Big ash bowl blanks.

[Bob Bergstrom]

Our club has access to a wood trimmer dump. Today I was looking for ash and boy did I find some. This is one of four pieces I cut from one log plus the slabs from the out sides. There were some logs 30" across but my saw has a 25" bar and my American Beauty has a 25" swing so I left the big ones. There were no cracks or knots in any of it. I will core many bowls blanks from this wood

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[Roger Chandler]

Nice find Bob! Looking foward to seeing them finished. I like turning ash......the grain patterns are always interesting to me.

[Pat Scott]

How thick are those? They still look heavy! It's always a good feeling to find blanks that big that are blemish free. Nice score Bob.

[Bob Bergstrom]

How thick are those? They still look heavy! It's always a good feeling to find blanks that big that are blemish free. Nice score Bob.


Pat, they are 5 to 6" thick. When I core them I either remove multiple bowls from the center or use the large lance parting tool to part the blank into to large platters. The diameter of the lof was 27 to 28".

[Allan Ferguson]

Those really look good. Allan

[Mike Goetzke]

Pat, they are 5 to 6" thick. When I core them I either remove multiple bowls from the center or use the large lance parting tool to part the blank into to large platters. The diameter of the lof was 27 to 28".

Bob - what coring system do you use?

Looks like they let you trim the blanks on site.



Mike

[Bob Bergstrom]

[QUOTE=Mike Goetzke;2470979]Bob - what coring system do you use?

Looks like they let you trim the blanks on


Mike I use a MacNaughton. I have the regular and large sets. There is a learning curve, but it is cheaper than Oneway. It is like learning to throw a curve ball. Eventually you learn to get the blade to end up where you want it. Here is the bark side of one of the large blanks. The big bowl is 18" across and 4" deep. I used the large curve blade to core the smaller bowl.
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[Mike Goetzke]

Thanks Bob - that grain looks beautiful!

mike

[Bob Bergstrom]

Thanks Bob - that grain looks beautiful!

mike
It looks to have been a relatively fast growing tree. Those growth rings are pretty far apart.

[Jon McElwain]

Nice work on the coring. I have the Oneway system and tried to core some wet ash a while back. Ash moves so quickly when you are cutting it wet, I could barely get a core out before the slot wanted to close up and bind. After that, I got my system down and cored more quickly and pulled the cutter out regularly to keep the slot cut wide enough. Got some nice bowls, but it was certainly a race! How was your experience with the wood movement?

[Bob Bergstrom]

Nice work on the coring. I have the Oneway system and tried to core some wet ash a while back. Ash moves so quickly when you are cutting it wet, I could barely get a core out before the slot wanted to close up and bind. After that, I got my system down and cored more quickly and pulled the cutter out regularly to keep the slot cut wide enough. Got some nice bowls, but it was certainly a race! How was your experience with the wood movement?
Jon. The ash here in the Chicago is quite stable. I've turn a number of ash bowls, some twenty plus inches with not a whole lot of warp. This one had fairly large growth rings, but still cored relatively easily. I do lube the grove by spraying WD-40 in the grove to lube the cut.

[Allan Speers]

Am I the only one who misread this thread's title? :D



"Heck, Bob, those really ARE some big ...... "

[Dok Yager]

Nicely done Bob. I just came home from vacation and acquired a few Large and small ash blanks from Dale while I was in Denver. A short side trip to Ft. Collins and as usual I spent too much money and picked up Multiple species. Well maybe Not too much money! ;) I like ash as it turns nice and looks great when it`s done.