won't grow where it gets cold.

Al
 
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Let people you know, know you turn wood from local trees

After the word gets out you will get calls from friends of friends........
Make them a bowl you'll get more calls.

When people have a tree cut down they don't want it to go into a chipper.
Some will ask you to cut it down. Don't tackle anything beyond your expertise.
Some will ask you to pay for the wood or the cost of the arborist- I usually tell them no.

Al
 
look up tree trimmers in the phone book, give them a call and ask them where they dump their wood. Most trimmers have a deal with someone for their stuff. I have two or three that told me a place where they get rid of it.
Drive through the neighborhoods after a storm and yu will find many sources of wood lying on the ground where people would be glad for you to cut it up. Gary
 
I'm fortunate to work in land development, so I've been able to selectively harvest trees from project sites before the loggers come in and clearcut everything and send it to the mill.

I also keep an eye out when I'm driving around town - especially when it gets close to "heavy trash day" or "tree waste day" - I've found nice sycamore, "black heart" magnolia, pecan and pear that way.

and through our local club - I call "they guys" when I find a tree worthy of taking from my project sites, and they call me when they find trees that need to come down (usually "urban" trees that are diseased) and we share wood.
 
Many thanks for the replies ya'll
and a special thanks hockenbery for the link, I like their pricing and variety

I should have mentioned in original post, was looking for kiln dried wood
as being a "newbie" I'm impatient to get finished turnings done ;)
Am currently laminating lumber I purchase (cut-offs) for other jobs, but also want to do full logs...

here in Nevada, we don't get the storms some of ya'll suffer through, so fallen trees are a rarity, but we have plenty of Palm trees and cactus :cool:
but am planning on hooking up with local turners in time and getting networked into their system.

Eventually I will have more of an interest in the green woods as I have plans on doing some of my own kiln drying, and I want to do some that definitely warp and twist, but not just yet.
plus I also want to get into stabilizing some of the woods....
And never thought about contacting landscapers, very good thought, thank you!
 
Jerry,

I have little patience too,
I turn mostly green wood into hollow forms and bowls. These are dry to finish within a week.

Regarding palm.
It isn't a real tree and has no wood grain. It's structure is like a bundle of straws stuck together.
A lot of people here in Florida turn palm with great results.
Look for hard ones or hard sections. It demands that each fiber cut have a supporting fiber behind it.
Like wood does but more so. Wood lets you cut the wrong way with a rough surface palm tends to come apart when cut the wrong way,
Probably want a good experience base before tackling palm.

Have fun.
 
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I turn mostly green wood into hollow forms and bowls. These are dry to finish within a week.
Click to expand...

a week? seriously? is this using pentacryl or something similar?
all research I've done says minimum 3-4 months after rough turning.......
I can handle a week :D

Re Palm: ... I didn't think it was even turnable, exactly because of the fibers instead of actual grain, and cactus is only good for "juice" ;)

images attached are current work in progress while I wait for lathe to be delivered end of this week.
naturally not done with a lathe because of the dividers, just a bunch of cut-offs from different jobs, and didn't want to throw them away ......
End result will be a lazy susan, with a solid cherry base
woods are: wenge, sapele, figured maple, purple heart, padauk, american walnut, and cherry ...........
center section has a very slight (1/16") cherry ring to transition from colored woods to the solid walnut ........
overall current dimensions, 17" diameter & 2 1/2" tall, with 2 1/4" usable space in sections, plus additional 3/4" when cherry base applied

just to show ya'll how eclectic I get working with woods :cool:
 

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I don't think I've every purchased a bowl blank. It's just too much fun scrounging wood and cutting our own. rough turn some bowls which is fun in itself. put them up to dry. Then grab a green blank and turn a thin natural edge bowl to completion. That gives you your instant fix of wanting a bowl now. Do about 2 or 3 rough ones to each thin natural edge bowl and in a very short time you'll have all the dry roughed out bowls you could want.
Since you were a cabinet maker why not get into segmented turning. That's how I got started turning. I already had all the cutting and gluing skills so Ijust put them to use making segmented stuff. It was only later that I got the found wood fix and now seldom do segmented work (although I'm working on an inside out project right now)
 
dITTO

john lucas said:
I don't think I've every purchased a bowl blank. It's just too much fun scrounging wood and cutting our own.
Click to expand...

Hi Jerry,

As your friends and family members learn about your "new hobby" be prepared for calls like
"They're taking down a big tree over on Elm Street! Bet you could get some pretty wood." or "Hi, I'm on Sycamore Place and there's some log pieces sitting at the curb. Want me to snag you a couple?"

Of course, if you happen to ask a local tree trimmer, you might just get the response of "Where would you like the truck to unload?" :D
 
Jerry Bailey said:
a week? seriously? is this using pentacryl or something similar? all research I've done says minimum 3-4 months after rough turning....... I can handle a week :D Re Palm: ... I didn't think it was even turnable, exactly because of the fibers instead of actual grain, and cactus is only good for "juice" ;:
Click to expand...
Two common ways to turn a bowl are

1. The double turn where a rough out with wall thickness 10% of diameter is dried to 8-10% moisture content remounted and the turned round. The traditional salad bowl. Air drying takes 4-12 months

2. Turn to a finished thickness while green. These bowls will warp. Thinner walls dry faster and usually warp more. I turned these bowls with wall from 1/2" thick to 1/16. Anything under 1/4 will air dry in a week for finishing. I and all of these off the lathe.

Here are three examples in terrible photos. Of once turned bowls

A holly bowl 12" diameter

Two Laurel oak bowls in progress from facing sections of a log section left for the trash. Largest is 16" the larger was turned about three weeks after the first and you can see the changes in the wood as it begins to spalt. I will do something to the rim to darken it a bit.

Camphor bowl just off the lathe about 15" diameter. This I will put in a paper bag for a couple days just to be safe. In low humidity areas the bagging is essential.

Al
 

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many thanks to all for the replies, definitely a friendly forum :cool2:

am planning on driving around tomorrow looking at trees, and having a chat with the city workers about any felled trees they deal with.
living in the desert, we don't get that many, but am sure the city cuts down some to clear land .....

John Lucas, I have the desire to do segmented stuff eventually, figured I'd better get good at doing "regular" turning 1st.
Have worked with a mini lathe before so know the tools and usages, but never something larger like bowls and hollow vessels, so want to get comfortable 1st,
(kind of like a rough framing carpenter jumping in to do a fine cherry armoire) definitely have the stock for doing segments tho :rolleyes:

Thanks Al for those tips, kind of goes against some of the research I've done, but that's why I joined here, to get info from people who've actually worked the pieces.
Feel better about getting "chunked" wood laying on side of road now,
and definitely waiting for the friendly calls about where to get some logs/woods.

Got the call this morning , new lathe will be delivered tomorrow...
gonna build a stand/table for it, and itching to get busy making shavings :D

ya'll have a great day
 
Jerry segmented turning doesn't have to be the many sided rings all stacked up that you see most of the time. There are lots of other ways to glue things up and have fun. You can make weed pots, lamps, candlesticks, platters, etc. Heck you can even make really thick bowls because since they are made from dry wood they won't crack or warp. Just start gluing and have fun.
Here in Tennessee a 1/2" thick bowl will dry in about 2 to 4 weeks if not less. Depends a lot on the wood and where it's stored to dry. Thinner of course drys faster.
 
hunting your own turning wood

Is like the fisherman tying his/her own flies, the sportsman butchering and freezing his/her own kill, a turner making their own lathe, a student working their way thru college instead of mom/dad or loans, pilots making their own airplanes, etc, etc. Makes you feel more self sufficient, and more proud of the end product to say you did it all (from the hunt,harvest, creation and finish,).
I had 2 people at work today, 1 earlier this week, asking my interest in trees at their homes after ice storms 2 weeks ago. Unfortumately , They were trees I have alot of now, and am trying to curb my woodaholicism :D
Gretch
 
Speaking of fishing......

For what it's worth, and FYI:

Asking where to get bowl blanks, is like asking a fisherman where the best fishing spot is. He might tell you of a general location, but the best spot is not what you are likely to get directions to.......It isn't being unfriendly, it's a matter of preserving what his own research/luck has provided him......and, he intends to keep it that way!

There really isn't any local wood I'm interested in around here.......so, I must purchase my bowl blanks. All of the wood I use was purchased on the internet, with the exception of a few local lumber yards that have a small section of kiln dried hardwoods.

You must do your own research to find the best sources of wood you are interested in turning. Here's a little "heads up" on what this post is all about. A few years back, I revealed my source to some exceptionally nice burl wood......just because I wanted to "share". Almost immediately afterwards, the price went up dramatically......before the supply was completely exhausted. There was no more, because the supply was limited to a few pieces the supplier could get from a limited number of available trees.

So.....when the question is asked where you get your bowl blanks......I think of this every time! This post will be no surprise to a few turners, and it will be a "heads up" to understand why this thread hasn't been overwhelmed by leads to purchase outstanding examples of bowl blanks.

If you look around, you will find a (very) few domestic sources of wood from a few individuals who really understand what a turner longs to find. Usually, you will pay a premium price for his expertise, but if you are lucky to find such individuals, the price is secondary to sorting through junk blanks that you wasted your money on.......because the guy turned out to be a "salesman", rather than truly knowledgeable about what his customers want.

Pictures are truly worth 1000 words, but some people have learned how to photograph wood that looks outstanding, but when you get it.....not so much! You will learn who these people are.

Some bowl blanks are outstanding, even though you never saw a picture before you purchased......you will learn who these people are, too.

ooc
 
Jerry,
After a while I learned that tree service guys or tree trimming companies always have great wood for use. If you can contact a few of them and talk with some people one on one and give them a card then tell them you are a wood turner and if they get you some logs/limbs you will make a bowl or something from the wood and give it to them for their kindness. Now I have people calling me all the time offering a tree that is going to be cut down because they want another bowl. It works I know.
 
roughoutbowls.com

I would add roughoutbowls.com to all of the other recommended sites from the woodturning magazines and the other posts. They are in Fort Collins, Colorado
and are always at the Rocky Mountain Woodturning Symposium which will be next September. I got quite a few from them a few years ago and they are great. They are kiln dried and mostly local trees from the city of Fort Collins.
Their website will give you a good idea of what they have and also tips on reverse chucking and rounding out the blanks after they have been through the kiln.

As others have mentioned, I now have found several other sources for logs and wood and I am drying my own roughouts and also working on the dried ones with probably about 300 to 400 somewhere between roughed out today and drying for 4 or 5 years.

Enjoy your tree hunting, chain sawing and turning.

The Utah Woodturning Symposium in Provo is in May and also may not be too far from where you are.
 
again, many thanks for the replies :)
I've spent literally days googling and searching the net, so far have found 3 suppliers I'm happy with species selection, and saw a ton that looked to be a waste of time.

And Odie, I understand completely, didn't think of that fact before making the post, but makes perfect sense, especially if your favorite place has reasonable pricing.

Am fairly new to Nevada, just moved here from Cali. within last year, so just getting to know the place.
Found perfect supplier for exotic lumber, and have just recently decided on going into larger turning.
spent last 2 days building cabinet/stand, and am setting up the new lathe,
hopefully have it running sometime Sunday.
Currently have a nice stockpile of kiln dried ready and waiting for turning, keep me busy until I get networked into local resources and find some decent green woods......

Been looking a lot into segmented turning, which I already have tons of stock for.
Anyone have any thoughts on the software available for calculating the different segments?
are they actually worthwhile?
found 1 site that really looks promising (won't post link as I'm unsure forum rules ATM), but it seems to cut down on the calculate time and get you into gluing/turning much quicker.
 
odie said:
Asking where to get bowl blanks, is like asking a fisherman where the best fishing spot is. He might tell you of a general location, but the best spot is not what you are likely to get directions to.......It isn't being unfriendly, it's a matter of preserving what his own research/luck has provided him......and, he intends to keep it that way!
<snip>
This post will be no surprise to a few turners, and it will be a "heads up" to understand why this thread hasn't been overwhelmed by leads to purchase outstanding examples of bowl blanks.
Click to expand...

Odie,
I think it could be a bit misleading to connect any perceived lack of responses as indicative of readers protecting their sources. I believe most of us use locally sourced woods and rarely purchase bowl blanks from commercial outfits. Once the posts are made that tree trimmers, friends and neighbors, local AAW chapters, woodturning buds, city wood lots, and sniffing out the oil-spiked gasoline fumes of chainsaws hard at work in the neighborhood are where most of us get blanks (as per the subject wording), what’s more to be added? Too, there were 15 replies before you posted the above, which isn’t too bad for a thread’s length.

As to my own source of purchased wood, I’ve bought from Griffin Exotic Woods, but almost all of that has been in spindle form. Occasionally, I visit Gilmer Wood in Portland, but that’s only if I’m in the neighborhood with nothing else to do. I rarely purchase wood because I’ve got all I need from the neighborhood and the buds.
 
Owen Lowe said:
Odie,
I think it could be a bit misleading to connect any perceived lack of responses as indicative of readers protecting their sources. I believe most of us use locally sourced woods and rarely purchase bowl blanks from commercial outfits. Once the posts are made that tree trimmers, friends and neighbors, local AAW chapters, woodturning buds, city wood lots, and sniffing out the oil-spiked gasoline fumes of chainsaws hard at work in the neighborhood are where most of us get blanks (as per the subject wording), what’s more to be added? Too, there were 15 replies before you posted the above, which isn’t too bad for a thread’s length.

As to my own source of purchased wood, I’ve bought from Griffin Exotic Woods, but almost all of that has been in spindle form. Occasionally, I visit Gilmer Wood in Portland, but that’s only if I’m in the neighborhood with nothing else to do. I rarely purchase wood because I’ve got all I need from the neighborhood and the buds.
Click to expand...

Very true, Owen.........:D

I can only speak for myself, and do nothing more than speculate on who else isn't posting to this thread.....and, for what reason. I think you are, as well, limited to the same speculation that I am......;)

ooc
 
Jerry Bailey said:
.... Been looking a lot into segmented turning, which I already have tons of stock for.
Anyone have any thoughts on the software available for calculating the different segments?
are they actually worthwhile?
found 1 site that really looks promising (won't post link as I'm unsure forum rules ATM), but it seems to cut down on the calculate time and get you into gluing/turning much quicker.
Click to expand...

I have Woodturner Studio by Jerry Bennett. You can still get it from Craft Supplies. I bought my copy at SWAT a few years ago when Jerry used to have a booth in the vendor area. He also has some layout tools for open segmented vessels that you can also still get at Craft Supplies. It is interesting to note that the Craft Supplies web site says that it is not compatible with Windows Vista, 7, or 8 or with Macintosh computers. It never was intended to run on a Mac, but they are mistaken about it not running on current versions of Windows. I recently built a 64-bit Windows 7 Pro computer and moved the software from my old 32-bit XP computer and it runs just fine. The version of Woodturner Studio that I have is 1.2 dated 2002 and I am fairly certain that there have not been any revisions since then.

It runs fine and does not have any bugs that I know of -- it has never crashed or frozen up or any other problems. It is actually a rather amazing little program -- the layout is done in 2-D and it has a 3-D view window that allows you to rotate the object about any axis and adjust the lighting and shading to suit your desires. Additionally, you get cut diagrams for each ring. It can be used for open or solid segments or also if you want to do a layout for a non-segmented hollow form.

Since it has been around for a while and probably 11 or 12 years since the last update, the interface shows its age of looking like something from Windows 98 NT, or 2000, but the thing that matters is that it does what it is intended to do and it prints out great documentation for your projects.

The program is quite intuitive and doesn't really have much of a learning curve other than learning about its features and how they are used. When I bought my copy I asked Jerry about a tutorial and he said that it wasn't really necessary. I agree that it was nothing to pick up how to use it, but if somebody is a complete computer phobe then they might have problems if something like turning on their computer is a challenge. :D The help menu is a little thin, but again I didn't run across anything that I couldn't figure out in a few minutes.

The program was designed when screens had a 4:3 layout and typically no larger than 19 inches. My new screen is 16:9 and 27 inches so there is unused space if you want to display the program in full screen. The cost of the program is still what it has always been -- $69.95, but if you are into hollowforms, especially segmented hollowforms then it is almost an essential tool for saving yourself a lot of detail work. I think that I will ask the folks at Craft Supply why they think that the program won't work with the latest software. Generally, the only older programs that won't run on newer machines are those that are hardware dependent and require updated drivers (things like monitor calibrators, scanners, etc). Even then, there are often workarounds.
 
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