Trying to turn some Red Oak

[Gene Stephens]

I started working with some red oak this week end. Seemed like the wood wanted to tear instead of cut. I know my tools were sharp. I even went and got a brand new tool that had never been used with the same results. I tried speeding it up a bit but that did not seem to make any difference. Most of the practicing I have been doing has been on softwoods. Any ideas?
thanks
Gene

[Mike Minto]

I've not turned oak, but have made some f***work projects with it. It is a very open grained wood, and tends to tear / split / splinter, even when being routed. A guy once told me that oak is great wood - for making fires. I know that's not much help, but shows others have had similar problems with oak - it's probably the wood, not you causing the tearing. If anything, I would think fairly high speeds and very sharp tools would help - along with a light touch - that's what I use when turning ash for making tool handles - it is very hard, and open grained, not unlike oak. Mike :rolleyes:

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Gene,

This thread was reported and I moved it to the turner's forum where it is more appropriate.

1. As Mike stated...coarse grained oak tends to tear, in my experience.

2. Few tools are sharp even when new. I've always had to sharpen them.

[Ben Brown27]

I haven't turned any bowls or anything out of oak, but I've done several pens with it. All my experiences with oak included a good bit of tear out. I've always just assumed it was the nature of the wood. Course I haven't been turning too long so it quite possible I'm just doing it wrong ;)

[Bob Hallowell]

I tears pretty good when wet, but once dry you can turn the tearout out ok. You might have to do some shear scraping.

Bob

[David Christopher]

Gene, don't forget...sandpaper is your friend

[George Guadiane]

Sharp tools are 3/4 of the battle, most of the last part is proper application - technique.
I have turned a bit of red oak and had some tear out, but came back with sharper tools and sharper focus on application and lighter touch and gotten pretty good results...
As mentioned, sandpaper IS your friend.

One thing to watch out for, at least with WET oak, is tool corrosion. If you don't clean up your tools and take them out of the shavings at the end of the session, you WILL have an absolute NIGHTMARE of corrosion when you come back - guess how I learned THAT little bit of information - it was not pretty.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Gene - lots of good advice so far but I noticed you didn't mention what it was you were trying to turn. Sharp tools, technique, direction of cut, speed - all play a role to create the end result. Tell us a little more about what you were turning and when you had difficulties and we should be able to narrow down a corrective action for you.

[Mike Peace]

I have turned several bowls from at least three different red oak trees and did not have significant tearout when turning green. IMHO tearout is not a reason to avoid using red oak. The smell, the staining of the lathe bed, the porous nature rendering it a poor chose for salad bowls may be.:(

[john taliaferro]

is this old wood ,it could be rotten, you can help some with shelack,sand and seal,supperglue or such to stiffen the fibers. dont let it get ya, just get somedifferent wood. john t

[Nathan Hawkes]

I have turned several bowls from at least three different red oak trees and did not have significant tearout when turning green. IMHO tearout is not a reason to avoid using red oak. The smell, the staining of the lathe bed, the porous nature rendering it a poor chose for salad bowls may be.:(


:DMike, you speak from experience I can tell! I have to agree about the smell & staining; wet oak is IIRC pretty acidic, and definitely will rust your tools much quicker than other woods, and will stain black with very minimal iron exposure to it (read: grinder dust from sharpening). I have turned quite a few spalted bowls from red oak, and only a couple non-spalted. It turned pretty well except for the sapwood, which did tear out pretty badly, though it was the most spalted part, and softest. As some have suggested, you can use CA glue or dewaxed shellac to harden the exterior fibers to cut cleanly. I'd put my vote for CA if it is deep tearout. Use shear scraping to get rid of the tearout--really sharp tools are a must here, and really light wispy cuts. I like the Veritas burnisher on a diagonally presented scraper to take angel hair curlies. Then, the 80 grit gouge is your friend...;)

[Wally Wenzel]

You didn't say if it was wet or dry, i have turned both and really do like it, maybe i am lucky but i didn't have a problem with it, this was red oak.
Wally

[Ryan Baker]

I am not too suprised at your problems with red oak. Red Oak seems to be one of the species that varies a lot from one part of the country to another as far as the way it behaves. There is a lot of good advice here. You should be able to get a decent result with sharp tools, careful cuts, and a bunch of shear scraping ... and the always popular 80-grit gouge.

[Dewey Torres]

Gene, don't forget...sandpaper is your friend

Best advice you have ever gave me for sure!

[Jack Mincey]

I have never really liked turning red oak until a friend gave me a large red oak burl few months back. It is some of the prettiest wood I've ever turned. It turned my hands, tools and tool rest black and rusted the ways some evern after putting oil on them before I turned it. I will be posting some pic's of the finished set within the next month. I had to return them to finished thickness a couple weeks after I cored them, because they started to move a lot. All 14 bowls from this burl are now dry waiting for me to have time to sand them and apply finish. The bowls checked just a little during the drying but I had NO cracks in any of them which pleased me a great deal. The largest bowl is over 17" in dia. I had very little tear out on the burl wood. So what I'm saying is if you ever get a chance at a red oak burl jump on it with both feet. I found another one on a tree that should proof to be as nice as the one I just turned. I'm waiting for the owners to come up for the summer so I can get their OK to cut it. On the one I turned and the One I found you can see the pin burl in the bark of the burl.
Sorry for the long post.
Jack

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I've turned Red and White Oak, both wet and green and again when dry, never had a real problem with it, yes you need to cut the wood, not scrape.
Sharp tools like for any wood, nothing special IMO, here are a few pictures of ones I've done, HTH.

[Gene Stephens]

The red oak I used was fairly green. Not completely dried out. I'm fairly new at lathe work although I have made some furniture before - mostly out of oak. Some small quantites of cherry and black walnut as well. I was going to try and make a chair out of red oak. Started trying to turn some of the spindles but that is when I started getting the tearing action. I was kind of hoping I was doing something wrong and you guys would set me straight. I'm 60 years old and the last time I worked on wood lathes I was in my early twenties. I figure that I've forgotten most of what I once knew about turning. I have made some ladder back chairs totally by hand using a draw knife and other hand tools. I did however use a chain saw to cut the tree down and cut the pieces to length. From then on it was all hand tools. Kind of hoping the wood lathe would allow me to make them a little bit quicker. What is used to scrape?

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Scraping can be done with any tool really, it is the angle of approach that makes the difference, like a low angle plane or a handheld scraper are used at different angles to the wood, one will tend to tear more and the other is capable of cutting/slicing.