Thread: Finally decided to turn some decent wood

I find its always a puzzle how best to cut a piece of wood to show off its best features. That's probably the main issue stopped me using more "good" wood. I took a punt with the Mulga and seems to have paid off.
Are there any guidelines ?

Cheers
Tony

With things like turning the ugly wood is often the best

With normal sawing / grading bits of wood like that are rejects destined for the firewood pile. If you can use them for something better.. thats great

Only thing I can suggest is avoid leaving the pith of the log in any turning piece, it will probably check at some part of the drying process. Apart from that, keep up the good work and experiment.

A chainsaw and someones fire wood stash are a good start

Ian

Hear, hear! Ianab's hit the nail on the head.

IMHO some of my most interesting items have been turned from plain old-every day wood, except that it has been from the fork of a tree or the base of the root ball. Stuff that's fairly useless for cabinetry or housing. Heck, even banksia "nuts" can be turned with surprising results... who needs exotic woods?

BTW, you can succesfully include the pith in an item, but it depends to a large degree on the type of wood or how well it was cured in the first place. Generally it should be avoided though, at least until you get a bit more experience in judging what will and won't be succesful. Of course, the best way to get that experience is by ruining quite a few items... [shrug]

Nice work Tonysa.

I like the balancing flashes of sapwood in the mulga. And that's always something to look for when you decide where the centre of the blank is going to be in order to get balanced grain patterns. You can rough turn to check and then recentre to improve the orientation. (This is usually essential with nat. edge burls and using a spur drive makes it easier).

One of the reasons the desert acacias tend to crack is I think the heat generated in turning, so go slow with v. sharp tools. If a crack does start to appear, squirt in some thin superglue and immediately rough sand with the piece spinning (while standing aside!) to fill the gap. I've done this repeatedly on a punky bit of redgum to get it down thin enough.

As for turning on a budget, keep your eyes peeled for felled trees on roadside plantings; in urban areas plane and elm can often be found and are good turning timbers. Old Silver Birch is also good to turn.

thanks for the advice guys, appreciated
in the heat of the moment i forgot the about using superglue, damn
could have resurrected the project, oh well will know better next time.

with the mulga I ummed and arrr'd for ages before taking the plunge and putting it through the bandsaw. luckily it paid off. good to remember for next time.

I have some banksia nuts as it happens ....

cheers