But By The Third Piece ...
Lately I?ve been turning three, four or ten pieces from the same piece/chunk of wood. Not 14? diameter plates or 14? tall hollow forms of course, but smaller stuff - weed pots and small turned lidded boxes and, to keep my spindle turning skills up, finials. Last night, while turning the third lidded box from a chunk of black walnut, I noticed that that for the first two pieces I?d been focused on shape and technique, especially the lid fit. The finish was almost an after thought. I slopped on some Mahoney?s Walnut Oil after sanding to 320.
By the third blank I had the process down. This time I paid more attention to the wood. There?s often a lot of interesting subtle colors and figure in black walnut, not just dark brown, almost black. This time I sanded the end grain to 800 grit and, rather than saturating the wood with oil, I just used the almost dry rag I used for the Mahoney oil. Then I sanded the face grain to 600, the end grain again to 800 grit and used the rag again to fill the open grain with fine sawdust and oil.
I lined up the three pieces in order of creation. The earliest piece was the darkest, could have been any wood - dipped in used motor oil. The shape was OK, but not all that interesting. You?d have to look very closely to see the grain. The second piece had a nicer form but the oil saturation basically obscured the grain and color differences in the wood. But the third piece had a nice shape AND just enough oil to pop the grain a little, without obscuring either the subtle color differences or the grain figure.
Notes to Self:
With black walnut - GO EASY ON THE OIL!
IT?S THE WOOD - STUPID!
With all the things to keep track of when turning, each critical to the end results, how do you keep the big picture - the finished piece - in mind as you go from a chunk of wood to the last wipe down with a clean cloth?
For smaller pieces, do you tend to turn the same type of wood ?til the turning fever breaks or mix it up, working with a different wood for each piece?
If you stick with one type of wood for a turning run, do you get a better feel for that particular wood and turn and finish it to best suit it?
When selecting boards for door panels and drawer fronts I go through a lot of switching boards around, turning them over, sliding them relative to each other to get the grain patterns to line up. Finding the right combination and orientation is either a lot of fun or a PITA depending on how much wood I want to get out and go through (a large layout/assembly bench sure comes in handy). But with turning you often don?t know what the grain will look like for the finished piece and the next light pass with the skew may blow a piece that was so promising.
Of all the types of woodworking I?ve done, turning is the most like a crap shoot. Sometimes you get lucky and other times . . . Perhaps that?s what makes it so addictive - pull the lever - again - and maybe this time you?ll win!
Could be that I'm just not very selective with what I start with. Maybe great turners don't waste time on marginal pieces of wood.
charlie b