Thread: Handling green Silky Oak for turning purposes

Originally Posted by rsser

Added: and ditch the light method of drying. All other things equal, with really wet pieces the slower they dry the better. IMO parrafin wax on the end-grain of a roughed bowl still allows some moisture through which is OK as long as it's not that fast.

Drying cabinets work OK on small pieces such as pen-blanks 'cos they're small, generally don't combine both heart- & sap-wood and so are less likely to split, and are no great loss if they do disintegrate into a pile of splinters. (Hell, pen-turners can glue the splinters back together and still make a viable item - even if 'tis only a pen - out of 'em. )

Bowl blanks on t'other hand are far more likely to split, esp. if they include both heart- & sap-wood, and are hard to write off as "no great loss."

Ditch the light.

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Ditch the light.

but what if you wrap the timber in aluminium foil under a light....

Thread resurrect ...

2 of the 4 rough turned pieces checked fairly deeply just off centre of the base. 1 was almost completely coated in wax.

Have just finish-turned one. Turned fine though the wood is resinous and clogged the s/paper pronto.

In the past only one piece of SO I've turned has polished well so this time I sealed it with n/c sanding sealer and then hit it with Ubeaut Shithot wax stik. This is hard wax designed for open-pored timbers like English Oak and Elm. Have used it once before on Elm and it was dead easy and gave a stunning finish.

Thought SO might respond well and it did, though it was hard to get it even. At a guess this might've been the result of the sealer but I can't be sure yet.

All things considered it's worth perservering with.

You just spin the piece and use the stick like crayon. Then rub hard with flannelette to melt and buff the wax. Good stuff.

So it's about a year later now and it's been an interesting journey.

One roughed bowl covered in wax grew black mould under the wax.

Another turned green from start to finish developed bluestain almost overnight.

Three half logs that had had the pith removed, end grain carefully sealed and were stored under a silver tarp with some air movement were all cactus when I went to cut bowl blanks last week. Star shakes through the lot. B*gger.

Still there was no shortage of usable timber out of the haul. Still have a number of 4x4 spindle blanks and have found a check in only one.

Originally Posted by rsser

So it's about a year later now and it's been an interesting journey.

One roughed bowl covered in wax grew black mould under the wax.

Another turned green from start to finish developed bluestain almost overnight.

Three half logs that had had the pith removed, end grain carefully sealed and were stored under a silver tarp with some air movement were all cactus when I went to cut bowl blanks last week. Star shakes through the lot. B*gger.

Still there was no shortage of usable timber out of the haul. Still have a number of 4x4 spindle blanks and have found a check in only one.

Seems tricky to get big bowl blanks out of anything. Must have a look at my half logs. They were end grain sealed, after cutting off the pith, but I can hardly say they've been carefully stored. Just chucked out the back at 's and forgotten about.

But good you've still Got something to work with.

The stuff I did here last year, I rough turned while it was soaking wet & then sprayed it with HiLite 80 to kill the mould.

They didn't go mouldy or split but they warped heaps.

Some of them will need to be carved to finish 'cos they are so bent that they can't be finished on the lathe.

Originally Posted by rsser

...............Still there was no shortage of usable timber out of the haul. Still have a number of 4x4 spindle blanks and have found a check in only one.

Hate to rain on your parade Ern but I wouldn't go getting your hopes up just yet - Silky is prone to internal checking in thick slabs/posts. Seen a fair bit that looks fine from the outside but has had cracks internally up to 1/4' wide

P**p. Ah well, thanks for the warning.