My second HF - whats up with this wood ?

[Joe Watson]

This wood is from a nabor, last weekend i took around ten or so small logs form him (18" long - 18/24" dia) all maple - so im gonna guess that is what this wood is also, but it does not look it to me (just getting into wood working - and know next to nothing about IDing wood). The other stuff was spalting, acouple had alittle "black" blochyness but it did not look or cut like this. This was turned side grain, i turened something else from the same chunk of log, but turned it end grain, and had the same results.

Anyway, is this what 'you' call tear-out ? It seam like "punky wood".
Is there nothing which can be done aside from filling the porousness with 'something' and then sanding - if one wanted to keep the peice ?

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As far as the HF goes, im pretty happy with the end result - i did check the thinkness as i whent along with calipers - so it should have come out alitle more consistent. Being the wood was alittle funky to me, i did not want to try and make the walls really thin and it is also green (you can probably see some wet spots in the image). For being my second HF (first was smaller, 3.5 x 3.5ish) and doing it by hand (no hollowing rig: just a drill, bowl gouge and gooseneck/shepherds hook) i would have kept it if the wood was nicer.
6.5"W x 5"H top opening 1"ish

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[Steve Schlumpf]

Joe - hard to tell from your photos but it looks like you are turning wood that is just too far gone as far as decay. You can apply a water/glue mixture to the wood to strengthen the fibers but I highly suggest finding some other wood to turn. It's not that you can't turn it... its just that it takes way too much time and effort!

[Joe Watson]

Thanks Steve.
This piece and the end grain one which both turned out the same where from a pretty rotten chunk of wood. There is still more wood left in the log, maybe down the line i will try the water-glue mixture just to see what happens. The other logs the guy gave me are nothing like this particular piece - so thats a good thing :)
I figured, its free wood and there are alot of different styles of bowls, vessels, cups, platters, ect. i would like to try - so why not give it a go and practice with this stuff.
Thanks for the water/glue trick.

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[John Keeton]

I figured, its free wood and there are alot of different styles of bowls, vessels, cups, platters, ect. i would like to try - so why not give it a go and practice with this stuff.Joe, let me give you my take on this comment. Yes, it is free, and yes, one could use it to practice on. However, in doing so, you will not learn any good techniques. All you will learn is that turning lousy wood is laborious, takes significant effort, and it will detract from your objective to turn good forms.

My thought is that you turn from decent solid wood, at least in the beginning, so that you can learn proper tool control, different cuts, when your tool needs a fresh edge, and how wood reacts to different grinds, etc. You want as little standing in your way as possible in the beginning. Self satisfaction with your finish, your form, and the tool control is critical if you are going to enjoy this hobby, and improve.

Just my opinion!! This wood is firewood, and not very good firewood at that!

I should add - there is always time for punky wood. As you gain skills, you may have opportunities to turn wood that a beginner might be better avoiding, and the chance of a good result from that punky wood is dramatically improved.

[Roger Chandler]

Whats the old saying? ............Life is too short to turn bad wood!

[Baxter Smith]

Thats not wood, its compost!:) It does look like maple though that is past its prime as far as the spalting goes. It wouldn't hurt just to split the other sections of the pieces you have. "Sometimes" you will find solid sections of a tree in among the bad.

[John Spitters]

Hmm
When I look at the pics I see wood that will looks to be not too far gone and will produce some very nice spalted pieces. I think the bigest problem here is that the wood is too wet for wanting to turn spalted wood. Let it dry out somewhat first, this alone will stiffen the fibres, then sharpen your tools it appears to me that you are turning with dull tools. When turning spalted wood your tools need to be "SHARP".
John

[Bernie Weishapl]

+1 for what Roger said.

[John Keeton]

The really light colored areas (nearly white) seem to be a clear indication of wood "too far gone" in my experience.

[Joe Watson]

The really light colored areas (nearly white) seem to be a clear indication of wood "too far gone" in my experience.
What are the white spots ? - why are they there and how can one tell this before turning ?
I would have to dig this piece out of the barrel to check, but im pretty sure they turned smooth.

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[John Keeton]

Joe, in my experience, the white spots are where the rot has gone way too far and most of the cellulose structure is gone. They are usually very soft, very punky and make it nearly impossible to get a finish cut.

[Baxter Smith]

Joe, there is a type of decay called white rot that will cause a piece of wood to become almost unusable pretty quickly. It is not one of the nice:) spalting fungi. Its fast and results in extremely soft wood. If its located on the side grain of your turning, its a little easier to deal with than the endgrain. When I had the photo tent set up yesterday, I took a couple pictures of bowls that had it. I will see if I can post them later today.