Having trouble getting end grain smooth

[Terre Hooks]

I've turned a few walnut bowls and have had a terrible time getting the endgrain smooth. It really shows in the finish. I have been using a large 3/8" thick Crown butterknife profile scraper, taking as light of a cut as possible, getting sawdust versus chips/shavings. The surface still looks awful.

The best I've done is a bowl I turned at a friend's house, and he has Sorby 2" sander. I took my last bowl off the lathe and used a PC 333 ROS on the end grain and it smoothed it out better.

Is sanding like this required? Why can't I get it smooth with sandpaper in the hand on the lathe?

Terre

[John Shuk]

What grit are you starting with? 60 or 80 might be a good place and go up to at least 400. Another idea is to try a sanding sealer such as shellac when you get to 180 or so. Make sure you burnish that scraper edge as well. Walnut seems a little tougher than many though for endgrain.
John

[Kenneth George]

I work with a lot of Walnut mainly because it is my wife’s favorite wood. One of those things that you do to help with the old tool budget. As you know Walnut is fairly soft and very loosely grained and due to this it will tear very easily. From your description of the scraper you’re using it sounds like a side ground round scraper. This should work well for the task but what you need to do is to scrap at more of a shear angle. One way to do this is to raise your tool rest to the centerline of the spindle, then place your scraper on the rest and bring the cutting edge back to center line. The rear handle of your scraper will be raised and you should begin scraping by making very light flowing passes. The shavings that will be produced will be very light and fine.

[Jim Becker]

Sharp (!) tools and a shearing cut are usually trick to overcome tearout where the end-grain comes into play on bowls with the wood in faceplate orientation. (grain across the spindle plane) The shearing cut applies to both "scrapers" (which are still cutting tools when used properly) and side-grind gouges.

[Terre Hooks]

Thanks to all that replied. I have figured out that I probably need to go higher with the sandpaper grit.



Walnut sure does make a nice bowl, but the end grain sure is tough to smooth.

[Richard Allen]

You can try filling the endgrain before the last few cuts.

Think of the endgrain as a bunch of straws. As you cut you will colaspe the straw wall and tear the wood out of the bunch of straws. If you fill the straws with something then the straw wall will cut cleanly. There a lots of different things you can fill the "straws" with, water, wax, oil, finish. It is usualy best to fill with something that is okay with whatever you will be finishing the bowl with.

Of course you need to keep in mind those "straws". Make sure the cut is such that a "straw" is supporting the "straw" which is being cut. This is to say that cut from the center towards the rim when working on the outside of the bowl. Just the oposite when working the inside of the bowl.

Good Luck