checking, a one time event?

Consider the use of LDD the next time you turn green! *G*

IME- depends on the wood and what you're doing with it. I have a thin- leaf alder shroom that split and kept splitting for a couple of months as it dried in the shop. A much thinner box turned from the same log (8 or 10" from the bottom of what became the shroom) just warped a tiny bit. A couple of the very green turned shrooms where the cap was done thin took some nice warpage, but never split.

Mostly it's a tossup whether it splits or warps or does nothing.

vic

Hi Leif I'm new to turning and picking up as much info as poss. Please tell me what is LDD and what it does ? Thanks in advance

Wally

If you're speaking of radial check(s), normally one is all there is. It relieves the tension once and for all. If you're talking about end-checking from too quick a drying gradient, might get worse, might close to invisibility. I don't turn my mushrooms the way Darrell and others do, rather I turn them off center or sometimes on multiple centers to make sure that the thinnest of the stem does not include the pith, which might split. As for cap, and with mine, the base, thin allows movement without cracks most all the time.

Of course, I also turn mushrooms from already been cracked pieces of firewood. Beauty in the eye of the buyer.

Silvan I turned 3 or 4 hundred mushrooms last year and I would say, as a general rule, and subject to the variances one finds in wood, that the following apply to splitting:

-most small (under 2" diameter) mushrooms do not split

-most large (over 9" diameter) mushrooms split

-most splits happen in the first three days of drying

-most splits widen over the first two weeks

A mushroom turned with a consistently thin head is and stem is less likely to split but it does not look like a mushroom. Very few mushrooms have thin heads. Personally, I like a split or two in a medium to large mushroom.

Hi, Wally: I will email you "The World-famous Treatise on LDD." However, I will need a good email address to send it to. Read it and if you have any questions, email me privately.

And I thank you mightily for giving me the idea too. :) Did you ever get my message? I'm having email problems.

Thin head... I'm not quite getting what you mean. Something tall and pointy, or something seriously hollowed out, like a bowl?

They're looking OK to me so far too. I can see leaving well enough alone and even encouraging them to split, but only if it means they're not going to self-destruct down the road. :)

Your little mushroom page saved my lathe. I was getting disenchanted and feeling like it was all totally pointless. It still is, but now it's just too *fun* to quit. Turning things people look at and say "wow, that's cool" is a lot more fun than cranking out endless streams of warped, miscellaneous, purposeless little spindles. Plus it's a great use for my gigantic pile of small branch wood.

Unlike everything else I've done with the lathe, these are keepers. I had one blow up, and the rest are sitting on a shelf that's getting too full. If I can really sell these stupid things at SWMBO's craft shows, I can afford to accessorize my lathe. :)

(I just hope I'm not competing with any real turners. Don't want to pee in anyone's pond.)

Hi again Leif. Thanks for the reply You can get to my private inbox here. snipped-for-privacy@newport100.freeserve.co.uk

Look forward to your mail

Wally

Michael aka Silvan Glad you like turning the mushrooms. Try an angel wing or two with those branch pieces also. They can be a hoot to turn. Sorry to say I have not received a separate e-mail, but try, try again if you wish. By a thin head for a mushroom, I mean a head that is thinned as a bowl would be thinned. Some turner really undercut to prevent splitting. I just let the wood move as it may. To each his/her own and both are right. Of course I am more right than others :-) The only point to turning is to enjoy yourself. That may be from the satisfaction of sales, the joy of giving, the sheer pleasure of watching the shavings fly or another personal reason, but is for the joy. To me, this is a good reason. I would rather be happy than sad any day of the week.

Interesting. That might mean one reason I'm not hearing from people is because they're not hearing from *me*.

Well, I was basically just responding to your request to be notified if anybody makes some of the stuff on your site. No big deal.

Gotcha. I might try that. Seems like really thin wet wood might warp into all kinds of weird organic shapes and make them look better.

You can say that again. Happy is good. :)