What kinds of wood for translucent turnings

[Brian Kent]

I do not want to interrupt Bill Donahue's thread on his beautiful Norfolk Island Pine translucent form.

What kinds of wood can be turned to translucent forms? I have seen Norfolk Island Pine and Aspen. Are there any others?

[Jerry Marcantel]

Brian, green Palo Verde can go translucent, but will lose most of it after it dries. About 1/16" it'll stay transluscent. It also warps as good as Madrone if turned about 3/1`6" thick............... Jerry (in Tucson)

[Jim Burr]

Norfolk pine...really cool when done.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Brian,
Find some sycamore to try for your first efforts. Even soft maple will work. Start off trying for uniform 1/4" then a bit thinner. After you get the concept of working an inch at a time top to bottom go for the gold.
faust

[Thomas Canfield]

There was a demo at SWAT several years back (3 or 4) about turning some of the local Texas pine translucent. It seemed that the big factor was turning thin green wood, and then the oil/solvent soak to displace the wood moisture. I have seen some translucence in pine that had a lot of resin and turned thin.

[Paul Williams]

I have had good luck with spruce.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I do not want to interrupt Bill Donahue's thread on his beautiful Norfolk Island Pine translucent form.

What kinds of wood can be turned to translucent forms? I have seen Norfolk Island Pine and Aspen. Are there any others?

Most light colored wood can be turned to be translucent, keeping it that way is a little harder, a clear finish should help keep it that way, though I have very little experience with it.

I've turned several different kinds of wood thin enough to make them translucent, in our house we had two globular shaped lamps made from Pine or Spruce, (not sure which) they were translucent for 40 years and stayed with the house when we moved.

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[BILL DONAHUE]

Wow! Leo that's some beautiful work. With NIP I turn it thin but then soak it for many hours in a BLO/mineral spirits mix. Do you do the same?

[Brian Kent]

Leo, those are stunning!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Wow! Leo that's some beautiful work. With NIP I turn it thin but then soak it for many hours in a BLO/mineral spirits mix. Do you do the same?

Thanks Bill, Not quite up to the looks of your NIP piece though, I know most NIP turners that want to keep the pieces translucent do use an oil treatment like you, from a few days to several weeks, taking the piece out for a few hours or a day, then submerging it again.

I have not used that treatment, as I didn't really try to keep them translucent, I used my regular Polymerized Tung oil finish and so they do loose some of that translucency over time.

I was wondering, how much of the translucency gets lost over say a 3 year period, I would expect that it would become less so ??.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Leo, those are stunning!

No excuses now Brian, as you do have some of that light colored wood I think, it's just a question of practice, don't go too big for a start, turn to 3/8" wall thickness first, than proceed to thinning it to 1/16 or less, use a LED light on the outside to show you the translucency and help you to keep the wall equal going down, (never try to return to the top !!) be ready for some fancy firewood, it will happen, especially the first few times, don't chicken out, sound wood can be turned pretty thin, you'll be surprised :D

[BILL DONAHUE]

Leo, the master of translucent wood and the originator is Ron Kent of Hawaii. http://www.ronkent.com/ His work is in many of the worlds best museums and apparently it has stayed tranlucent through the years. My guess is that it has stayed translucent because of polymerization; the result of the moisture in the wood being replaced by the oils in the mix the wood is saturated in. Ron Kent's website is fantastic and I mention in the Woodturning Design article that all woodturners would enjoy it, not only for the techniques he describes, but for the beauty of his work.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Thanks Bill, I was just wondering if the polymerized oil would become less translucent, good to know it does not change in just a few years.

I have seen some of the work by Ron Kent and others as well, like yours, I've always fount if beautiful how the grain and knots stand out, also if the piece has spalting the colors can be just amazing.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Leo....I just want to say how much I enjoy seeing you post and contribute here again! Your art and written contributions are a true joy to view and read!

[Brian Kent]

What Ken said. Hear, hear!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Leo....I just want to say how much I enjoy seeing you post and contribute here again! Your art and written contributions are a true joy to view and read!


What Ken said. Hear, hear!

Thank you Ken and Brian :D, the thing is, and I have said this before, I like/love turning, and I know how difficult it can be to get the hang of some things, as I had to do it all the hard way without any help of other turners in any which way, now we/I have the ability to show our pieces, also the how and why or what not to do, help those that ask for doing something and also enjoy what other turners do and make.

In my way of thinking this enriches all our lives, though I could do with a few more hours in a day, it would help ;)

[robert baccus]

Good words Leo. I have turned only one tranlucent piece out of an old longleaf pine knot. Totally saturated with natural resin and like turning endgrain granite yeah. Made a 10" cone nitelite--3/8"-- with a small spiral bulb inside and the whole thing glows. Required at least 10-15 sessions to hollow with a 3/16 cutter but the color is really nice. Never again.

[Brian Kent]

OK, Leo. Here goes. This is green Eucalyptus. I just started thinning to see at what point it would either break or start to show some light. Thanks for the encouragement to give it a go!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

OK, Leo. Here goes. This is green Eucalyptus. I just started thinning to see at what point it would either break or start to show some light. Thanks for the encouragement to give it a go!

Good show Brian, one under the belt, and even a natural edge as well, well done.

Just try a few more and made from real light colored wood, the outcome is always amazing when the wood grain and colors show so well :cool: :).

[Brian Kent]

I'll keep my eyes open for some green pine or maple and see what happens.