Beaver Chewed Wood for Woodturning Projects

Locating Specialty Wood Sources for Woodturning Projects Such As A Beaver Chewed Branch Laying On The River Bed

Like any wood turner I am always looking for new sources or different sources of wood to turn. This summer we spent a lot of time by the river doing some fishing, seining and swimming with our grandsons. They kept pulling out big branches and sometimes logs that were water logged and laying on the river bed so I though …..why not try to turn some of this!

Always Looking for New Sources of Wood for Woodturning

Beaver Branch — What to turn with a beaver branch?

woo

woodturning blanks for sale on ebay — Good prices on woodturing blanks on ebay!

I am always looking for new sources of wood for woodturning. It might be types or species of wood or just shapes of different wood. Like crotches, branches ….dried or rotted pieces or a small slingshot type piece that would make a nice small bowl or jewelery dish. Any type of unusual piece of wood in a tree ….whether it has grown that way or gotten its shape from laying on the ground.

Often times its not how big the piece of wood is but rather the shape, then its left to your imagination.

If you need a quick blank or two you can always check out ebay for wood turning blanks ….you can usually find some decent deals there.

Water Logged Beaver Chewed Branch

The kids dragged a whole bunch of water logged branches from the river this summer…..some were chewed up by beavers and probably muskrats. I thought they were pretty cool looking and wondered what I could make out of them, what could I turn from a beaver branch 🙂

Beaver Bowls?

I could see doing a couple of bowls on the fat end of it. Maybe a few vases with the beaver teeth (chewing) left in the side. These might be ugly and worthless to some but for those who enjoy wildlife they can own a bit of natural history ….for those that live on or new Fox River they can own a part of geographical history near to them.

beaver branch at wide end — Should I turn a bowl from this beaver branch?

Develop a Woodturning Selling Strategy

For those who like to turn wood and sell it you need to come up with a Unique Selling Proposition such as a beaver vase …..although that can be serious and interesting to the “naturalist” it might be a joke for someone who is a bit of a “pervert” and looking for a gag or practical joke type gift. You never know what causes someone to buy your stuff.

You might want to take that piece and slice it into 50 or more pen planks and sell them as Fox River Beaver Pens ……get the idea!

Sure, everyone loves wood bowls, vases, cups, pizza cutters, pens, billy bats, clubs and on and on…..nothing like a custom turned piece …..however, if you can tie into an emotion or memory you will have more sales and get more money for your turnings.

If you stumble on this post and have some ideas ….please let me know!

Beaver Wood Facebook Post

I did a Facebook post asking my group what they thought I could turn out of this piece of wood. Since I am writing both the blog post and FB post at the same time I have no idea what kind of response I will get. I’m assuming since it is “Beaver” wood, I will get the worse of the worse ….gonna be pretty hard for those folks to not make a few perverted comments ….but we’ll see 🙂

Here’s the Beaver Chewed Branch post:

OK, I know I’m asking for trouble when I throw this question out!

I’m looking for suggestions on what type of unique or interesting project I might be able to turn with this piece of wood. My grandson pulled it out of the river, it was chewed up by beavers and either sunk or floated downriver.

beaver chewed branch found in river — What to make from a beaver branch?

My grandson is 4 years old mind you, I call him Thor because the kid is a beast!

It was waterlogged, heavy but had 3 or 4 places where the beaver chewed into the log to either try to make it fall down or just eat it. Anyway, it has been sitting on the pier and drying out for a week or two and I thought I would really like to make something nice out of it.

I was hoping to turn a piece with the beaver teeth marks in it. I keep coming up with a blank …..my creativity has vanished 🙂

Check out the pics and video and let me know what you would do!

This video shows the beaver chewed log a little closer …hopefully it will give you some food for thought and I hope you will share that with me below.

#Best Wood For Wood Turning Rings, #Cutting Wood For Woodturning, Exotic Wood For Woodturning, Good Types Of Wood For Woodturning, How To Prepare Wood For Woodturning, Sealing Wood For Woodturning, Types Of Wood For Woodturning, Where To Buy Wood For Woodturning, Wood Blanks For Woodturning, Wood For Woodturning, Wood For Woodturning For Sale, Wood For Woodturning Supplies, Woodturning Wood For Sale Near Me

Collecting Wood for Woodturning ….How to Use and Turn a Hollow Log

Cutting Up and Using a Hollow Log For Woodturning Projects

As a woodturner I’m always looking for new sources of wood for woodturning as well as new ways to turn pieces of wood or logs that one might think is better suited for the burn pile!

I hear chainsaws running in the neighborhood, I hear wood chippers chopping up branches and it drives me crazy if I can’t get there to see what type of wood I might be able to snag. I see trees that are being taken down or are down laying along side the road and I want to stop at each one ….looking for those perfect bowl blanks 🙂

I even watch TV and in the scenery there are trees that are crooked and gnarly and I think …..if only I knew where that was and could get there! I guess you could say I’m a little sick….. woodturning sick that is 🙂

My son put up a pole barn and had to take down 8 giant oak trees. Although we saved a lot, much of the branches were sent to the chipper and just about anyone who stopped by and wanted a trunk could have it. He wanted his yard nice and neat and I know he thinks I’m just crazy. If I can’t turn it, I burn it 🙂

Hollow Hickory Tree for the Mill or
Cut Up into Bowl Blanks

So, he brings down a 3 or 4 long trunks, 10 or 12 feet long. They were all solid on the small end but 2 of the bigger trees were hollow at the thick end. The wide end was close to 24″ wide, I could have gotten some awesome hickory bowl blanks but over half of the diameter of the tree was rotted through. Very disappointing to see most of the tree from center out was rotten.

Still…there was some good firewood in the rotted pieces, they would be easy enough to cut and split. So I just figured it would be fire wood. Also I could use it for my smoker, hickory makes excellent wood for smoking meat! Then a light bulb went off in my head and I had a brainstorm.

I had been Turning Spindle
Blanks into “Fishing Bats” & “Billy Clubs”

I was on a mission turning 3 to 6 inch branches into these bats along with vases, candle stick holders, tool handles and cups from what you could call spindle blanks which were for the most part branches.

Actually, I was currently making “fish bats” from 3 to 6 inch branches. I wanted to try and sell them to a couple of the local ‘bait and tackle’ shops in my area and thought I would put a few in my online store. So I had been working with my roughing gouge for the past week making long round blanks, which you could call spindle blanks for woodturning. I wasn’t sure what to call them, I guess they are a type of spindle blank. I just turn a piece until I get all the bark, worm holes and other defects out of the blank. Then I dry them …. drying long spindle blanks. This is when I decided to build a drying cage for spindle blanks.

How To Cut Hickory Spindle Blanks

I’ll see if I can post a picture of the end of one of these hickory tree logs. Basically it is hollow but there can be anywhere from 4 to 6 inches or more of good wood around the outside of the tree. This consists of the sapwood and heartwood in almost equal amounts.

Hollow Hickory Log for Woodturning Blanks — How to use a hollow log for making spindle blanks for woodturning

So…. if you were able to harvest the first 6 to 8″ of the outside of the tree you would have 2 colors, the light sapwood and the dark heartwood. Could make some interesting projects. However in this tree there really wasn’t enough to get a decent bowl blank out of for woodturning.

Cut Sections With The Grain Out of The 24″ Log

Hickory is very hard. If you try to turn it dry its like turning concrete. These trees were very wet getting ready for spring growth so they were filled with water and nutrients.

I thought why not take my 24″ log I just cut and slice it down the length into sections that I could make some wide spindle blanks? I’ve never run across anyone discussing or showing how you can dissect a tree like this for woodturning blanks. You could cut a 6″ x 6″ x 24″ spindle blank if you wanted to turn a vase. I cut a couple 4″x 4″x 24″ slices for my “billy clubs” and “fish bats” and they worked perfectly.

Cutting a hickory spindle blanks for easy woodturning, piece is from a center rotted tree

Since they were kind of square and had some rotted material on one side I took them to the band saw and knocked off the edges with a jig I made and cut the rotted material off. I also knocked off the corners of the long hickory spindle blank. Turning a square into a octagon shaped piece really made it easy to turn. Hickory is dense and even when wet it was pretty hard.

Since Hickory has a very light colored, almost white, sapwood, and the heartwood is dark brown there were some interesting pieces. I actually turned a couple of blanks for some new tools I wanted with big….long handles. I was going to use oak but now I think I will do a couple with these hickory spindle blanks.

Can Woodturners Use
Rotted Hollow Trees?

I made this post because I wanted to share a new source of wood for woodturning that I discovered. I can’t tell you how many times I walked away from trees that I thought were too rotted and would not yield any wood for wood turning.

I could probably get 2000 or more pen blanks with nice color and grain from these rotted trees…..and that doesn’t mean the blanks would be rotted. As I said, I normally would have cut up the rotted stuff and used it for fire wood.

So next time you run across a tree with a rotted center start to think how you might be able to harvest wood for projects that would go with the the grain instead of across the grain. You could make rolling pins, bowling balls, vases, cups and more cups, bats, light sabers, billy clubs, tire thumpers and fish bats ….you get the idea.

Now I look at rotted trees with a new perspective. It is actually easier to harvest on of these logs because you can cut 24″, maybe 36″ or more off of the dead tree. Then split that piece in half with the grain, maybe split those in half again with the grain and load them easily in your truck or car ….get them home and further process them on your bandsaw or finsih with the chainsaw.

Take What You Can Get

I do not do a lot of spindle turning or end grain turning.

I like to turn wood bowls.

That said, if you are like me you probably have ignored the tree trunk with a big hole going down the center. I hope now if you’ve read this you might look at that rotted tree trunk laying there as a gift 🙂 There is so much you can pull out of the first 4 to 6 inches of the outside of a tree that is really is worth your effort to harvest some of that and dry it.

Collecting Wood for Woodturning ….
How to Use and Turn a Hollow Log

Keep in mind, you might find a tree that has at least 12″ of good material around the outside but because of the way it is laying or looks you think the wood isn’t worth harvesting for your woodturning needs. You are wrong, I have 2 or 3 oak trees that are at least 36 inches in diameter and as they lay on the ground rotted and hollowed out in the center there is more than 12″ of solid wood that can be cut for either spindle blanks or bowl blanks that can be used for your woodturning addiction.

hickory woodturning blank from center rotted tree trunk

And ….. often times the lower part of the tree has a good amount of disfigurement, that is burls, crotches and other deviations that give those turning blanks character that you won’t find anywhere else.

I hope you have at least realized that there is another way to look at trees that can be used for our woodturing habit. A rotten tree may be a liability to a homeowner, it just might be a dead tree in a forest but to you, a wood turner, you can slice and dice your way to harvesting some awesome woodturning blanks 🙂

Root Balls As A Wood Source For Woodturning

Using Rootballs for
Woodturning Projects

If you have been turning wood for years or you are a newbie woodturner there is always one thing we all have in common…..that would be the need for wood or woodblanks to put on our woodturning lathes! You can’t be a woodturner if you don’t have wood!

So I always have my eye looking out for something that I can turn. I look for resources anywhere from wood floating down the river, laying on the side of the road, driving anywhere, to facebook marketplace and or craigslist. If you go to a landscapers work yard/office you’ll probably find a big pile of wood pieces, logs, branches and even root balls!

Wikipedia describes a Root Ball as:
A root ball is the main mass of roots at the base of a plant such as a shrub or tree. It is of particular significance in horticulture when plants are repotted or planted out in the ground. The quality and preparation of the root ball will determine how well the plant will survive this transplantation and then flourish in its new situation.

Where Do I Get Woodturning Blanks

I’ve never purchased a wood bowl blank or any other type of wood for a woodturning project. Mainly because there is so much wood around my area and I really do not have the funds to pay for a wood bowl blank! We are all at different places in our lives, if you work all the time and enjoy turning wood on your time off you probably do not want to hunt for woodturning blanks and you probably have the cash to buy wood bowl blanks but as I said, you do not have the time to go out with a chainsaw and harvest your own wood ….and that’s cool 🙂 …..I’m happy for you. I was at that point one time in my life, you just need to prioritize time and efforts.

Surprisingly, Ebay is a very good source for purchasing wood turning blanks at a great price. Click on Woodturning Bowl Blanks

Who Looks For Woodturning Blanks

Anyway I think most wooddturners are on some type of budget, most probably are on the broke end of the budget and need to consider different sources of free wood for woodturning. So woodturners are always looking for that golden goose when in reality you can find free wood from a variety of sources and you just need to have a chainsaw and desire to go out and cut up wood you find on free piles!

The Weather and Seasons Help Find
The Best Woodturning Blanks

Well, weather often times has something to do with where and how you find that honey pot of wood for your woodturning habit. Spring has sprung in North America and people are out in their gardens and yards trying to get things ready for their beautiful yards. That means trees are trimmed, trees are removed and some trees are even dug up.

You need to keep an eye out for those piles of tree and bush cut offs. Some counties have a special day to put them on the side of the road for pickkup …..find out when that is and cruise the area the night before looking for woodturing blank treasures.

Turning Rootballs on Your Lathe

I started writing this article because I ran into a pile of diamonds in the rough 🙂 Only a wood turner would consider a dirt filled clump of roots a diamond in the rough 🙂

We’ve been self-quarantining ourselves because of the Corona Virus but you still need to get out and pick up groceries and in this case …pet food. We made arrangements to have the food to be left outside the store and picked it up, felt good to get out and on the way home I spotted IT!!!

Pile of Root Balls found on the side of the road

There it was a huge pile of torn out bushes, mostly stumps and root balls. My wife navigated us into the side street and I jumped out to examine my new treasure. It was piled on the side of the road for local township pickup. Most was soft almost rotted wood, I was kind of disappointed.

Found …. 4 Huge Root Balls for Woodturning Blanks

Then I turned over a couple of pieces and there they were….about 4 big huge root balls. I could barely pick them up and get it into the back of the explorer. I was thrilled. Looked like some cedar, pine, and other coniferous low growning ornamental type plants. I could see colors in the roots and tops.

Large cedar root ball — A little digging and this cedar root ball came out of the pile

I know I’ll get at least 2 big bowls out of each root ball, or 3 or 4 vases out of each rootball.

Root balls are more difficult to cut up for mounting on your lathe than burls, there’s pieces sticking out all over, a little soft wood here and there. I’m goning to have to give a little thought into these pieces to get an idea of how I might get started.

Gonna Go “Furtado” On These Rootballs!

Al Furtado is the master of rootballs 🙂 I’ve watched him take what looked like a big mess of roots and tree trunks thinking there is no possible positive outcome out of this piece of garbage. But Al Furtado is the master, even if he starts the root ball as bowl and ends up with a vase …..it is always beautiful and stunning.

I found a big cedar root ball on side of the road

So…..I think I am going to try to go “Al Furtado” on you 🙂

I’ll try to do a video on how I dissect the rootball to get a piece or pieces for the lathe and video the project from start to end …..hope to get to it soon! So check back soon or sign up for notifications from me regarding woodturning!

Al Furtado turns a root ball into a spectacular piece of art

So …what’s the lesson?

1. Keep your eyes peeled while you are out and about. If you see a pile of wood that you might be able to turn, ask for permission to take it or if it’s obvious that its on the corner for township pickup …..you better grab it before someone else does 🙂

-make sure you have a vehicle you can transport roadside wood, explorer, suv, pickup
-might help if you carried a chainsaw around with you, all gassed up, filled with oil and ready to go
-battery powered chainsaws have come a long way, get one, keep it charged and you’ll be picking up more bowl blanks than you can imagine.

2. Pay attention to the time of year and weather. People do a lot of trimming in spring and fall, watch for their piles of trimmed trees and branches.

3. Did you ever see those guys trimming trees on the side of the road. Stop by with a case of water and ask them if you can have some of the bigger pieces…..I guarantee your vehicle will be filled with wood!

4. Introduce yourself to some of the local landscapers. Tell them what you are looking for, give them a card and ask if they can call you when they run into some decent wood for turning. Leave your card and some kind of gift ….like a couple of wood bowls…..they will call you, trust me.

5. City, county and township dumps always have trees, root balls and chopped logs just waiting for you to pick them up. Most cases you just drive up to the pile and take what you need.

Bottom line, you have to be a bit aggressive and get out of your comfort zone if you are not used to asking people for free stuff. In almost all cases, unless you live in the desert, you can keep yourself supplied with wood blanks for your woodturning habit 🙂

In my case I could see the root balls from the road as we drove by….part of the woodturning addiction I guess!

Turning a Root Ball

Turning a root ball is not for the newbie or faint hearted! It can be very dangerous and you need to be able to control your lathe speed and have good tools. If one of those turning root projections grabs you hand or arm it will break it!

You find a couple videos on different techniques for turning tree roots and root balls.

Guil The Bearded Woodworker turns a root ball bowl

Andy Phillip turns a beautiful wood root ball/resin vase

Anchor Seal, Wax and Paint for Sealing Wood Bowl Blanks

One of the Woodturning Basics Facebook group members had a question regarding wood bowl drying and blank drying. I’m a little late with my reply so I thought I would post an answer here.

One thing to remember about drying wood for woodturning is that it is almost always different for each project. That is, same wood species, same size blank and same bowl blank shape …..seems they all dry differently. Sometimes you get cracks and checks …..sometimes you don’t. However, there are some things you can do to get similar results on a consistent basis.

You can approach the subject of drying wood from many levels of understanding. There are FB groups that focus on nothing but drying wood, you could start your own blog if you had an intimate knowledge of drying wood. For our purposes, drying wood for woodturning can be very basic or can get somewhat complex depending on how you want to approach the subject. Some turners will turn green wood to finished size and shape and call it quits …. and some turners will take it to the other extreme of needing to have a bowl blank that is totally dry and acclimated to the humidity in their shop before they will turn and finish a bowl.

I like to keep my woodturning fun! I want to enjoy the process and not get too caught up in details other than safety!

For me, turning green wood is a lot more fun than turning a dry, rock hard piece of wood that requires you sharpen you tools every 15 minutes…….but that’s me.

And, I like to turn finished green bowls. Let them dry, warp and hopefully not crack. However, when doing it this way I turn with a recess so I can chuck it up if it cracks and needs repair…… others will say that is not the way to turn wood …..but it works for me 🙂

Anyway, I thought I would post some ideas, thoughts and videos on how others approach using things like anchor seal, paint and wax for sealing and drying their wood turning blanks and bowls…..so let’s get started!

Anchor Seal and Drying
Wood Bowl Blanks

Bryan, sorry didn’t reply to your txt ….had some outpatient surgery, been in and out of it for last couple days.

Is the wood bowl blank roughed out? In other words, did you roughly turn the bowl with the thickness of the walls of the bowl being 10% of the width of the bowl. So if you were turning a 12″ bowl (roughing it out) the wall thickness should be somewhere around 1-1/4″.

rough turned bowl ready to dry — Do not use anchor seal on a rough turned bowl, dry in shavings or kiln

You really don’t want to put anchor seal or any other wood-sealant on a rough turned bowl. You will want to dry it using the shavings in a bag method, you could try to put the bowl on a shelf, floor level to mid floor say 4′ up and see how it is drying …..if it starts to crack, throw it immediately into a bag or box of shavings.

log ends painted and covered with anchor seal — log ends painted and cover

There are a handful of products used to seal end grain on wood from trees to keep it from drying too fast and therefore cracking and checking. Anchor Seal is one of the popular sealants to use for end grain sealing, however, check out what is available for end grain sealers if you have an unusual situation and for a greater variety!

Make a Portable Kiln
For Drying Wood Bowl Blanks

There is a guy who sticks a light bulb in a box along with the rough turned bowl and sometimes a small fan, he will put a thermometer in there and he will have a vent hole in the box someplace. Basically you are setting the bowl on a table, putting a light bulb (40 to 60 watt incandescent) and puts a box over it. It seems that he will dry a rough turned bowl in 5 to 10 days….again, weigh the bowl and write it down, watch to see how it is losing water weight.

Rick from the youtube channel RickTurns makes a quick, easy, and very inexpensive drying box for bowl blanks!

Check out Sam’s kiln from the Youtube Channel WyomingWoodTurner

Microwave Treatment for
Drying Wood Bowl Blanks

Another method for drying your woodturning blanks is to use a microwave. I have experimented with this using oak and cottonwood with some good results. Again, weight the bowl to start with….nuke it at 60 seconds 3 to 6 times, again….experiment to see what works for you. Then increase the time to 2 minutes per nuke. Do not let the bowl get “hot” you will literally see steam coming off the bowl.

I’ve done bowl blanks in the microwave that have been finished in one day and I’ve done bowls that I dried over a week or so…… the slower you do it the less likely it will crack! Sometimes I will start the drying process by nuking in the microwave for a day …usually working at night, and then set on the shelf for a week or so……I will usually keep track of the daily weight loss, I write it directly on the bowl or a piece of masking tape on the bowl. I picked up my scale from Amazon, use it all the time ….even when I do some cooking 🙂 I think this one will actually weight up to 100 lbs or so …… if you are serious about turning wood and want to process your own local woods you need a scale

No Anchor Seal or Paint
on Rough Turned Bowl Blanks

All the above drying methods are for naked wood…..no anchor seal or paint.

Drying and Storing Your Wood
Logs Using Anchor Seal

If I cut a log in half, or cut a log so the pith is cut out and I have 2 pieces, I will then usually store the log outside (under a tarp if I can) or inside in an area I try to keep my future log blanks in. These are the pieces that I seal both ends of the log to keep from cracking.

Painted Log Ends — Ends of logs painted with Anchor Seal to prevent checking and cracking

I will even paint or use anchor seal on logs that are 4 foot or longer that I have laying around waiting to be processed. Sometimes I get to them quickly, other times it might be 2 years in which case, as the log is sitting there I will put another coat or two of anchor seal or paint on the ends of the log to keep it from drying quickly on the outside and causing cracks and checking.

Circular Bowl Blank Preparation

Drying circular blanks that are cut from a half log can be treated in a different ways when it comes to drying.

I’m assuming you have half a log, you either use a circle jig for your band saw or you draw a circle on the flat side of the log and cut it on your band saw.

So now lets say you have a 10″ wide bowl blank that is circular shaped and maybe 5″ inches deep. This is how I store these types of blanks. I will apply anchor seal, wax or paint to the outside of the bowl blank, on the 5″ side all around the bowl blank. That leaves 2 sides with no treatment, the 10″ circular top and bottom. Often times one of those will be covered with bark. Feel free to strip the bark if you are not going to make a live edge bowl.

Seal the entire circumference of that bowl blank. That will include end grain and side grain. It will dry, but slowly dry because you have the top and bottom of the blank exposed to air. I am usually not so much interested in drying the piece but more interested in keeping it from cracking and checking. You can store this piece indoors or outside for years. If I have gone to the trouble of cutting a circular bowl blank I usually will store these inside.

Drying Or Storing A
Wood Blank With Stretch Wrap

I also have gotten good results with using shrink wrap or packaging stretch wrap around the outside circumference of the bowl blank. I wrap it several times with the plastic wrap and set it aside to be stored or dried. I have had most of them develop some type of mold under the plastic wrap but when turned on the lathe the mold is gone.

wood bowl blank shrink wrapped — Use packaging wrap or shrink wrap to cover the outside wall of the bowl blank

I’ve checked blanks wrapped with plastic for weight loss and they do lose water weight over time. I think I prefer anchor seal or paint over using the plastic shipping wrap, although, the shipping wrap provides a quick solution to sealing up bowl blanks…..you can always rip it off and apply the anchor seal or paint. If you don’t mind a little mold, go with the plastic stretch wrap especially if you plan to turn it quickly and the wrap is there just to keep it from cracking or checking.

I use the stretch wrap when I cut a bunch of round bowl blanks that I plan on turning over the next week or two. Just so happens that some of them were never put on the lathe and sat wrapped in plastic for a year. These blanks did not crack and lost water weight…..but they grew mold.

Final Bowl Blank Drying Thoughts

There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to turning wood. Turning wood bowls with “dry” wood bowl blanks and turning bowls with “wet” bowl blanks. In either scenario you would like to turn the bowl blank while it does not have any checks or cracks, so treating and storing your wood and bowl blanks becomes a matter of “what works” and it is a priority!

First method, lets say you have a 5 foot log.

You can turn 12″ bowls so you cut 12″+ pieces off the log. If you want 2 bowl blanks, cut off one 12″+ piece. Then get your anchor seal or paint and seal up the fresh cut on the log.

If you are turning the bowl blank wet then you don’t need to do anything except cut a circular bowl blank and put it on your lathe. Turn it and then dry it as you desire. No need to use any anchor seal, wax or paint ……unless you want to preserve the round rough turned bowl blank as it is. If you seal all edges it will probably stay as it is….moisture wise, and will not crack. You can put it on the lathe any time and then dry as desired.

rough turned wood bowl — Rough turned wood bowl with wall size 10% of width, no anchor seal or paint, ready to be put away for drying

My Wood Bowl Blank Cracked and Checked

When I first started to work with wood bowl blanks almost all of them cracked and checked so I learned how to turn cracked wood bowl blanks and make repairs. This is really another matter but don’t throw out your bowl blank because its cracked!

Keep in mind however, depending on how bad it is cracked or checked you might need to do the repairs before you turn it so it doesn’t fly apart while on your lathe. Otherwise I usually will turn the piece to rough form, then use CA and coffee grounds, shavings or sawdust to seal and glue the crack together. The cracks can actually make the piece look better 🙂

If you are not familiar with CA glue, here is a CA glue starter kit that will help you get started using CA with your woodturning projects.

Oak wood bowl with cracks filled with CA and coffee grounds.

Free Wood and How to Dry It In Your Small Shop

Shawn (I think that’s his name) from youtube channel “worththeeffort” has a couple of great videos on how to process lumber from local trees for woodworking and woodturning. He is a great teacher and explains the concept behind drying wood so that you can understand the reason for the madness of drying wood 🙂

I noticed he recommends coating the end grain in his rough turned bowl blanks before putting them up to dry. Number one, you need to be able to identify the end grain ….#2 I’m not so sure that is necessary. However, its up to you to experiment with drying your wood bowl blanks and what works for you and the wood you are working with.

I will post 2 videos from Shawn’s channel. One he talks about drying in general and #2 he talks about building a kiln from an old broken freezer case. Something I plan on doing soon!

Make a Small Shop Kiln from a Freezer/Fridge

Collecting Wood That Was Destined for The Fireplace and Using it For Making FREE WoodTurning Bowl Blanks

First Piece From A Portable
Bandsaw Yields [14] FREE 12″
Cherry Bowl Blanks

This article is kind of an add on to a previous post I did on collecting free bowl blanks by interacting with a variety of sawmilling people and businesses. If this post interests you please check out Free Source of Wood Blanks From Slabs.

We picked up some oak, hickory and cherry logs. A homeowner basically clear cut his yard to build a new home. I might mention that they were millennial’s from the city and they didn’t like trees. They wanted to move to the country and get out of the cement city. But they did not want trees for some reason. On one hand its sad to see some old growth forests taken down but on the other hand, it is either firewood, building timbers or free wood bowl blanks for me!

It was actually kind of tragic since whatever wasn’t to be used by us would get burned up in one big pile. And they did not want any trees in their yard….. so 200 year oak trees along with many other trees were clear cut so they could have a lawn!

Harvesting Logs for Woodturning
From New Construction Site!

I’m not a tree hugger, but I hate to see a forest, that is a 200+ year forest removed because some yuppie wants to build a house. I’m thankful that we were able to collect and use some of the wood for firewood and some of the trees were milled into lumber and some will be used for wood bowl blanks.

I have 2 interests when it comes to trees, logging and making things out of the wood you get from harvesting a tree ….my main excitement comes from the wood I harvest for turning bowls. I have been learning the best way to harvest this wood and the best way to dry it so I can share it with other wood turners.

What you see in this video is the first cut that comes off the log as it is on the bandsaw mill. The sawyer tries to cut a “cant” which is basically a piece of wood that is square or longitudinal. Once the cant is shaped he will cut it down to dimensional lumber or whatever you want. So the very first cut is the “slab” which is semi-circular on the bark side and flat on the cut side. You can usually get the “slab” for free or next to nothing and they make excellent bowl blanks!

Collecting Slab Cuts for Woodturning Bowl Blanks

Since I am kind of new at this I was interested in that first piece that is cut off of each side. Years ago I would go to the local sawmill and pick up these slab pieces for free and use them in my wood stove to heat my house.

Now I see another use for these “slabs” or first cuts. They are the perfect shape for bowl blanks!

If you can talk the “sawyer” into adding an inch or two to the first cut you will end up with some pretty awesome bowl blanks, you can do some pretty nice live edge work and even if they might not be as thick as you want they can easy make platters or shallow dishes. Of course if you hired him to cut a log then you can tell him how thick you want those pieces. Or better yet if you really start to get into making and collecting your own free wood bowl blanks you can get a small gasoline bandsaw mill for under $2000 and you’ll have enough bowl blanks for a lifetime. In fact, I plan on cutting up a few logs and harvesting these free bowl blanks and selling them at some point in time. There are lots of folks in my woodturning facebook group that are always looking for wood to turn …..so the market is there and I would be helping my fellow turners.

Up to Now We’ve Been Following The Bandsaw Around and Helping
Him For Some Free Bowl Blanks

Up to this point I have been talking about following the “sawyer” around and snagging the stuff nobody wants. It is a very good source of turning materials. Make sure you give the guy a couple of your nicest bowls 🙂

There is another option. And I’ve mentioned if briefly.

#1 Hire Out The Services of A
Local Sawyer and His Bandsaw Mill

You can find someone with a portable bandsaw mill that will come to your property and literally cut up a log into any size pieces you might want.

Let’s say a storm comes in and blows down a hickory tree. You can try to cut it up into wood-turning blanks with a chainsaw ….and that’s cool. You will end up with a lot of stock.

You can have a portable sawmill come in and slice up every trunk, branch or whatever is available into the thickness you need for your turning projects. At this point you can dry the pieces for yourself or you might even consider selling some. Or perhaps share the cost with another woodturner or woodturning club.

Lets say you have a 12′ log on the band-saw mill. You can have the sawyer cut a couple of slabs that might be bowl blanks ….remember to tell him to make them bigger than normal ….tell him why and he will began to understand what you want. That log will give you 4 slabs at least 12″ wide and 4 inches deep. Then you can cut the middle of the log into lumber that could be used for spindles ….so 2 or 3″ thick and then you could cut some bigger bowl blanks 6+ inches thick. You would be amazed at how many blanks you will end up with. Just remember to treat them properly for drying so you don’t get checks and cracks.

Make sure you tell him how you want to handle the pith. You do not want that pith in the middle of your thick blanks.

Then tell him what size you want the tree to be cut up into. For instance, lets say you want some big bowls so you tell him to cut 6″ or 8″ thick slices. Once you get your slices you will need to quickly cut them into blanks sizes ….say 14″ and seal the ends. Then you need to dry them, either in shavings or a dehumidifier of some sort or commercial drying company.

One big tree could get you all the wood you every wanted for your woodturning needs. Or it might even set you off on another adventure where you collect, process and treat bowls blanks for others to use.

My FREE Woodturning Bowl Blanks

Free Wood Bowl Blanks from portable bandsaw mill — Cherry “slab” cut that I cut into 14″ long blanks.

This slab yielded me about 12 free cherry bowl blanks that were about to be cut down to 12″, each had a unique shape.

The slab had been sitting outside for a year so it was getting dry. The bowls I made from that piece where further dried in the microwave …..60 second blasts, maybe 4 or 5 times a day.

It was beautiful wood. I did some with live edges and the bark stuck hard, some of the bowls/platters were traditional and only took about 4 times in the microwave …..which I’m guessing would have been 4 months in a bag of shavings.

This picture was from one of the small cherry bowl blanks. It was a 12″ blank I cut on my bandsaw and about 4 inches thick. One thing you don’t want to do when turning these small and thin platters/bowls is to use a recess to mount your cut. That will eliminate the amount of wood that can be gouged out of the bowl. You should use a tenon, to turn the bowl and obviously cut the tenon off at the end of the project.

cherry bowl from bandsaw mill slab — A bowl blank was taken from the first cut of a log called the “slab’ it was 14″ long and about 4” thick. The natural curvature of the outside of the first piece lent itself perfectly to the bowl shape.

My whole purpose of this post and video was to show you that there are many sources of wood that you can find and use to turn your creations. And, further processing can be expanded from buried in shavings to using a microwave to hurry the process so you can finish it and put it on the market.

This was on of my first microwave dries. I put it in the microwave about 6 times and varied between 60 and 90 seconds. If the bowl gets too hot to touch then you need to reduce the time. So far so good, I keep the microwave procedure going until my scale showed that weight loss had stopped. That means there was no more water to evaporate. I was please, no cracks or checks and I will getting a dedicated microwave for the shop! Thanks to Al Auth from the facebook group who encouraged me to give this procedure a try.

You will need a scale, I like this one …can actually weigh up to 90 pounds but I use it in the kitchen when I get the urge to whip up a gourmet dinner for my favorite wife 🙂

And its nice to have a moisture meter, this one works fine for me

I plan on doing a lot more on my woodturning blog, however, if you haven’t please check out my facebook woodturning group. https://facebook.com/groups/woodturningbasics you’ll find a great group of people there. Some are clueless as to how to start and what to use but then there are the guys that have been turning for 30 or 40 years and can answer any question you might want …..all very good people. I keep the facebook group clean. If you need to swear or make lude and crude jokes or just make fun of someone …..you will be deleted. I want this group to be a family affair. Some of my favorites are Guilherme Eduardo, Al Furtado and I see Capn’ Eddie just signed up…..I think Capn’ Eddie videos were some of the first I started to learn on….. great guy, great wood turner and he served our country, he lived enough life to throw some golden nuggets our way….wish he were my neighbor!

All 3 of those woodturners have excellent woodturning channels on youtube and if you get stuck, you might want to check them out:

Guil ……. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChVVt0WnzTJ81S1V7itCEqA/videos

Al………………………. https://www.youtube.com/user/Alfurtado1/videos

Capn’ Eddie………….. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgEbScotUCk64Mnw1jU9jFw/videos

I think this is a second channel Capn’ Eddie started, there is another one with a ton of videos on when he was feeling well and a little younger 🙂
You might want to visit his site to support him, he sells turning tools, equipment and has free tool plans and project plans ….you will learn a lot and he is someone who deserves the “pass it on” mentality http://eddiecastelin.com/

Free Source of Wood Bowl Blanks From “Slabs” Cut By Portable Sawmills

Sawmills As A Free Source of Woodturning and Bowl Blanks

I know there are a lot of people who turn wood and enjoy the hobby have a hard time finding wood.

That’s a little difficult for me to comprehend because we have so many trees that they fall on our houses, or in my case the garage/shop!

There are a lot of good posts on where and how people find different sources of wood. How they collect it and how they process it.

I have one source of wood you might find interesting. There are many sawmills around the country/world large and small. There are many portable sawmills that will come up to your home or property and mill a tree into pieces that you tell them to. You can use these for construction or in our case, get them milled into sizes that we would want for bowl blanks or whatever you happen to turn.

Here’s a source I thought you might be interested in. Portable bandsaw mills are located around the country. You just have to find them. Search for sawmill, portable sawmill or contact any of the manufacturers and ask them if they have any of their mills in your area.

A portable bandsaw mill is basically a trailer with a gasoline powered bandsaw on it. A log is loaded on the trailer and positioned. The saw head is then lowered so the bandsaw blade can make a cut down the length of the log. The sawmill operator is looking to make a flat surface across the top of the log, it is then rotated and another cut is taken. This first cut is usually called a “slab” and this slab will have varying thickness.

This first piece or “slab” is usually worthless to everyone except perhaps for firewood. For woodturners, particularly “bowl turners” this first piece could be gold. Depending on how it is cut you might end up with blanks that could be ‘platters’ up to ‘bowls’. If you were able to convince a sawyer to add an inch or two to the first cut you would end up with as many bowl blanks as you can use since it runs the length of the log.

We had a guy come out and cut up some oak, cherry and poplar logs we had. Nobody wanted the slabs, I asked him to add a couple inches to the first cut and he thought I was crazy. But I ended up with 2 slabs that were 12′ or so long of Cherry. I then cut the slabs into 14″ pieces so I ended up with about 10 or 11 bowl blanks per slab.

These ‘slabs’ as bowl blanks offer 2 types of bowls. You can turn live edge bowls or flip it around and you can cut some nice platters or bowls.

Take this one step further. One of my son’s purchased a bandsaw mill. It is a manual mill, hard work to load the load and then turn it while on the cutting rails. But….I can now cut that first piece any size I want!

Sawing wood is almost as addicting as turning wood. I suppose if I were younger and stronger I might want to a little more sawing 🙂 Keep in mind if you are interested in sawing wood, you can get a sawmill that is all hydraulic, no muscle required! But for the occaisional log here and there I can cut blanks for the next 10 years 🙂 Seriously, I started this article by talking about the first cut for bowl blanks because you can get those free from most sawyers. But if you had your own mill, or had someone come out and cut up a tree for you….. you can have the sawyer cut the log in slabs with the thickness that you desire.

I recently grabbed a cottonwood tree, actually about half the tree came down. I can now cut the slabs and then cut some middle pieces that are 6″ or more thick and then cut them in 12″ pieces that I will seal and stack for drying.

Slab Cut Into Bowl Blank Widths

The picture shows the Cherry “slab” that I cut into 13 to 14″ pieces. The slab sat outside for about a year and was 15% to 20% moisture level. I should have immediately sealed the ends of those pieces but I didn’t. I just don’t have the energy or strenght to do too much anymore …..very depressing but that’s my life. I eventually did seal the ends to keep them from checking and cracking. I think I had about 10 bowl blanks.

Turning the Cherry Bowl Blanks

When turning bowls its nice to have the option of turning live edge bowls. The problem with live edge bowls is that the bark doesn’t stick and gets ripped off. I found this piece of cherry had some decent bark adhesion and it was possible to turn some shallow live edge bowls.

If you try to turn live edge bowls and it almost never fails …..a piece of the bark will rip off and leave a space on the edge. You can sand and shape that edge or you can grab some of the bark and use some CA to glue the bark back on the edge of the bowl. Usually you need to use one of the 2″ sanding disks to shape and blend it into the existing bark …..but a little practice will make it look like it was never missing 🙂

Mounting The Slab Bowl
Blank on Your Lathe

Next would be to turn a bowl from the “slab” bowl blank by making the ‘flat’ side of the blank the top of the bowl. I usually will drill a 2-1/8″ hole with a 2-1/8 inch forstner bit for the jaws of my Super Nova 2 Chuck (click here https://amzn.to/2JUGzXq) and chuck up the flat face against the chuck with the jaws into the recess that I just drilled.

I will next shape the bottom of the bowl so that it looks like a bowl bottom. Normally the bark will fall off your bowl blank or you can pull it off easiy ….no so much with this piece. I read someplace how a turner would remove bark before putting it on the lathe, he used a small air powered chisel to pry and rip off the bark. So……first however I use a cheap harbor freight air powered chisel to take the bark off. The natural profile of the bottom is close to the profile of the bowl. So I will turn a tenon on the bottom of the bowl…..I like recesses but a tenon makes more sense since these ‘slabs’ are usually not too thick and a tenon helps to keep you from blowing through the bottom of the bowl.

I looked around for an air powered chisel and I think I found you a better deal, you get 4 or 5 chisels instead of one and it costs less than $20. You’ll find yourself using this tool a lot but for our specific purpose it and easily strip the bark off a short piece of long in no time.

You ask, “Why do I need to strip off the bark. First let me say, if you are doing a live edge bowl then you might not want to use this tool. But if you are going to turn a bowl that doesn’t have any bark inclusions on in when finished ….this is what you want to use.

Of course you can leave the bark on and use your tools to cut through the bark and get down into the good wood. Unfortunately this is going to give you one hell of a ride. Some bark is attached to your bowl blank like the mountains of the Grand Canyon and other bark might be attached like the gentle rolling hills of the great planes.

Assuming you want to get rid of the bark so you can turn some wood, the bark has to come off. Embedded in the bark are stones, sand, and metal. You never know when stripping the bark will test you patience because your tools will become useless afterwards. I mean, you’re gonna have to go and sharpen them again so they might be cutting good again.

I can’t remember who turned me on to a small air hammer with a chisel to strip the bark from a bowl blank, or log …..but it has been a real blessing to be able to strip the bark off in a couple of minutes rather than using my hammer and chisel to clean the bark off a project whether it be bowl blank or small log. For 20 bucks you just can’t beat it and it might be one of the best wood-tuning investments you make 🙂

As I turn the tenon I will shape the bottom of the bowl/platter. Even if it is wet/green I will shape the bottom of the bowl and then take it through the progression of sanding from 80 grit to at least 240 grit or higher. This 2″ drill powered sanding disk is one of my favorites https://amzn.to/2JSk9WN

I then flip the bowl around, attach it to the tenon and began to square off the front of the bowl. I usually will figure out how deep to take the bowl. Then I will attach a drill bit or forstner bit and drill a hole in the center to the maximum depth of the bowl. This keeps me from gouging out the bottom of the bowl and making a funnel 🙂

Since the “slab” usually isn’t too thick I usually forego keeping pressure on the bowl from the tail-stock. It makes for quick gouging and shaping of the inside of the bowl without fear of the bowl flying off the lathe. That is another reason I like using a tenon on these….. you can crank down on that tenon as hard as you can without damaging the tenon and feeling confident that the bowl will stay on your chuck.

So I finish he inside of the bowl with my Big Hurricane Scrapers and then sand once again through a progression usually starting at 80 or 100 to 240 grit.

After sanding I will either finish the project or dry it. I use a couple different drying methods. If I think the water content is low I will set it on a shelf to dry. If I think it is over 20% moisture (use a moisture meter https://amzn.to/30UNIg9 or https://amzn.to/32V7xFQ ) I will put it in a bag of shavings and let it dry. Or…..my new technique is to put it in the microwave at 60 to 90 seconds. I’m still experimenting with the microwave treatment but I think I like it. You can literally and actually dry a piece within a 24 hour or less period of time and then mount it back up on the lathe ….sand it and apply your desired finish.

Wow!

All I wanted to do was tell you about portable sawmills and “slabs”. Sorry, got a little carried away but I hope you might find some if not all the info helpful.

For those of you who are having a hard time finding wood in your local area ….check out some of the local sawmill operators. Contact these guys ….they really are cool and enjoy doing what they do. If you have a relationship with one, when that tree comes down you might be able to get him to come out on the cheap. You also might be able to come out a job he is milling up ….make sure you give him a couple of bowls and you will have a source of wood for your tuning for a long time 🙂

If you haven’t checked out our facebook group, please do. Lots of good people there, lots of cool projects and if you have a question ….I’m sure you can get it answered. And if you are a woodturing pro or expert …..we can use your advice and you can help newbies out https://www.facebook.com/groups/woodturningbasics

Buy Wood Turning Blanks Online, How To Dry Wood Bowl Blanks, How To Make Wood Bowl Blanks, Large Wood Turning Bowl Blanks, Live Edge Wood Bowl Blanks, Round Wood Bowl Blanks, Wood Bowl Blanks, Wood Bowl Blanks For Sale, Wood Bowl Blanks For Woodturning, Wood Turning Blanks Sale, Wood Turning Bowl Blanks, Wood Turning Tool Blanks, Woodturning Ring Blanks

Harvesting An Ash Tree For Woodturning Cutting Bowl Blanks From Logs

Harvesting A Blown Over
Ash Tree for Woodturning

About a 12″ dead Ash Tree blew over from some Northeast winds the other day. Thank God, because if it were the regular Southwest winds ….my neighbor’s Gazebo would have been tooth picks!

Ash is great for turning, finding dead trees that are not rotted is tough — North winds were strong and blew down about a 12″ ash tree, been dead for a while and I was hoping it would be dry.

Looking to Start Cutting Bowl Blanks From Logs!

Been a rough week or so for me, health wise….so hard to do anything physical when you feel like crap all the time. But, I finally gathered up some strength and went down to the river (where the tree fell) to cut a few pieces off the downed ash tree. I grabbed a wagon, my small Stihl 180 chainsaw and cut up a few pieces to see if the Ash Tree was in good enough shape to turn some woodturning bowl blanks. So I was ready to start cutting bowl blanks from logs.

But first I had to began Collecting and Preparing Wood for Woodturing. And unless you are made of money, most woodturners will want to start to learn the process of collecting local woodturning wood from their area. It doesn’t matter if its a new tree that has been sawn down or a tree that has been laying around for a while. Get a chainsaw and get yourself some free woodturning wood blanks!

Turned Bowl from ash tree, thought it was dead and dry but it was not! — Thought ash tree was dead and dry so turned a bowl with some pith, big mistake because it was still wet and I got some good cracks and checks!

Chainsaws for Cutting
Woodturning Blanks From Logs

Chainsaws are important when cutting bowl blanks from logs. Just a side note ….I have up to a 660 Stihl …..so all you chainsaw experts don’t laugh at my little saw 🙂 My son, Christopher, actually purchased the 660, I told him to get the 880 but he got the 660 Stihl, monster of a saw ….in fact, he rides dirt bikes and said the engine on the 660 and 880 were like dirt bike motors! I can pick up the 660, not sure I could use it 🙂 The thing is a monster! Really, really, really, sucks being sick and getting old 🙁 Sorry for that little chainsaw rant, but all you chainsaw geeks, millers and sawyers share my passion! and I though you might appreciate the story.

Looking For 12″ Trunk Size for 12″ Bowl Blanks

Anyway when thinking about cutting bowl blanks from logs, I was looking to max out the bowl size on my lathe…that would be 12″ I would need 12″ logs for bowl blanks….turns out I’ll probably get 10 or 15 bowls around 11″ and a whole bunch of small bowls, vases, cups …etc.

Identify an ash tree that is good enough for woodturning — Ash is good for turning, keep your eyes open for a solid tree, sometimes you need to make a couple of cuts

I would say this little Ash Tree was dead for about 3 or 4 years. To my surprise, all the damage on this tree was under the bark. So far, no worm holes in the tree. It’s still wet …although I’m guessing, probably 50% or more dry. The wood is strong. The grain is not punky! No soft spots anyplace on this beautiful tree 🙂 I expect to be able to use almost all of this Ash Tree for making woodturning bowl blanks and other woodturning blanks!

Save Ash Limbs for Future Woodturning Projects

Even punky and worm hole ridden ash makes for nice pieces, do not forget to take ash limbs down to a 1-1/2″ diameter for ash tool handles, billy clubs and vases! I will cut limbs between 24″ and 30″ long. When I feel like turning but really do not want to think about starting a big project I will put a couple of these on the lathe and just turn them to round. So I might end up with a stash of ash rounds that are 1 1/2″ wide to 6″ or more wide. I store them low, and let them dry slowly. If they are wet, I will paint the ends. I might even move them up to the 4 foot level so they dry a little faster.

How To Use Your Ash (Limb) Rounds

You would be surprised what these Ash round/long blanks can be used for. I first of all use them for custom tool handles. You can make custom ash wood mallets for woodworkers, ash billy clubs, ash fish clubs, ash vases …you really are limited to your imagination. If you have a nice small clear piece, make some really cool ash ornaments. These are great pieces to make ash snowmen from. If you know any kids or young baseball players you can make some really cool custom Ash baseball bats. When I played baseball ….almost all the bats were from ash trees.

Round Blanks Not Limited to Ash Trees

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Collecting limbs for woodturning to make smaller 1-1/2″ to 6″ round blanks is not limited to Ash Trees! You can collect limbs suitable for turning from just about any tree. Most woodturners will ignore and bypass the limbs when collecting wood from a downed tree, they go for the big pieces that will give them nice bowl blanks ….and I understand that. However you are leaving a lot of good turning material behind if you do not investigate and grab some of the larger branches that might be available for future woodturning projects.

For instance, there was a boxelder tree that came down not too far from me. The owner told me I could have the whole tree but someone snuck in and ripped me off, they grabbed some of the nicer pieces. It didn’t matter, they couldn’t lift the big trunk pieces so I got those ….but they thief left some nice branches behind, 2+ inches up to 6″ or so. So, I grabbed those and threw them off the the side. I tried to turn a vase out of one of them and to my surprise it had a nice red/purple streak going through it.

I had several Oaks go down over the last 2 years. Once again, the branches….most people burn/chip or throw away were a gold mine of handles and other spindle related turnings.

It does take a bit of effort to cut up the branches, load them and then store them but once you do….. you’ll be sitting pretty for a long time. You will never be looking for a 3×3 oak blank for a stair balaster 🙂

Or, the smaller branches can be easily cut into pen blanks or …..I think they are called “scales” for the wood handles on knives.

Learn to Spot Woodturning
Gold ….Trees For Turning!

To the uneducated eye, this would be a junk tree ….worthy of being cut up and burned on the fire pile …probably not even good enough for firewood. In fact, that’s probably what I would have done with it 4 or 5 years ago. I now look at trees with a different eye 🙂 So I see behind the shredding bark, broken branches laid a perfectly fine Ash tree. Lumber from the tree would be perfect for cutting bowl blanks from logs but could be used for just about anything. A small mill could get a whole bunch of paneling or some framing beams, more importantly ….I can get all kinds of wood for turning!

Pictures of My Ash Tree Harvest
For Woodturning Projects

In the pictures you see the wagon with my chainsaw and lengths of wood as I get ready to cut some bowl blanks from the Ash tree. I used my bandsaw to split 2 of the larger logs and cut some round bowl blanks from them. I actually mounted one on the lathe and started turning the bowl, formed the ouside of the bowl and sanded it. I put it on a shelf to dry a little.

The other pieces are for tool handles. Ash makes really good tool handles. I’ll use the rest for vases, billy clubs, fish clubs, cups and some boxes. Probably could do a lamp or two ….lots of good turning wood in that downed tree. I plan on cutting it up and putting it inside the shop or garage for use latter this year as it slowly dries and is kept out of the weather!

Hoping to Help Some New Woodturners Find and Process Local Trees For Their Woodturing!

I just thought that some of the new woodturners would like to see the thought process when trying to find and harvest some turning lumber. I see questions asked on how to harvest wood for woodturing, where to get wood for woodturing and what to do with it when you find some wood for woodturning. Bottom line, grab it! Take it home and then figure out how to process it.

Quick Look At Cutting A Log For Woodturing Bowl Blanks

Let’s say you want to turn bowls with a 12″ diameter. You’ll need logs that are at least 12″ in diameter, to be on the safe side your logs should be at least 14″ wide. Then you should cut the log 14″ long plus 3″ or so to allow for damaged ends or crooked cuts. You’ll then split the log in half, you’ll then have 2 log halfs to make your bowl blanks from. At this point you can use a bandsaw to cut a circular bowl blank or use your chainsaw to nip off the ends ….making it a somewhat chainsaw circular bowl blank. Hope that makes sense. If not, check out youtube for processing logs for woodturning.

Videos Show How to Cut Bowl Blanks From Logs

Here are a few videos that will give you an idea of how to process a log for creating some bowl blanks. Remember, everybody takes a different approach, its up to you to figure out what works best for you. Remember a chainsaw is a viscous tool, accidents happen in milliseconds so please be careful.

Notice in this first video that the chainsaw creates shavings, this indicates a nice sharp chainsaw blade ….that goes a long way to helping you make your bowl blanks

Stephen Ogle is one of my favorites and he shares how he processes and cuts logs for bowl blanks. Pay attention, he is a great teacher on all things woodturning!

Brian Havens is an excellent teacher of woodturning …all aspects! Some of his stuff is a little old, I wish he would add some new things but maybe he got burned out or just did a brain dump over a couple of years and doesn’t have much new material to share.

This video he was given an apple tree. He did not record the process of cutting up the apple tree into blanks but he brought all the pieces back to his shop and put them together and then explains why he did what he did ….excellent video for the woodturner who is looking to understand how to dissect a try to get the most out of it ….pay close attention and I guarantee you will learn much 🙂

#CuttingBowlBlanksFromLogs
#PreparingBowlBlanksFromLogs
#HowToCutABowlBlank
#HowToCutABowlBlankFromALog

Cutting Bowl Blanks From A Log, Cutting Bowl Blanks From Logs, How To Cut Bowl Blanks From Logs

Woodturner’s ….What Is Your Favorite Wood To Turn

What Is Your Favorite
Wood To Turn

A good question came up on our facebook group, a member wondered what the best wood to turn was or what is your favorite wood for woodturning.

I think once you start turning wood you really do not pay much attention to the wood that you turn. Also, we need to consider budget. Some woodturners have big budgets, money isn’t an option so they can buy from anyone who sells blanks …that might be local woodworking stores, online suppliers from amazon, ebay, craigslist and so on, along with picking up wood from the side of the road or something that has fallen in your yard. Other woodturners without a budget, in other words, those of us that really do not have 50 bucks to spend on a blank will do our due dilligence and look for local sources of free wood for woodturning…..and for us, that us the best wood to turn!

If you want to pay for a bowl blank or any other type of turning blank then I think ebay, amazon, craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are some of the best places to get good deals. Woodturning blanks that cost money can be found at your local woodworking store.

If you check out Facebook Groups you’ll find a whole bunch of groups that sell different types of wood for woodturners, burls, blanks of many different species and sizes.

From this point on, I’m thinking that the best wood I like to turn is free wood. So, let me share some free woodturning wood sources.

Free Wood For Woodturning

You’ll want to check out Tree Services, most local governments…cities, townships etc have a local dump site for free wood and chips, contractors often have land cleared for new construction, I’ve seen so much cut up and left on the side of the road this year.

Check with your local start parks or conservation areas. They are always dealing with tree maintenance and clearing. They will burn the wood simply because they do not know that woodturners like yourself will gladly take it off their hands. You just need to make an introduction and tell them what you do with the wood, it doesn’t hurt to show them a bowl or 2.

Free Bowl with Your Business Cards

Got a chainsaw dealer in your area, make a small bowl …fill it with your business cards and ask them to hand out to those buying chainsaws ….never know who might pick one up. Ask them to display the cards next to the cash register ….if all goes well, you could be buying yourself a nice new chainsaw, gas or battery!

Contact Local Sawmilling
Businesses For Free Bowl Blanks

There are more and more guys with milling businesses, portable bandsaws that mill logs. Look them up, drop and email …better yet ..give them a call. They could be your best source of free wood. You might even get them to make you a 16′ slab that is 6″ or more thick in which you can cut blanks from!

Free Wood Through The Laws of The Universe

There are a lot of firewood providers in the upper midwest. If you can make contact with some of them, let them know what you are looking for they will set aside a few logs if you ask nicely ….again, use the bribery method….give them a turned project every now and then ….you should get everything for free. Don’t be surprised if they give you a call one day and ask if you want a truck full of willow, poplar, hickory or oak ….whatever grows in your area. My fellow woodturner’s, its just common sense ….back in the day people used to treat each other as they wanted to be treated. Treat people nicely and they will repay, give of yourself freely and you will get in return ….it’s the law of the universe!

Tree Farms and Nursery’s
A Source of Good Woodturning Wood

Nursery’s and tree farms are always trimming or removing dead trees. These are really good people to leave a bowl or other turning project with. If you are looking for specific species, they will know what is available or what will soon be coming….treat them nicely. Keep in mind, people contact nurseries all the time to heal their ailing trees, these people know who will have dead trees so they are an excellent resource if you extend the effort to develop a good relationship with them.

Use Your Website Equity To
Trade for Free Woodturning Wood!

I haven’t mentioned it before before but you should have some type of website. If you don’t have a website, please contact me sparat@gmail.com and I can help you get a quick site set up. If you have a website you can put a website link that points to the tree farm or nursery that you are getting the wood from. All websites like relevant links, people will pay anywhere from $100 to $1000 a year for a good backlink that is relevant. This backlink method will work for anyone who has a business and works for wood, and has wood that you might be able to get for free to turn.

Storms Provide Free
Wood for Woodturning

Every bad storm leaves trees or limbs down. Just listen for the chainsaws or take a ride through your area after the storm. You will find more than enough free wood for woodturning if you ask and maybe even carry your chainsaw with you!

Facebook, Craigslist, Ebay for Free or Cheap Wood for Woodturning

As mentioned before, check Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, type in “free wood” or “firewood” “dead tree” “free tree”

Construction Sites Provide Free Wood for Laminated Woodturning Projects

Construction Sites Provide Free Wood for Laminated Woodturning Projects. Stop by a construction site or housing development. There is almost always a pile of framing lumber cut offs of various size on the ground, in the house that’s being framed or in a dumpster. Of course you need to ask permission to salvage the pieces but you can take these and glue them up for some really interesting turning. When I was framing houses we would throw away the cut off ends of 2×4’s, 2×6, 2×8’s, 2×10’s or 2×12’s laminated beams….these make beautiful bowls ….if you are lucky you might find one.

Give A Bowl Away to Get Free Wood for Woodturning Approach

There are not a whole lot of manufactured house factories around, there are more truss and beam factories in all states. If you might be close enough to one of these facilities, take a bowl with you to give away and ask if they have any scraps you can take ….I guarantee you will find a years worth of wood to turn.

In almost all cases if you make a small bowl, 6″ or so, put some business cards in it and give it to the person or business that deals with wood in one form or another …you never know what will happen.

Buy Your Favorite Woodturning Blank

Of course you can always buy blanks. Almost all woodworking stores have blanks. Facebook has some groups specifically dealing with blanks for woodturners and there is ebay, do a search for woodturning, woodturning blanks, etc. …..but you will pay for these. The longer our Facebook Group is up and running the more I find woodturners that buy wood to turn. So for some, this is the most viable option.

Free Wood for Woodturners

As a woodturner there are many woods I would like to turn, unfortunately, I am a poor woodturner so I am always looking for free wood. I have a chainsaw and trailer so I can grab wood on the side of the road, in someones yard, at a municipal wood dump or anywhere free wood might be offered.

I think I must be a little ADD because I find a wood I like to turn and I’ll do that until I get tired of it, then I look for something else! Lets not forget that if you like to turn on species of wood, lets say Oak ….it will differ from species to species, tree to tree. I found some boxelder, it was awesome. Then I found another boxelder tree, totally different but just as beautiful. You might find you like to turn cherry, then you figure out there are more than 10 differnet types of cherry in your area …on top of that, maybe green cherry is what you like until you try dry cherry.

Is There Really Such a Thing as Favorite
Wood For Woodturners

If you have been turning for 30 or 50 years then you probably have a favorite wood to turn. If you have been turning wood less than that then you probably have a favorite wood of the month type of thing. I know that happens to me. I might turn some poplar and think it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but I turn poplar from another tree and it doesn’t impress me as much. So, the best wood for woodturning or favorite wood for woodturning is purely speculative and depends on the log, the day on how you feel that day!

Favorite Wood For Woodturners Conclusion

The question was, “What is your favorite wood to turn and where do you get it?” I hope you find some of my sources helpful and I truly do hope you find your favorite wood….which means you have turned a whole lot of wood!

Wood Hardener Experiment for Woodturning Bowl Project

Turning a Cherry Bowl and
Needed Wood Hardener

It’s been a while since I’ve added to my woodturning blog …..haven’t been feeling too well so I haven’t been working with my lathe. I’ve been cleaning up and trying to work on my garage roof plans and I’ve spent some time with the prototype’s for my carbide insert woodturning tools. Seems like there are a handfull of options out there if you want to buy a completed set of carbide tools but a full set could cost you anywhere from $400 to $600 dollars. I’m trying to develope 3 woodturning tools made with carbide inserts that will do everything you need and the entire set would cost somewhere around $250…..or about $85 each…. Going to take some time to get the prototypes finished and I might end up creating and selling just 10 sets or so a year ….and at $60 or so dollars…. just to help new turners get started. These carbide tools are really easy to use!

I know when I first started, if I could purchase a carbide tool for 60 bucks I would have jumped on it. I had so much trouble when I first started with Chinese wood turning tools. More on this latter….

Anyway…..I tried a little Wood Hardener Experiment for Woodturning Bowl Project

I had some wild cherry wood that was cut down a couple of years ago. I cut it myself, on my mothers property after a storm, thought I would be using for fireword or for the “smoker”. The logs were about 2 feet long and up to 20″ wide, sitting outside uncovered and no treatment for the ends, that is I did not seal the ends of the log or the endgrain.

The piece I decided to work with was at the above dimensions, it looks pretty good and I split it down the middle and found it to be very dry. I can only turn 12″ on my lathe so I figured I could cut off the outer soft material on the bigger piece and get a nice piece to turn ….looking for a good size bowl.

Next I created my blank and rounded the corners on my bandsaw. I really need to get a new blade so I can cut corners easily. In a perfect world I would have a dedicated bandsaw and blade set up just for cutting blanks!

Mounting the Cherry Bowl
Blank for Turning

I started my project with my Nova 2 Chuck fitted with a worm screw, it seemed to hold pretty good and pulled up nice and tight to the chuck. Next I pushed the tailstock into the other side of the blank and it went in rather easy, in fact, the outer layer was pretty soft in this spot. I decided to press the tailstock in tight and give it a try.

Everything seemed to hold tight. I did not find any more soft wood yet 🙂 So I shaped the bowl, with a tenon for the chuck to be on the tailstock side of the bowl blank. Shaping went pretty good but when I started to shape the blank for the chuck tenon I ran into more of that soft squishy wood! I decided I would finish shaping since I put this much work into it.

I really didn’t want the blank to spin off and hit me in the head, I don’t have a face mask yet, so I’ve tried to turn carefully and slowly.

I tried out my new carbide tools, a square carbide insert and a 15mm round insert, both worked excellently. Then I spend some time trying the get a handle on turning with a bowl gouge. I have a 1/2″ bowl gouge by Woodstock with a traditonal grind… up until now I’ve earned a new name…..”CATCH”, that’s right, I was the captain of catches and I was close to giving up. I thought it was the tool, the lathe and/or the wood but in reality it was just my technique! I’m really surprised a bowl hasn’t flew across the room and/or hit me in the head at some point because I’ve had so many catches.

Tradional Grind for My Bowl Gouge

Well I decided to give it another shot after waiting a couple of weeks. I reground my bowl gouge with a traditonal grind according to many experts, I’ll try to put up a pic. Not only did I regrind the tool, but I put a secondary grind on it for more clearance. As they say, “ride the bevel” seems my tool always got it the way causing me to have a catch or two or 10 🙂

Well, wouldn’t you know. My bowl gouge was cutting as good if not better than the carbide tools. I was “making shavings” as Capn Eddie says, and was that an awesome feeling. I didn’t care what the bowl looked like, all I cared about was watching the shavings fly just like the utube videos I’ve been watching. I had complete control of the side walls, inside the bowl and the outside shape!

Ran Into A Patch of Soft Wood

I stopped to examine my work and was proud of my turning! I finally got a bowl gouge to work right, I have to say it was the grinding on the original tool that probably messed things up, after using the oneway grinding jig I put a more desired grind on the bowl gouge and I could actually make it work. That’s what wood turning is all about. Finding these little changes or techniques that open the door to other methods and surprises 🙂

Well, as I was looking at the bowl I noticed a section that was off color and soft enough to push my finger through. I thought, great…. finally I turn my first bowl like a pro and its rotten. Then I remembered the soft tenon, it was the same type of wood, white and soft.

Experiment With Wood Hardener

I probably should have thrown it away, but it was my pride and joy. I wanted to hang it on the wall or something but because of the soft wood I was screwed.

I remember watching a video where the turner had the same situation and used a “wood hardener” so I did some searching and found some more info on different wood hardeners and thought I would experiment with my trophy and see if I could get a decent bowl out of it by using this “wood hardener”. I found a “minwax wood hardener” and ANOTHER wood hardener in a pint container at “Menards Home Center”, I know Home Depot has the Minwax Wood Hardener, a google search will give you some other sources for a wood hardener.

You might think you could use an expoxy? The problem with most expoxies is that they do not penetrate the wood. If you know of an expoxy that penetrates the wood…. I would feel comfortable trying it.

Basically you just soak the soft spot with the hardener and let it dry. It soaks deep into the wood and hardens after a couple of hours. I also found 2 cracks and a chip. So I used some CA glue and poured it into the cracks, inside the bowl and outside the bowl. I also used CA and woodshavings and dust to form a paste to push into the cracks and chips.

I turned the bowl again, the wood hardener I used on the soft wood by the tenon worked great. It has keep the tenon solid and the wood chuck seems to be holding tight. As I turned the bowl the other soft spot turned nicely but after more shaping I found I needed to apply the hadener again.

Is A Wood Hardener Worth It?

You might think, “hey, don’t waste more money and time….throw the bowl away and start again!” I thought that initially but I really wanted to see how well this “wood hardener” works and if I have a bigger project would it be a possible solution should I run into rotted or soft wood? At this point I would said it is definitely something worth trying. It cost about 10 bucks for a pint and I only used, maybe a 1/5 or 1/6 or it ….so maybe I used a dollar or so of hardener. In my opinion, that would be worth the cost if you have an hour or more into the project.

BEFORE Woodhardener was applied, see white soft area in front of bowl

AFTER wood hardener applied to woodturned bowl

I still think my chinese tools are half my problem when it comes to turning. I’d love to try an American made bowl gouge from D-Way, Thompson or Carter & Sons. All American made, and they seem to slice through wood like butter. Most of the guys doing high quality video turtorials always mention they are using these tools ….in fact Cap’n Eddie was just showing off one of his D-Way bowl gouges with a fingernail grind ….he gives it high praises!!!

Good to see Eddie returning to scene after his health problems!

Sealing End Grain on Your WoodTurning Blanks with AnchorSeal or Latex Paint

Sealing End Grain on
Your WoodTurning Blanks

I was out collecting some wood for turning the other day. Found a pine or fir tree about 12″ at widest end cut up in 2, 3 and 4 foot lengths. Just what I was looking for.

I got some ash and beech a couple months ago. A neighbor was cutting down some small trees and I grabbed some choice pieces. I brought them home and stuck them off to the side and forgot about them. I figured I would seal the ends when I got around to it.

Guess what, I never got around to it and it looks like the pieces will be ruined for wood turning. Very disappinted since I had some burls and other pieces that looked interesting. So reminder to self …..always seal the ends right away!

So, I grabbed my new pine pieces. Had some old Latex paint laying around and promtly painted the ends to seal them. The theory goes like this. The ends will dry quicker while the wood in the middle of the log stays nice and wet. You’ve got some uneven movement due to the dryness and continual drying going on so something has to give …..you ususally see it right in the end of your cut logs.

If it hasn’t been too long you can still seal it or better yet, cut off an inch or two and see what it looks like, you might find that the log is still “check” free. Make sure you seal that puppy right away 🙂

What to use for sealing end
grain on wood blanks?

Basically you can use any ole paint you have laying around for end sealing, some swear by it others think a commercial end sealer is better. Put in on thick and store it outside under cover if you can. A good place to find cheap paint is your local Home Depot, Menards or Lowes ….any hardware store will have paint that someone returned or didn’t get mixed right. A gallon of paint goes a long way when sealing ends.

I’ve tried spray paint and it works, but unless you can pick up a can for $.25 or so, it really isn’t worth it.

I’m on a facebook group for sawyers, portable sawmills. These guys get 10′, 15′, 20′ or more length of trees that are 36″ or more in diameter and they still seal the ends otherwise the checking and cracking can ruin much of the log.

These guys use the same thing us woodturner’s would use, old paint …except they’re looking for 5 gallon deals! I would say 70 to 80% of these guys use latex paint on their slabs and other produced wood and stock tree trunks!

AnchorSeal Stops Logs from
Checking and Splitting

There is a commercial product made specifically for sealing the end of wet wood, wether small stuff like we use or whole tree trunks. I believe it’s called “anchorseal”. Seems as though they have several different versions of Anchor Seal now and it looks like it ranges from $25 to $35 dollars. If I was doing a project where I wanted to be absolutely sure there was not splitting, checking or cracking I would use Anchor Seal.. but for my budget and normal woodturning I do I will continue to use paint I have laying around. Maybe when the old paint is no longer available and I get rich, I’ll switch over to AnchorSeal!

Here’s a guy who did a quick video using AnchorSeal for End Grain Sealing from Peter Matthew

Using Glue to Seal Log Ends
to Prevent Splitting

Rick from RickTurns shows us another way to seal end grain on your woodturning logs using Elmers Glue. Notice the nice little jig he set up to slice his logs into slabs and other usable features. A pretty interesting video since he actually performed some tests on the best method to keep logs from splittng!

GreenWood End Sealer Stops
Splitting on Wet Wood

There are a lot of great reviews for Rockler’s Green Wood End Sealer. A product similar to AnchorSeal but cheaper. Next time they have free delivery I think I will grab a gallon to use on some of my choice wood finds. Or I could go down to the local Rockler store to get some 🙂

Check out some of these reviews.

http://shrsl.com/?if28

I have always used Rockler Green…

I have always used Rockler Green Wood end sealer or Anchorseal to seal the ends of my wood. It will seal the wood from cracking until you are ready to use it. Another advantage is, I believe it keeps bugs out of the wood. I don’t know this as fact, but it just seems so. The wood I bring in is not only crack free but bug free. I don’t know if Rockler’s product is the same as Anchorseal but it performs exactly the same. Excellent.

Ash

Had 3 trees taken down and milled into lumber. This product is great, easy to apply and clean up. I fully expect my boards to have no end-checking after they dry out.

Great end seal

I’m new to this and as you can see I bought the smaller bottle and applied using brush on the freshly cut ends on all ten of them while I wait for them to dry and eventually make them into cutting boards and or to turn them into bowls. Each one of these averages in 1′ 2″ to 1′ 5″ in diameter and I still have some left over. I notices some sap coming through later in the day and I brushed more on them. Easy clean as instructed used hot water only to clean my brush. So far so good. Thanks to one of the Rockler sales rep. who introduced me to this stuff. I am definitely going to buy more of this stuff.

You can always see what’s new at Wood Turning Basics!