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Since both of these bowls are still green, I have sanded them but have not applied any finish yet.
Showing posts with label hop hornbeam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hop hornbeam. Show all posts
Friday, October 17, 2014
New Walnut and old Hop Hornbeam
I bought a Walnut blank from our wood turners club wood auction at our October meeting. This blank was about 9 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall, but it had bark attached to one side of the blank. If I were more experienced turning live edge bowls, this blank would have been a good candidate, but I decided to turn a traditional bowl instead. I started turning this bowl yesterday afternoon and I noticed that the wood was still green and the turnings were somewhat damp, but not really messy. After I removed all the bark the bowl ended up 8.25 inches in diameter and 2.25 inches tall. Since the wood is wet, I did not remove the tenon on the foot of the bowl so I could turn the bowl a second time after it dries out. I put this Walnut bowl in a plastic bag with some of the damp wood chips to help it dry out slowly. It took me about 3 hours to turn and sand the bowl and during that time the wet wood chips sitting on the lathe caused the cast iron bed to show rust, so I used WD-40 and 220 sandpaper to sand off the rust stain and relubricate the lathe bed.
The Hop Hornbeam bowl was turned form a blank of wood I got at our wood turners club visit to the Penn State woodlot. I got a section of a log and then cut the log with a chainsaw down the middle to remove the pith. This bowl ended up 10.75 inches in diameter and 3.75 inches tall. The top rim of the bowl is quite narrow and unfortunately when I finished turning this bowl the lip developed a small crack in the rim, about 0.75 inches long. The bowl blank was still green so this kind of cracking can occur if there was too much stress while turning the bowl. Cracks can also develop in a green bowl blank when too much heat generated during the sanding process and I think that was what happened here. Again, this bowl is being stored in a plastic bag full of damp wood chips and hopefully it will dry slowly without developing any more cracks and without worsening the existing crack in the rim of the bowl. See 9/12 for the original turning of this bowl.
Since both of these bowls are still green, I have sanded them but have not applied any finish yet.
Since both of these bowls are still green, I have sanded them but have not applied any finish yet.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Hop Hornbeam bowl
This is probably the largest bowl I have turned to date. I started off with a section of a Hop Hornbeam log I got from the Nittany Valley Woodturners visit tour of the Ag Progress woodlot. I chain sawed the log down the center to remove the pith area and put the half log on the band saw to cut the blank into a circular shape. My lathe can theoretically handle blanks up to 12 inches in diameter and 21 inches long. However, when the blank is more than about 10 inches in diameter, the toolrest cannot pass under the blank, so if I need to move the toolrest, I have to take the bowl out of the chuck or remove the bowl and chuck to relocate the toolrest. I opted to remove the bowl in the chuck to avoid problems getting the bowl repositioned in the chuck correctly.
The rim of the bowl is quite thin, by my standards. I was very pleased it, even though there is a small (0.75 inch long) narrow crack that developed as I was sanding the bowl in an area that was close to the pith.
After all the hard parts of turning the insides and outsides of the bowl, I must have been overconfident because I put a small gouge in the foot of the bowl. It took a lot of work to smooth out the gouge, and in the end, there is still a small dent in the foot of the bowl.
I put walnut oil on the bowl and have been storing it in a bag with wood shavings. Today I signed the bottom of this bowl with my new signature brand that my Mother-In-Law sent me. I am still getting the hang of using the brand; you can see that the first and last letter of my signature are faint because I didn't get the right amount of pressure on the sides of the brand. Still, you can definitely make out my signature, so I am pretty pleased with how that looks. This bowl is still fairly wet, so I put it back in the plastic bag filled with wood shavings to allow it to continue to dry slowly. I hope that the edge crack on the rim of the bowl doesn't get any bigger.
The rim of the bowl is quite thin, by my standards. I was very pleased it, even though there is a small (0.75 inch long) narrow crack that developed as I was sanding the bowl in an area that was close to the pith.
After all the hard parts of turning the insides and outsides of the bowl, I must have been overconfident because I put a small gouge in the foot of the bowl. It took a lot of work to smooth out the gouge, and in the end, there is still a small dent in the foot of the bowl.
I put walnut oil on the bowl and have been storing it in a bag with wood shavings. Today I signed the bottom of this bowl with my new signature brand that my Mother-In-Law sent me. I am still getting the hang of using the brand; you can see that the first and last letter of my signature are faint because I didn't get the right amount of pressure on the sides of the brand. Still, you can definitely make out my signature, so I am pretty pleased with how that looks. This bowl is still fairly wet, so I put it back in the plastic bag filled with wood shavings to allow it to continue to dry slowly. I hope that the edge crack on the rim of the bowl doesn't get any bigger.
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