Turning Wet or Dry Wood

[Dusty Sawyer]

I just started turning and have done one project with some very dry Oak. It came out very good considering my experience level.

But I just started a piece of red maple which I pulled from my land this spring and it is still pretty wet, although seasoned. I am seeing much more little tearout holes on the side of the bowl than I did with the oak.

Could this be due to the fact that it is still wet?

Thanks

 

[dozer]

You might want to resharpen your lathe tools. Red Oak will dull them in a hurry. I try to sharpen my tools after each use sometime I just touch them up with a wet stone or fine file.

 

[Dusty Sawyer]

Thanks guys, a little bit of sharpening and a bit of an upward angle on the chisel has helped out quite a bit. I also found an article that described how to keep the tool from getting too much of a bite on the wood at one time. It's still not perfect, but much, much better than it was. Maybe I should consider something besides those cheap HF chisels.

One mystery solved, billiions left to go :lol:

Thanks

 

[tom hintz]

Dusty,
Getting good quality tools and learning to sharpen them right was one of the biggest steps up in my learning-to-turn process. Of course, that tended to show more clearly when I was using the tools right or wrong....but it did help a bunch.
Generally, wet wood is eaiser to turn as it slices way easier than dry wood. one of the pitfalls of being a turner is not being able to resist turning anything we find. The down side to free "found wood" is that it can be very inconsistent, rotted or otherwise "weird" inside, conditions that can make turning a smooth surface very difficult.
For me, learning to recognize when things aren't going well and then figuring out how changing the tool presentation to the wood would help was a big step forward. It takes time and practice, but that's half of the fun.

 

[NZAPP1]

Dusty
Could you share the link for the article you are referring to in the link library?

 

[Dusty Sawyer]

Glad to share - here are a couple articles I found useful:

Custom Wood Design

Woodturning Online :: Articles - Woodturning Online offers wood turning projects, woodturning plans, articles, and information on wood turning, bowl turning, pen turning, the wood lathe, segmented turning, lathe tools, and more for the woodturner.
(nice article on spalted wood properties and how to roll your own spalted wood)

Hope these are informative!


David

 

[Dusty Sawyer]

Finished: Turning Wet or Dry Wood : Finished

Here is a link to the finished product. The lighting shows off some inconsistent marks on the inside of the bowl and the tearout is visible on the outside. Not possible to see in this photo are all of the tiny worm holes that are across the grain - very interesting.


For a first try, I'm pleased.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showphoto.php?photo=8211&cat=757

 

[DaveO]

That looks awesome. Incredible spalting :icon_thum

Your tear-out is occuring on the end grain. End grain is very hard to slice cleanly. Sharp tools are a must, often a shear scraping cut will help to. Also spalted/ wormy wood is often soft and doesn't cut as cleanly as wood with normal cellular structure.
Dave

 

[NZAPP1]

Nice work it is awesome:icon_thum