practice wood?

In my opinion, I detest Red Oak so would say that's the one to waste - BUT...

Red Oak can be difficult to work and can be the source of much frustration when learning a new technique or practicing. (Splintery.)

"Sticker ball type" maple - sounds more like Sweet Gum. Regardless, this is the one I'd likely use to practice. I'd aim for a bland, even and closed grain wood for practice. (The Sycamore would be good too, but I like the cross-ring (quartersawn) figure and wouldn't want to waste it.)

Second the opinion- waste the red oak- it's a PITA to turn, splinters, IMO- smells nasty, and I've never been lucky enough to have any with interesting grain or patterns. BEsides, if you can get good at turning this crap\\\\\ valuable wood; think how easy it will be when you get to the Sycamore.

Other good practice woods are Elm, Linden, or Ash- found in most woodpiles or at the municipal recycling center.

/vic

Turn anything you fancy. If spindle work, dry is fine, if faceplate work, best to work on green wood until you get the angles down. If you shear down across the fibers rather than trying to lift and cut, red oak is just a stinky version of other large-pore woods.

Be especially careful to keep your lathe ways and other tools with cast iron cleaned off, green oak'll rust them fast.

Bruce,

I agree with the others to some degree. Use the oak as firewood........turn the rest. The red oak is so difficult to turn and has such a nasty smell.........you might even give up turning if you practice on this stuff.

Barry

Of course, knowing that, you should try it at least once. I *like* the smell of red oak, and with sharp tools and some TLC it turns nicely, especially for spindle work.

Poplar is my favorite "easy" wood though, followed by mahogany (although I don't like M's smell).

firewood........turn

I've detected some antipathy toward red oak among turners, especially in this NG. I know it is porous and splinters easily, but I do have a question: why does it seem to cost more than white oak these days?

Max

Elm is the second wood on my list to refuse if anything else is available - but then, I haven't had the pleasure of turning cottonwood... no, I take that back. Elm would be #3, Austrian Pine would be #2; just turning the lathe on seems to cause major tearout.

Suppose it depends on where you are. I know the CA varieties are under some pressure from disease. Doesn't seem to have been any major reversal in MI that I can detect.

I am not a detractor of red oak. It's pungent, but certainly no competition in that department with elm or our local willow. In furniture-making it's a splinter hazard, but not of the proportion that say, luan is, and I'm not sure that obvious splinters are so much worse than the death by a thousand unseen cuts you get from working hard maple or yellow birch. For turning, it's really a pretty good wood, because it's uniform in density, and doesn't crush easily. I've found it to be a good seller, and may try to buy firewood from the next county, where oak grows, just to get my shelves replenished.

As to use as firewood, I find it holds moisture virtually forever in the 50" lengths I use. I imagine it has to do with the drying rate on the end grain exceeding the capillary draw of the large pores. Cut a year and a half piece in half, and the interior still shows dark with moisture. Only other wood I've seen that in is black ash, but it is lower in tannins, and rots, where the oak only rots the sapwood. Make short lengths and all splits if using it for firewood.

I'm playing with some cottonwood these days. some of it turns really nice but you need to keep your edge sharp. I've only finished a couple really small pieces from figured cottonwood. The larger pieces will take some time to dry before I finish turn them. I plan on getting some more on my next trip to the tree dump.

Really anything free can be used for learning. I've done russian olive and siberian elm which are trash trees here.

Owen Lowe wrote:

I have never had the opportunity to try oak yet. Ken Bullock of

uses red oak very commonly and prefers it as one of his favorites for natural edge bowls. People say bad things about many woods but if you know how to sharpen and how to dry wood, many of the problems go away. I have turned western red cedar (so soft that the pen dented it as I signed it), apple, sycamore, ponderosa pine, black locust, cherry, maple burl, maple, birch, lacewood, bloodwood, walnut, aspen, ?. I will try any interesting looking wood.

Keep an eye out and you'll find more wood.

Derek

That's another aspect of Red Oak where I've had very poor results. I've paper bagged rough turnings with paper stuffed inside the bowl, placed the bag in my unheated basement and I still get major cracking - good mold growth too :) - and I live in Oregon and turned this stuff in winter when it rains 90% of the time.

I live in North Central Washington, which is very dry. The method of drying that works for me (with natural edge bowls) is drying inside a long cardboard box which is put inside a black 30 gallon garbage sack. The moisture loss is through the end of the cardboard box that is nearest the bag opening. Works for me. When the moisture content is higher I just drape the bag over the box. Make sure any handle holes or other cracks are plugged. I occasionally have mold, but I wipe it off and it normally doesn't persist after my next coat of Daly's Teak oil finish (tung oil/varnish) is applied. By this method I successfully dry even apple wood, which moves substantially and often has built-in stresses and microcracks from its horizontal growth for fruit production. Paper bags (even multiple layers) did not work in this climate. I also tried paper bags as changeable blotters inside plastic bags which was very tedious. This is the best method I have found. After about two weeks, most bowls can be removed from the bag and air dried. By this time they have three or more coats of oil/varnish. Thicker bowls and those with very high water content may take up to a month. If you live in a climate with higher moisture content, the time could be much more. I judge the dryness by the amount that the bottom looks off-plane when viewed at 45 degrees to the grain. I leave the bowls out for another week before sanding the bottom flat and buffing.

I often microwave my natural edge bowls after turning them to 5/8" thick. Then I finish turn. The microwave is quicker to get rid of the moisture that I need to than the heat gun, if the piece has a fairly high moisture content i.e. slings water. The microwave seems to cause less warpage than an equivalent moisture loss by slow-drying. I have only begun to add this microwave step this year.

Derek

"Owen Lowe" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com... In article , "Derek Hartzell" wrote:

That's another aspect of Red Oak where I've had very poor results. I've paper bagged rough turnings with paper stuffed inside the bowl, placed the bag in my unheated basement and I still get major cracking - good mold growth too :) - and I live in Oregon and turned this stuff in winter when it rains 90% of the time.

I don't particularly like the smell of black walnut, but I love the wood to turn and finish.

Barry

I'm a rank beginner so take these words with however many grains of salt you think adviseable.

My 'newbie to newbie' advice would be to practice on them all. Each will cut differently and teach you something about your tools that you didn't know yet. This week I am working my way through a couple freebie logs. I'm not able to definitely identify it, but it appears to be some sort of hickory (based on bark and leaf patterns). I also have a decent sized stack (80 pcs) of 3x4's used as freight dunnage. Some are clearly softwood, others are just as clearly hardwood. Since I am so terribly new, I am learning on the softwoods because what I am reading tells me that it will be harder to obtain a really nice finish with them than with the hardwoods.

I'm guessing that if I remain a woodturner for long I'll be going through a lot of wood. No need to get the heebie-jeebies over any of these first pieces .... there will be tons more behind them.

Exactly right, and not only that, practicing on the different woods will teach you about the woods themselves, too. Each wood is different, and they have different characteristics depending on whether they are wet or dry. My suggestion for practicing, though, would be whatever wood that a) you have the most of; b) is most easily replaced if you find you like it, and; c) is the cheapest! Free wood is (almost) always the best wood to practice on. (Caveat - I'd shy away from practicing on pretty much any green softwoods.)

To practice putting details in and finer tool control, (as opposed to just roughing and learning what gross operations the tools will perform) you'll probably be happiest working with the maple, over the more splintery oaks and the softer sycamore. Maple will take detail nicely and give you a nice "off-the-tool" finish if you are using good technique with a sharp tool.

I made some very decorative firewood for my father, from his woodpile, when I was learning, most of it being green, hard maple. Turns like a dream.

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September 11, 2001 - Never Forget