Thread: Green turning Red Alder- WIP sort of.

If it's the same species of Red Alder that we have here on the west coast it only turns orange when it is green and pretty freshly cut. Unfortunately the colour doesn't last and it will turn a tan or light brown over a week or two.

It's a nice soft hardwood to turn and easy to carve although it does have a bit of a fuzzy grain, it can also have birdseye in it if you find a chunk where there are lots of little shoots sprouting.

Trevor

Originally Posted by gtwilkins

If it's the same species of Red Alder that we have here on the west coast it only turns orange when it is green and pretty freshly cut. Unfortunately the colour doesn't last and it will turn a tan or light brown over a week or two.


Trevor

Ah! Wondered that! Noticed that the wool people use a fixer to keep the colour. Wonder if anything like that can be done.

I turned some of this green last year. I loved the result. There is the slightest amount of orange left in a few places only.
It is still is a lovely color with good variations in the grain. It dries very light ( in weight).
Your idea of fixing the color is a very interesting one. I hadn't thought about it as a possibility. I seem to remember doing an art course years ago and we used vegetable matter to die some cloth and I think we used salt to fix the die.
I finished one vase wet, sanded and oiled, and am very happy with the result. It is a bit off round as you'd expect. I still have to put it back on the lathe to resand and refinish it but I haven't got around to it yet.
Attached is a bowl I made and a vase. They do not look as orange in real life as they look in the photos.

Looking the goods there TL.

Some picks of the green, I mean orange bowls.

Originally Posted by steck

I turned some of this green last year. I loved the result. There is the slightest amount of orange left in a few places only.
It is still is a lovely color with good variations in the grain. It dries very light ( in weight).
Your idea of fixing the color is a very interesting one. I hadn't thought about it as a possibility. I seem to remember doing an art course years ago and we used vegetable matter to die some cloth and I think we used salt to fix the die.
I finished one vase wet, sanded and oiled, and am very happy with the result. It is a bit off round as you'd expect. I still have to put it back on the lathe to resand and refinish it but I haven't got around to it yet.
Attached is a bowl I made and a vase. They do not look as orange in real life as they look in the photos.

Love the look of the form within the timber it is oursome. What type of oil did you use? Cheers Skewturn

Originally Posted by Skewturn

Love the look of the form within the timber it is oursome. What type of oil did you use? Cheers Skewturn

I Used Organoil on the vase and Wipe on Poly for the bowl.

Tea Lady. Good find there. You have done well. May I as a question tho. Is that the thickness you are leaving them till they dry? I have never turned wet timber but want to try. To finish I was under the impression that you turned green timber down to close to finish size and shape and it only required a slight touch up and sanding to finish. With yours it looks like there is still a lot of timber to be taken off.

Originally Posted by cookie48

Tea Lady. Good find there. You have done well. May I as a question tho. Is that the thickness you are leaving them till they dry? I have never turned wet timber but want to try. To finish I was under the impression that you turned green timber down to close to finish size and shape and it only required a slight touch up and sanding to finish. With yours it looks like there is still a lot of timber to be taken off.

You can do it either way. Turning down to a chunky version oif what you envisage as the end shape. Then when the piece dries,hopefully without cracking, you turn them to the finished form. It just means the blank will be dry sooner as you have removed that much wood. A big blank like that would take a fair number of years to dry in a solid log.

I quite like turning green to finished thickness too. And let it warp as it will as it dries. Both ways I pack the turned bowl in its shavings in a cardboard box so it still dries slowly and, hopefully, evenly. I have packed a few in plastic bags, but they don't dry. But they did spalt quite nicely.