Turning banksia: a quick appraisal.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Vern very kindly sent me a piece of Banksia after I recently commented that Banksia & Hakea were the next woods I wanted to make a goblet from. Ta mate! :D What with the recent WW gathering at 's and all, this arvo was the first chance I had to play with it and, unfortunately, the dinner gong went off part-way through.

I was expecting a lot of tear-out, but managed a nice finish off the tool except for a couple of small areas in the sapwood which, I suspect, are spots of dry rot. No real curlies though, no matter how well I sharpened my tools. [sigh] The top half and inside of the bowl were finished & sealed but I'm still working on the bottom half and transition, hence the obvious tool marks. To keep the peace (I did attend both days of the gathering, after all) when tucker call was sounded I simply sealed the base with a quick coat of wax to hopefully prevent movement overnight and called it a night in the shed. The wax'll be turned away first thing when I resume so the transition will be smaller than planned. But the chef must be kept appeased if I wanna keep eating. :shrug:

One thing I noticed was it seems to "orange peel." It's not really noticeable to the casual glance, the first pic (taken in ambient light hence the colour & slight blur from longish exposure) shows how it looks to the casual observer.

But on closer scrutiny... :no: The second pic, taken with flash, shows the effect, particularly around the reflection of the flash on the bowl. These seem to be areas where the fibers are being compressed more by the tool bevel; sanding makes the problem even worse. Scraping gives the best finish, but even then the problem is noticeable when you look for it.

So, how do I get around it? I'm thinking I may need to finish with a Danish Oil and build up several coats to even it all out (I hate sanding sealer with a passion) so it'll be a while, like around six weeks, before there's any "finished" photos of this goblet!

All in all, I had an enjoyable half hour doing this... it's nice to have a new problem to overcome that doesn't involve ducking. :)

[chrisb691]

Looks great.

[ss_11000]

nice looking goblet so far mate...what does orange peel mean???

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Orange peel?

You know when you look at an orange and it's covered in all those little dimples, sorta like a golf-ball? :D

[ss_11000]

Orange peel?

You know when you look at an orange and it's covered in all those little dimples, sorta like a golf-ball? :D
oh...:-

[DJ’s Timber]

No real curlies though, no matter how well I sharpened my tools.

Trying for the long streamers flying over the shoulder are we Skew :U like did yesterday :;

[lubbing5cherubs]

looks good Skew
Toni

[rodent]

Dont worry skew banksia's like that ive got a box that looks the same .I keep it in the shade.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Trying for the long streamers flying over the shoulder are we Skew :U like did yesterday :;

Always. That's when I turn toothpicks. :D

I'm still working on my aim, though. :wink:

[TTIT]

..........I'm thinking I may need to finish with a Danish Oil and build up several coats to even it all out ...........

Many, many, many coats - lost count on the last thing I made from that stuff - part of the reason for my dislike for it.:~ Lookin' good anyway Skew :2tsup:

[Evan Pavlidis]

Looking good Skew; as far as the orange peel effect is concerned, I had similar with a smal bowl and kept adding coats of oil to fill the "dimples" to build body and gently rubbing back after every 2 coats. I did this until the surface was even. It took weeks to do and now I have a bowl which feels plasticky. Won't be doing it again; next time I will sand as smooth as possible and use 5 or 6 coats of oil then buff. The dimples can be an artistic statement :D .

Cheers, Evan

[PAH1]

I rather like banksia, there are a couple of quirks about both turning and finishing it though. The first is that any end grain scraping cut tears out the fibres something fierce, however shear scraping works wonders. The finishing part is caused by the medullary ray being softer than the fibres, when you are sanding the rays disapear quickly while the fibres stay intact, this is the cause of the dimpling. It can also cause sanding marks that are impossible to get rid of, the rays are sanded below the fibres and the paper skates over the top. Dear old EEE is the answer to that problem and starting with as high a grit as is possible is the solution to the dimpling.

[Gil Jones]

Hey, Skew, you have the start of a very fine looking goblet!!
I love that wood.
I can see the orange peel, but it looks pretty shallow, and should flatten out OK with a bit of wet sanding at 400/600, then rubbing/polishing compound (or maybe more coats before the polishing). If you are using lacquer, try a retarder to slow down the drying. Do you think washing the bare wood with lacquer thinner or meths first might remove any oils, and prevent the supposed orange peel?
I like EEE, but it is a bit course. When I want smooth I use a runny mix of powdered rotten stone and water, and then an automotive finish-polishing compound.
As for the compression rings, sharper tools and a lighter touch is my answer (at least it works for me). More sanding is not so good 'cause the damaged fibers are too deep.

[BernieP]

G'Day Skew

Nice WIP look forward to seeing the finished product, as I always learn a lot from your postings

Cheers
Bernie

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Well... I finished turning it this arvo. Only had one coat of Danish so far, I think I agree with Evan and will only do two or three more coats. Hopefully that'll be enough to smooth out the worst of the dimples while not giving a plastic feel.

I'm not too happy with the form... it's not how I had visualised it in my head. The top transition is too large for the bottom one (although not as badly as the pix make it seem... parallax is a bugger) and I'd planned the spindled section of the stem to be more of an ogee shape, but I forgot about that until 'twas too late. :- That's one of the problems with shaping a job over several days... you lose the "flow" of it. [sigh] But even though it's not a competition piece, I'm fairly confident it'll be easy to find a new home for it. :D

In the pix I've highlighted some problem areas that I could have spent a lot more time on, but as the trouble's mainly in the timber (a bit punky) I really don't think 'twas worth the effort. The Danish will "level 'em out" and they add a bit of character. :wink:

In pic 1, there's a line of spalting down the side of the bowl and a matte area that just wouldn't take a polish where it meets the lip. The Danish will stabilise this and I could have left it mounted for resanding/refinishing once it cured, but... [shrug] There's a spot on the foot that's a continuation of the same punky vein.

In pic 2, there's a massive dimple just below the lip. Close scrutiny under a magnifying glass show no cut or broken fibres... it has been "punched in" as though hit with a ball peen. Either it grew like that and the fibres that filled the hole fell out when sliced awy, or there's a very punky bit just beneath it that collapsed under the bevel pressure. Either way, I've no intention of fretting over the why... I'll just lump it into the category of "added character" and leave it at that. 'Tis not worth getting all anal over. :rolleyes:

[ss_11000]

top job skew...i really like that design:)

[rsser]

Would wetting it or paste wax firm up the fibres before the last light shear scrapes?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Would wetting it or paste wax firm up the fibres before the last light shear scrapes?

Hmmm... that probably would've worked. This was the first time I've turned any Banksia larger than a pen-blank so it was a bit of a learning experience.

Next time I'll probably give it a soak in Danish to firm the grain up before the final cuts, if I'm also going to use it as the finish. The end-grain at the base of the bowl, where I gave it a temporary coat last night to prevent movement before I got back to it, turned beautifully today without the slightest sign of tear-out. Just had another look and there's no orange-peel in that area either. Now I know how I'll tackle the next one. :2tsup:

Oh... and if anyone's wondering, yes, the temporary coat worked. Only about 0.5mm out of true when I got back to it today, not enough to worry about as it's not unusual for an item to warp that much even when turned all in one session. [phew!] I should stress that it's not a good idea to leave a piece hanging on the lathe overnight. :no: I dismounted the chuck with the piece still mounted and stood it upright on the ways until I got back to it. There's really no sense in letting the piece sag for 24 hours!

[Tornatus]

G'day Skew

Thanks for "sharing your journey" (love that touchy-feely jargon) with the Banksia goblet - I'm always appreciative when someone finds out things for me the hard way!

I'm fond of Banksia, but like you (before this triumph) I have only ever used it for penturning, where I find that the "orange-peel" effect you mentioned gives a very interesting texture to the finished product. A number of people I have given Banksia pens to have commented favourably on this - one said she thought at first that I had turned the pen from leather, I guess from the dimples being similar to hair-follicles in skin. I can see why you might find that less appealing in a goblet, but I think it could work well with certain types of bowls.

Anyway, you've inspired me to give Banksia a go for something bigger than a pen - :thanx2: