Any woodworkers in here?

[KyleR1985]

All trash wood. Last picture is the pecan - you can see the spalting from the end grain.

Dart board box is from some oak firewood that just sat and was barely starting to rot.

 

[aclawrence]

I’ve ordered some blanks from Bell Forest before. Not sure if they have bowl blanks but give them a look.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[longrangelead]

I turned for a long time but my interests have changed.
I can see what I have left for burls, blocks and blanks. I probably have a few I'd give you if you pay shipping.
I've got tons of walnut rifle stock scraps if you want pen blanks or glue up material?

I've also made some cool stuff from scraps of larger projects and firewood.

Maple spoon from a pile of wood dumped at the end of a woods road.



fly boxes: walnut stock scrap and a Box Elder burl out of a burn pile.

Pacific Yew burl

Careful! You'll be dragging home every piece of "useable" wood you find!

 

[KyleR1985]

I turned for a long time but my interests have changed.
I can see what I have left for burls, blocks and blanks. I probably have a few I'd give you if you pay shipping.
I've got tons of walnut rifle stock scraps if you want pen blanks or glue up material?

I've also made some cool stuff from scraps of larger projects and firewood.

Maple spoon from a pile of wood dumped at the end of a woods road.
View attachment 995775

View attachment 995776View attachment 995777
fly boxes: walnut stock scrap and a Box Elder burl out of a burn pile.
View attachment 995778
Pacific Yew burl

Careful! You'll be dragging home every piece of "useable" wood you find!

When I moved from Louisiana to Tennessee I left my lathe to my best friend and his son, about 50 rough turned blanks and endless chunks of cool wood I had stored that filled up a truck bed.

I couldn’t have finished them all in a lifetime. It’s an addiction for sure!

 

[Chris in TN]

I turned for a long time but my interests have changed.
I can see what I have left for burls, blocks and blanks. I probably have a few I'd give you if you pay shipping.
I've got tons of walnut rifle stock scraps if you want pen blanks or glue up material?

I've also made some cool stuff from scraps of larger projects and firewood.

Maple spoon from a pile of wood dumped at the end of a woods road.
View attachment 995775

View attachment 995776View attachment 995777
fly boxes: walnut stock scrap and a Box Elder burl out of a burn pile.
View attachment 995778
Pacific Yew burl

Careful! You'll be dragging home every piece of "useable" wood you find!

Thank you!

So this morning on the way back from hunting I detoured to look at the old hickory I cut 2 years ago. I think there's still a lot of dry stuff there - larger limbs that haven't been touching the ground. And looking at my woodpile I found some spalted maple that seems a bit too far gone (rotting) to make anything from, I turned a piece for a minute this afternoon and it's still pretty but really soft, but there's definitely some dry honey locust and cedar and possibly some smaller elm rounds in there. In short, we have several things to get started with, but I appreciate all the offers.

 

[KyleR1985]

Thank you!

So this morning on the way back from hunting I detoured to look at the old hickory I cut 2 years ago. I think there's still a lot of dry stuff there - larger limbs that haven't been touching the ground. And looking at my woodpile I found some spalted maple that seems a bit too far gone (rotting) to make anything from, I turned a piece for a minute this afternoon and it's still pretty but really soft, but there's definitely some dry honey locust and cedar and possibly some smaller elm rounds in there. In short, we have several things to get started with, but I appreciate all the offers.

Don’t look into vacuum stabilizing spalted wood!

 

[Chris in TN]

Don’t look into vacuum stabilizing spalted wood!

Oh I already have considered it to salvage my persimmon chunk. If I could get a nice crimson streak of epoxy into the worst crack then cut a set of grips from that……lol.

 

[KyleR1985]

Oh I already have considered it to salvage my persimmon chunk. If I could get a nice crimson streak of epoxy into the worst crack then cut a set of grips from that……lol.

Stabilized some what I think is ironwood. Had a neck knife, skinning knife, and a boning knife all made with matching handles.

Neck knife lived a hard life for a few years and has a broken tip and a chunk out of the handle and the kydex sheath doesn’t hold anymore.

But the other two have held up well to house and camp use.

 

[Speaks]

I turn a lot of walnut, cherry, maple, and yellow birch.

 

[Billy Goat]

I have used this before, not for turning, but I suspect if its not to far gone it would probably work.

 

[Pafarm]

I turned for a long time but my interests have changed.
I can see what I have left for burls, blocks and blanks. I probably have a few I'd give you if you pay shipping.
I've got tons of walnut rifle stock scraps if you want pen blanks or glue up material?

I've also made some cool stuff from scraps of larger projects and firewood.

Maple spoon from a pile of wood dumped at the end of a woods road.
View attachment 995775

View attachment 995776View attachment 995777
fly boxes: walnut stock scrap and a Box Elder burl out of a burn pile.
View attachment 995778
Pacific Yew burl

Careful! You'll be dragging home every piece of "useable" wood you find!

Wow you are very talented! Generous pieces there!!

 

[Chris in TN]

So today I learned a valuable lathe lesson: Wood will split.

I googled how to cut a blank and, armed with this knowledge, went to the firewood pile. I'd forgotten that my neighbor cut an American Elm and a Red Maple this summer and gave me the wood and I haven't split it yet. So I poked around and found a big hunk of maple, sawed it lengthwise (should have just split it with the wedge, as dry-ish maple is hard to chainsaw) and skilsaw'ed the edges until I had an eight-sided 'blank' that was more or less flat on top and bottom.

I screwed it to the faceplate and spent a couple hours cleaning up the outside and had it looking really nice with a dovetail of sorts cut on the bottom of the bowl, so it would mount in a 4-jaw chuck. This afternoon (I had to work a while between sessions) I went back and chucked it up and used a gouge to hog out the inner part of the bowl.

Somewhere along the way the blank developed a split. I noticed it and decided to try to forge ahead, but standing out of the way in case it split. Because of the split I could never get either the inside or the outside perfectly smooth - whatever tool I use would bounce on the split lip. But I got the thing amazingly close to looking like a bowl, sanded it with 60, then 150, then 400, and other than a very few very small gouges on the inside where I just couldn't get the inside to smooth up the way, I wanted, it was looking great - good enough to epoxy over the split, let it dry, and then finish - and I decided to try one more time to clean up the inside just a hair more.

*Pop*.

Oh well. At least I was standing out past it and not beside it, so it didn't bonk me in the head. (I was wearing eye pro, FWIW).

I won't try to turn anything that's split again. At least not into a bowl. Seems like it was just a matter of time before it split and I overestimated my ability to work with the split without popping it open.




I may or may not try, tomorrow, to repurpose it as a saucer tomorrow. Maybe bowls are beyond me for the moment, at least until I get some really, really dry wood.

 

[MTlan66]

Your best bet for bowls, is to rough turn them green, coat them with a good wood sealer (anchor seal, or preferably tree saver), let them dry thoroughly and then finish them out. I let them dry for six months minimum, a year is better. There are definitely ways to speed that up, but they get a little tricky.

I highly recommend getting a hold of Mike Mahoney‘s videos, either his Bowl Basics, or Heirlooms. Lots of other great teachers out there as well, but Mike’s Heirlooms video is what has inspired me the most. I’ve been a full-time wood worker for seven years, with probably 2/3 of that work being on the lathe.

Good luck in your ventures!

 

[KyleR1985]

What he said! Don’t be afraid to rough turn green wood.

 

[KyleR1985]

Face shield for the kid!

 

[Chris in TN]

Face shield for the kid!

It came with one. He hasn’t been near it without it and I didn’t let him stand by when I was working with the split piece.

It’s a saucer now.

It was a 7.5” by 5” blank this morning. Now it’s a saucer. lol.

 

[Chris in TN]

I’ll try the next one green. I’ll have to get some of that sealer first.

I can dry them under the shed or in the barn.

 

[Pickettpuncher]

Which end of the state are you in. You may be able to find a farmer or landowner that would be willing to give you some that’s fallen. I’ve got walnuts that’ll never be worth anything that I’ll probably cut for a buddy that wood works. If you’re close enough I’m sure I have a whole tree for you. And maybe other varieties.

 

[Chris in TN]

Which end of the state are you in. You may be able to find a farmer or landowner that would be willing to give you some that’s fallen. I’ve got walnuts that’ll never be worth anything that I’ll probably cut for a buddy that wood works. If you’re close enough I’m sure I have a whole tree for you. And maybe other varieties.

I appreciate the offer. I’m in the middke of the state, but I have a spare black walnut here already. There’s one we harvest nuts from I won’t cut but there’s another that is up for consideration. It’s actually bigger than the first one, but it makes less fruit.
I’ve identified one black walnut, one maple, one honey locust, I’ve already cut two peaches and a sassafras. I also found a suitable chunk of honey locust in the woodpile for something smaller than a bowl. And like most of middle TN I have a lifetime supply of eastern red cedar.

 

[Cervid]

Face shield and good ventilation/respirator are musts, especially if you are turning cedar, which people often develop sensitivities to following exposure to its dust.

Breaking bowls is part of learning. It will happen. Cracked wood can be superglued to reinforce it during the turning process.

I’ve found that there is so much basically/almost free wood that there is not much of a point to cutting down a tree you wouldn’t have cut down anyways to get the wood. Turning the green wood, then letting it dry, and then turning again to finish is what a lot of people do, but also if you turn it all the way when it’s green sometimes it can dry and warp in a cool way. I generally just turn whatever I have available. So far that’s been mulberry, cherry, walnut, oak, maple, and ginkgo and maybe a few others.