Roughing from my wood gloat

[Lee Koepke]

Had to rough turn something from my 'unknown' wood gloat. I was a little nervous at first, havent had something that big on my little RIKON ... but it held its own :cool:

I took a chance, hoping to make a deeper bowl, but the pith left behind didnt cooperate. It started cracking/separating half way through the outside roughing process. I ended up cutting it off, thus a more standard 2-3"" deep bowl. The rough outside is about 8.5"

Any ideas with the wood type would be welcome ... its in the DNA, and headed to a grocery sack tomorrow ...

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[John Keeton]

Lee, you are getting too close when you take the pics and the auto focus isn't working. Hard to tell much about the grain because of that. Sure looks like ash or elm to me - more like elm. But, I am not very good at these guesses.

The pith will nearly always be a problem. Best to get rid of it and use what is left from the get go. With an 8.5" rough out, a good depth would be just under 3" for good form, so sounds like you did pretty good!

[Lee Koepke]

I had my settings on my camera from when I use the tripod ... forgot to change it ... !!!

[Dennis Ford]

I can't help on the wood ID, it certainly was a fast growing tree. That rough out looks to be about the right depth to me.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Lee,
If I am seeing your picture correctly, that that tree may have suffered wind shake. The last picture looks like the blank came apart following the annual rings. Be careful if you use more of it. Examine the end grain and look for separation between rings. Cut away any damage before attempting to turn it. Wind shake is often seen when trees break or get knocked down in a storm.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with Faust that it sure looks more like wind shake. It could be a combo of the pith and WS. I had a couple of Elm pieces from a wind break that did that to me.

[Lee Koepke]

Lee,
If I am seeing your picture correctly, that that tree may have suffered wind shake. The last picture looks like the blank came apart following the annual rings. Be careful if you use more of it. Examine the end grain and look for separation between rings. Cut away any damage before attempting to turn it. Wind shake is often seen when trees break or get knocked down in a storm.
Thanks ... GREAT info! Thats most likely what happened. I did not know that. The separation became very evident almost immediately, now I know what to look for. Thanks again, you may have saved me from a "Look what happened to me" thread!

[Edward Bartimmo]

Lee,

Picture doesn't help.... However, there is an easy identification on the Elm vs Ash. If the wood smelled sweet when you turned it then it would be Ash...if it smelled like wet dog then its Elm. That being said I can't tell from the pictures what you have so no idea if it is elm, ash or something else. It could be a hickory or any number of other hardwoods.

[Steve Vaughan]

I agree on the windshakes...Had a boatload of beautiful cherry that ended up with the shakes. Only got a few pieces out of it. On the wood ID, I thought it looked awful close to honey locust too.