Bowl blank help needed.

[Cody Armstrong]

This little cherry had been laying on the ground for years but still alive. It finally died so I cut it today. I basically split it down the middle with a chain saw.
I'm not sure if this can be left to dry as is or do I need to do more prep work. By looking at the pictures can someone please advise me what I need to do from here.
From what I understand the rule of thumb is to go 1" on either side of the pith. Do I need to get out of the cracks that are on the ends of these, in other words cut the cracks out.
Can I let these dry as they are? No more questions I'll wait for the pros before I go forward. :rolleyes: Thank you.
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[Darryl Hansen]

Cody take these comments with caution. Unless I could see the actual wood who knows. What I would do would be to turn two what I call "potato chip" natural edge elongated bowls. Find the center (both width and length) of the long narrow pieces. Use the radius for your starting length. On the flat side draw a portion of circle at each end. (That is assuming the piece will fit your lathe if not cut the length so it will). If you have a band saw cut the corners off along the radius lines.

Then find the center on the bark side. Put the piece on your headstock with the bark towards the headstock. Turn a tennon on the smooth side. Reverse the piece and attach it to your chuck. then comes the fun. Even off the ends carefully so you don't loose the bark. Sometimes I use CA to guarantee the bark will stay put. Then turn from the headstock towards the tailstock smoothly tapering the wings towards the tips. When satisfied then "hollow" the bark side. Remember you will be cutting air half the time. Continue thinning the wings from the tips in. Once the tips begin to flex you will not be able to thin them much more.

Since you have cherry and the pith appears to have been somewhat removed you will probably not have a checking problem. If you are successful and can get the wings thin I would say you would not have to worry about that. I favor the alcohol drying process but I know there are some who do not. I would soak the piece for 24-36 hours then wrap in newspaper. Let it sit until it feels dry, probably about three weeks where you are. In La you will probably not have to worry about fast drying. When its dry replace in your chuck and sand it. I would probably use a lacquer finish since it would tend to encase the piece in "plastic" which would also do away with the normal problems of splitting. Since your wood is green it will turn easily. What you would end up with would be a natural edge bowl with long skinny wings. They are a conversation piece and fun to do.

[Reed Gray]

I have found that dead wood tends to split and crack a lot more, and more quickly than fresh green wood. You can see one crack from the outside on the end grain view on the left side, upper piece. It would be best if you could rough turn it right away, or finish turn it, and expect it to warp some. Painting end grain sealer on it helps. Using latex paint and putting some plastic bags on the end over the wet paint helps.

robo hippy

[Thom Sturgill]

You don't mention the diameter. Assuming the pith is the same on both ends (a wildly impractical assumption) of the last picture, then one piece is fine. The other contains the pith and cracks radiating from it. You might consider shaving off enough along the length to remove the pith and cracks. Paint the ends or coat with anchor seal if you are not going to turn them immediately. If you do cut them to length to store them, leave them longer by several inches than they are wide. This allows the ends to be trimmed to remove cracks when you do turn them.

Watching video from some of the masters, I have seen them leave downed trees in the woods and go to them, cut a few inches off the end to get past any cracking (repeating as needed) and then cut one or two rounds to turn leaving the rest as is until needed. If the log diameter is sufficient, bowls can be turned with the top either facing the pith or away from the pith (natural edge). Hollow forms can be oriented either way or endgrain. John Jordan seems to have a strong preference for turning them with the opening facing away from the pith so that he gets the sapwood as a 'collar'. The main reason to turn and finish quickly is to preserve the fresh color.

[Jeremy Hamaker]

In hindsight, if you were not going to process them I would not have made the cut down the middle... just painted the ends with sealer and come back to it for green chunks later.
Now that it's split, I would cut whatever slice off that's needed to get rid of the pith, chop the length down into bowl size lengths and seal them.

My preference would be to keep it wet until I can do the first rough turning to shape. Then let that slowly dry under sealer until I could finish turn. (or turn wet to finished form and let the drying warp it...)
Good Luck!

[Cody Armstrong]

The log is/was about 10" in dia x 5' long.
So I need to remove the rest of the pith on the two pieces that have the cracks on the ends. If this is correct it looks like I left the pith on one side of the log. Is this correct?
On the longer section (top left pic) it looks like I cut down the center of the pith on the lower end of the log? I take it that is the dark crack? Do I need to remove more of that?
So it is ok to paint the ends and leave these lengths as they are to let them dry rather than cutting to rough bowl lengths? I won't be able to rough these out any time soon.
Or is it better to cut the sections to say 14-16" long to leave room for cracking when drying.

[Cody Armstrong]

Cody take these comments with caution. Unless I could see the actual wood who knows. What I would do would be to turn two what I call "potato chip" natural edge elongated bowls. Find the center (both width and length) of the long narrow pieces. Use the radius for your starting length. On the flat side draw a portion of circle at each end. (That is assuming the piece will fit your lathe if not cut the length so it will). If you have a band saw cut the corners off along the radius lines.

Then find the center on the bark side. Put the piece on your headstock with the bark towards the headstock. Turn a tennon on the smooth side. Reverse the piece and attach it to your chuck. then comes the fun. Even off the ends carefully so you don't loose the bark. Sometimes I use CA to guarantee the bark will stay put. Then turn from the headstock towards the tailstock smoothly tapering the wings towards the tips. When satisfied then "hollow" the bark side. Remember you will be cutting air half the time. Continue thinning the wings from the tips in. Once the tips begin to flex you will not be able to thin them much more.

Since you have cherry and the pith appears to have been somewhat removed you will probably not have a checking problem. If you are successful and can get the wings thin I would say you would not have to worry about that. I favor the alcohol drying process but I know there are some who do not. I would soak the piece for 24-36 hours then wrap in newspaper. Let it sit until it feels dry, probably about three weeks where you are. In La you will probably not have to worry about fast drying. When its dry replace in your chuck and sand it. I would probably use a lacquer finish since it would tend to encase the piece in "plastic" which would also do away with the normal problems of splitting. Since your wood is green it will turn easily. What you would end up with would be a natural edge bowl with long skinny wings. They are a conversation piece and fun to do.

Daryl, thanks for the explanation on this. Now I know how these are made. I couldn't figure it out before. Thought you would have to use some sort of jig to offset the bowl while turning. :rolleyes:
The bark on this is about gone. I was able to peel most of it off by hand. The sapwood has begun to rot and is very soft.
I may give it a try even though most of the bark is gone. :)
I don't turn much and have only done a few simple bowls and platters.

[Thomas Canfield]

I find that you can cut down the center if you plan to turn right away and remove the pith in the turning process, but otherwise remove the pith early. Preparing blanks, I like to cut a "pith slab" about 15% or more of the diameter (remove 1.5" including saw cut) for a 10" log, and often will go a little more to have a slab thick enough for spindle blanks or small bowls, saucers, etc when the pith is removed from the slab. Today, I removed a 2" thick slab from a 12" Pecan section and plan to make some wine stopper blanks or other spindle 2x2 blanks. Thinner slabs also make some good pen blanks some times since the slab is quarter sawn material with good grain orientation.

[Prashun Patel]

Slab off the pith from the right piece (2nd pic) and the bottom piece (4th pic).
Then coat the ends in Anchorseal. Then keep them in a place that is as temp and climate stable as is practical until you need them.

The best would be to rough out as many bowls as you can as soon as you can, and let the bowls dry, not the slabs.

[Cody Armstrong]

Alright ya'll are giving me a good grasp of what I'm supposed to be doing.
I was able to rough turn a few bowls today and eliminate the pith.
I'm leaving the walls and bottoms around 3/4-1" thick with a recess 1/4-3/8 deep. I can take more off of the thickness if it is to much.
From reading older threads it looks like alot of folks are using the Anchorseal after rough turning. I don't have any at this time.
Is it ok to put them in a plastic trash bag with the wet shavings for a few days. Will have to order the sealer.
Here's some pics. Maybe someone could put their eyes on them to let me know if what I'm doing will work.
Thank you for everyone's help. It is greatly appreciated.
272852272853

[Thom Sturgill]

David Ellsworth says that it is only air movement that is critical. I would suggest paper bag or box and shavings as plastic tends to keep all of the moisture in and promote mold unless you turn the bag inside out every day. I use a large drawer in my shop cabinets and nest the bowl in shavings.

[Cody Armstrong]

Thanks Thom. Will do as you suggest. Thank you again for all the help.
Cody :)

[Pat Scott]

Alright ya'll are giving me a good grasp of what I'm supposed to be doing.
I was able to rough turn a few bowls today and eliminate the pith.
I'm leaving the walls and bottoms around 3/4-1" thick with a recess 1/4-3/8 deep. I can take more off of the thickness if it is to much.
From reading older threads it looks like alot of folks are using the Anchorseal after rough turning. I don't have any at this time.
Is it ok to put them in a plastic trash bag with the wet shavings for a few days. Will have to order the sealer.
Here's some pics. Maybe someone could put their eyes on them to let me know if what I'm doing will work.
Thank you for everyone's help. It is greatly appreciated.
272852272853

How big are these rough outs? With 1" thick walls, using the 10% rule that equates to these being 10" bowls. Also if the bottom is 3/4" but you have a 3/8" recess, you're only left with 3/8" of wood.

[Cody Armstrong]

Pat, some are 8-9" in dia. at the most others are less. The recess depth 3/8" was a rough guess they are about 1/4" deep. But I see what you are saying I think.
Might be a little thin on the bottoms. Which I guess this means they have the potential to crack. :o Oh I hope I'm not screwing these up.
What would be playing it safe? I'm not worried about the drying time.
If the thickness is 1" throughout on say a 8" dia bowl is it too much. Will it only affect the drying time?

[Mike Peace]

Leaving the walls more than 10% thick will likely lead to more failures. Uniform thickness will help reduce cracking. Deeper bowls with a fast transition between the bottom and the walls will likely have more failures than more shallow bowls with a gradual transition.

[Reed Gray]

Do make sure to round over your rims, always. Not only can they slice you open if you brush up against them as you turn, they do make for more rim cracking.

robo hippy