Small Cotton Wood Bowl or Cup

I see lots of questions on whether cottonwood or poplar can be turned. The standard answer for any wood is yes, it can be turned, how well it turns is a different story!

Cottonwood is not a very dense wood and has soft stringy fibers. When it is fresh cut or green, it holds a lot of water. So drying your logs and woodblanks might take some special care to avoid it drying too quickly causing cracks and checks.

As green cottonwood spins on the lathe it will spit water at you. It was a wet spring and summer this year so the wood held a lot of water, it did not matteral if you turned a spindle blank or a bowl blank, you were going to get wet.

Drying Cotton Wood for Processing

I cut my logs into 24″ logs. I read that these spring/summer logs hold a tremendous amount of water. Now, traditional drying preparation would involved painting/sealing of the log ends. Then laying them horizontally on the ground and stack them. Try to keep them in the sun but put something over the top of the log stack ….like a tarp, piece of metal roof or piece of plywood. They can now sit outside until you are ready to further process the cottonwood logs into woodturning blanks.

Dry the Log by Vertical Draining

I learned a secret trick. Before you seal the ends and stack the wood, stand the logs on end for a day or so….as long as you can before you start to see any splitting or checking, gravity forces the water and nutrients to literally drain down the log into the ground. It will lose water weight quickly.

Once that water is drained it will want to start the cracking and checking process so you need to get out there and quickly seal the ends of those logs with Anchor Seal, Wax or some old paint (put it on thick) …Now they are ready to store outside or inside for further processing and drying.

Cottonwood requires sharp tools you might even consider trying carbide insert tools to hollowing and shaping. But check out this ebay listing. Lots of cottonwood blanks to chose from. Once dry, cottonwood is fairly light. It is not as dense as oak but it is stringy. Still, it makes for beautiful woodturning projects once you get to understand how to work the wood.

Did Some Drying Tests on
Smaller Pieces of Cottonwood

I grabbed some branches that were about 6 inches plus in diamter and cut them into 6 to 8″ pieces. I made myself about 12 pieces like that, I knew I was going to use 2 right away, the rest I slapped on some old paint sealer and set them aside.

End Grain Turning On Cottonwood Logs/Branches

I thought I would try some end grain turning. So I stripped the bark from the pieces and proceeded to turn the stock cottonwood to a round cylinder. Since these were rather short pieces I used a tenon instead of a recess. The tenon can be grabbed by the scroll chuck and not split the project apart, as might happen if you tried to use a recess or mortise.

First Attempt At MicroWave Drying

I was talking to some FB friends over on facebook.com/groups/woodturningbasics and they suggested drying the blank with a microwave. I had not tried that technique yet but I figured this would be a good first time.

I shaped the outsite of the vessel and gouged out the interior of the project. They say that the wall thickness should be 10% of the total diameter. So the project at this time is finished shaped on the outside and rough shaped on the inside.

Finishes…..What Should I use?

I wanted to finish the experior with a lacquer matte finish and the inside I was going to use a food safe epoxy finish that would allow the project to be used as a cup, soup bowl or maybe mortar and pestle.

I finished the ouside and sanded down to 1200 grit. Then I added some lines to the outside by using a thin wire while the project was rotating…..they look like dark lines.

Time For The Microwave Drying Test

I had some oak projects, hickory, and ash projects along with the cottonwood. The cottonwood took the longest to dry.

I put each project in the mircowave seperately on high heat for 60 to 90 seconds. I would let it cool between heatings and since it was late I might be able to give it 3 or 4 treatments. I’ll keep my comments to the Cottonwood. It took about 3 days of treatments to get it to the point where it would stop losing water. I weighed the pieces each day, when a piece stopped losing water it was done.

This is the scale I used Weighmax Stainless Steel 90lb scale.

Next I applied Deft Lacquer Sanding Sealer to the outside of the piece  and sanded down to 1200 grit. One more coat of deft sanding sealer. I like this sanding sealer because it literally dries in 5 or 10 minutes and if you apply it while the lathe is turning it will be dry in 60 seconds…..ready for another coat.

I applied a couple coats of Satin Lacquer finish on the exterior part of the cup/bowl. Lightely sanding in between. You should really let it set up for 6 to 8 hours before sanding again. After the fininal coat of lacquer let it dry 24 hours and buff it out with a soft cloth, either on the lathe or a dedicated buffing station. Be careful because, although it is hard to the touch it is still soft and a hard buffing will cause the finish to melt and get disfigured.

Finish Interior of Cottonwood Bowl/Cup

At this point the project should be at its final interior shape, sanded and ready for finish.

I chose to use a food safe Epoxy Finsh by Max Clear . It is clear, it is very hard and it is food safe. So I could turn this project into a mortar and pestle, or it could hold hot soup or hot coffee.

Final Thoughts On Using
Cottonwood for Wood Turning

Since both Poplar and Cottonwood are kissing cousins, both perform in a similar way for woodturning projects. It is a little stringy, you will need sharp tools and you will need to make your final cuts with traditional tools and know how to make them cut and not scrape. You can use scrapers to get the piece of wood in shape and then use your tradional turning tools to cut the fibers of this wood. Each woodturner develops his/her own technique for getting a project down, what tools work best with what wood. ….which machine is the best and even what finish is the best. Things we  can only learn through time by experience or advice from fellow woodturners

However, if you can’t get clean cuts and you end up with some torn endgrain then it is time to start doing some sanding. Start off with 80 grit if you have to and get down to 500 or so. It was my experience that when sanding the wood when wet would really load up the sanding paper in seconds, so you must get the final sanding done when the wood is dry.

Apply Sanding Sealer on
Tough Stringy Wood

I usually use Deft Lacquer Sanding Sealer. And I dilute it with 25% to 50% Lacquer Thinner. It can be applied while the project is rotating on the lathe with a paper towl. You can do a quick sand after the first coat and give it one more, then let it dry …5 minutes do a light sanding and apply your finish of choice. Applying sanding sealer to the wood when it is dry will help you to sand it down to as smooth a finish as possible. At this point you can apply the final coats of lacquer finish.

The inside of the project is a little trickier. It is a small project so you will not have a lot of room to work. I use a scotch pad wrapped in sandpaper and carefuflly sand the inside until it is ready to be finished.

I am now ready to apply the Food Safe Epoxy Finish . This is an art in and of itself. Apply a thin layer first and after it dries apply a thicker layer. I used a cheap rotisere motor to rotate the scroll chuck as the second coat is applied. Use a light spray of acetone to take out bubbles and a heat dryer will help to elimate the rest of the bubbless.

This last second is more art than skill. You’ll have to experiment in how to coat the inside or outside of a project with an epoxy finish. Ther are a lot of youtube videos on how different woodturnings set up their turning stations.

Should I Make This a Mortar and Pestle

By now you are tired of reading about my cottonwood bowl 🙂

But I had a thought, this would make a perfect “Mortar & Pestle” the epoxy finish is hard, super hard and I could easily make a “pestle” for grinding herbs and the like into the cup. Keep in mind, you should apply the expoxy in layers….not too thick, let it dry 24 hours and apply another coat. You should need very little sanding. If you were to use it as a motar and pestle, let it sit for 3 to 5 days before attempting any heavy use.

I’m still torn between the cottonwood soup bowl and/or cup.

I guess the lesson here is that you never know what you are going to turn. What starts out as a bowl ends up being a kitchen utensil 🙂 On top of that, you never know what the wood is going to give you. Who would have thought that cottonwood would make a good turning blank. It ends up being an excellent piece of wood to turn, whether straight end grain or a log sliced into a bowl blank.

Since I will have about 50 blanks of cottonwood to turn I am going to experiment with dyes and resins……I might save that until this winter.

However I wanted to show you a bowl I’m in the middle of, its from the same tree, the bark has stuck solidly, I turned the rough shape and then started to sand, it clogged up any sandpaper I had so I let it sit for a couple of days to dry. The I finished the outside with deft sanding sealer, sanded the outside pretty good and sprayed on some satin lacquer. The beauty behind satin lacquer is that after a couple of coats, let it dry for at least 24 hours and you can buff out a beautiful deep low sheen finish.

Since it was so wet when I turned this bowl, I decided to let the inside stay unfinished for a couple weeks in the open air. I checked it on my scale for water loss and on with my moisure meter. I did lose 3 oz already and is now slowing down.

I love the way the bark shows on this piece. I’ll do a more thorough video on how I did this piece once I get my cameras set up again. …..getting close 🙂

Can I Use Cottonwood For Woodturning

Short answer…..you betcha. Turning it green makes for easy shaping. The bark sticks very good if you want to go for live edge. Once the outside and inside is dry, sanding is easy and finishing is a breeze.

I’m always looking for something different to do with my bowls and other turnings. Cottonwood could lead itself to some very nice designs by burning it with a torch as it spins on the lathe. Or, you might want to experiment with some stain, lightly stain the wood to bring out the wood grain. YOu would be best to see how this works by staining a flat piece of cottonwood or poplar and start off with a small amount of stain and work your way up so you might see what it would look like.

I wish I had a bigger lathe.

I have some huge hunks of poplar and ash and oak that I would like to turn some 24 inch bowls or sinks. Until then I will work with what I have and hopefully find out ways to turn cottonwood into some trophies 🙂

Thanks for reading 🙂