Wet Turning Experiments, Part IV: Green Fiddleback Maple.

[Russell Neyman]

A friend wanted to get a taste of turning, and my standard response is, "I'll be glad to show you how it's done, but you have to bring your own wood." (I've been far too generous with my precious bowl blanks through the years, so now I require them to dig up their own.) So this kid, Shelly, asks her lumberman friend to get her something interesting, and he gives her a 9" x 9" square maple log with fiddleback. It was pretty darn wet, too. I could tell it was figured, but at that point it was hard to tell what was ahead. So, I said what the hey, I'll go ahead and turn it.

After a bit of a struggle to find an angle of cut and speed that would stop it from turning to shredded wheat, it began to cut. At first, water sprayed like crazy, but as the three-hour process proceeded, it became surprising dry. I double-turned it, firsting shaping the outside, then roughing out the inside, then repeating the process, and that really accellerated the drying. I also burnished it with a scrubbing pad from time to time, which created surface heat. That worked, and Shelly seemed pleased with how it went. OK, I had a fairly nice-looking vessel and suceeded in showing my friend the joy of woodturning, but I fully expected it to split and warp within a day or two.

I zapped it in the microwave a few times -- not a lot -- and went to bed. Looking at it over the several days since, I am astonished that it's holding it's shape perfectly and is taking a finish (shellac + lacquer) extremely well.

Has anyone else turned green fiddleback maple? Is it always this stable? Or was I just lucky this time?

[Jeff Fagen]

Yea now that you mention it I have been turning a HF vase from a very wet piece of maple.
It was soaked after I turned the outside and I had a bear of a time hollowing.
After the first battle I bagged it over night then after more battle and many catches I filled it with floor dry and put it in a pale with floor dry for a couple days.

Well last night I finish turned it and sanded to 400 applying BLO. Looks pretty good with no movement and only a few cracks around the flange opening.:)

[John Keeton]

Russell, sounds like you had a good experience with the maple. I suspect you turned it endgrain. Most of my HFs are done with dry wood, and even then, there is some movement. But, then, most of them are facegrain turnings.

[Russell Neyman]

Yes, John, it was endgrain. But I turn both madrone and cherry wet and with endgrain orientation, and still get a fair amount of distortion, so this was surprising. I'm thinking that because the fiddlegrain goes every whichway, the wood dries fairly consistently throughout.

[Prashun Patel]

Don't count yr chickens yet. My experience with green wood is that it can take some time for the warp to fully manifest.

It can take up to 20-30 minutes in a microwave to 'dry' a piece - never at once - but in 1min bursts with time to cool down.

If it continues to stay perfect, count yrself lucky. If it moves, count yrself normal.

[Russell Neyman]

Agreed, Prashun, and the microwave technique can give you a false sense of security if you believe that it's dry and done changing. I've zapped wet wood until it had a low moisture content, and then the next day found all sorts of warpies. A microwave will speed things up, but certainly not eliminate the dynamic changes. Sounds like you've done a few experiments yourself.

This wet fiddleback has been off the lathe for ten days, and there's no discernable change yet.