So I'm Sitting In My Office

[David Delo]

at home today and hear the faint sound of a chainsaw coming from down the street. Decide I have to go see what's going on. Turns out the neighbor is cutting down a small sycamore tree for firewood and after asking was okay with giving up 1 piece. Was hoping for more but better than nothing. Took it home and sliced it in half and put it on the lathe. What a pleasure to machine a piece so wet that the water was running down the tool and also spraying the wall off my left shoulder. I've been doing alot of wet cherry lately but nothing like this piece especially this time of year. About 1 hour time from hitting the ground to finished rough out. Got a 9.5" x 3.5" bowl out of 1 side and maybe get to the other side tomorrow.

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[daryl moses]

Nice!! Sycamore is one of my favorites. It does turn great.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

and fresh sycamore is very wet! makes a huge mess, but so much fun!

[Tom Giacomo]

Their is nothing like the smell of free wood.

[Brice Rogers]

Three weeks ago I was in Palm Desert, Ca. staying at a Marriott on the golf course. One night we had high winds and to my delight :D, the next morning I saw that a big limb broke off from a tree within about 50 feet of our condo. I was out of the course when the workman showed up to clean up the storm damage. I ended up with enough Jacaranda wood to make 16 bowls and platters ranging from 6" to 10" in diameter. (It's a shame that the main part of the tree didn't go down as well as I might have got larger diameter logs - - ha ha.)

Jacaranda is a local wood that grows well in Southern Ca. (and Hawaii, etc.). It is light colored, often nicely figured, often with nice chatoyancy, not particularly prone to cracking or warping and easy to turn - - especially wet.

[Thomas Canfield]

If your lathe can swing it, the other half looks like a real nice natural edge long oval bowl. Cut at this time of year, the bark should hold well if you like bark, but I also like to remove bark and end up with a oil only finish on piece for a salad or using bowl. A bowl about 1.5 times diameter usually work out pretty good for me. I like sycamore. The sound of a chainsaw is a compelling sound to me also.

[Mark Greenbaum]

You know you're a woodturner if.....

[David Delo]

If your lathe can swing it, the other half looks like a real nice natural edge long oval bowl. Cut at this time of year, the bark should hold well if you like bark, but I also like to remove bark and end up with a oil only finish on piece for a salad or using bowl. A bowl about 1.5 times diameter usually work out pretty good for me. I like sycamore. The sound of a chainsaw is a compelling sound to me also.

Well it didn't work out as well as expected. There was a branch knot that came in at an angle that took a little bit of extra work to get rid of. Could have left it in but it was a little bit to rotten and didn't like the way it looked. Anywhoooo......still came out 9" x 10.75" Left it a little heavy at 1". Thanks for the suggestion. Haven't done NE for awhile.

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[Olaf Vogel]

at home today and hear the faint sound of a chainsaw coming from down the street.


So you know you are a woodturner if....

This has been pretty normal behaviour for me.

My wife had been joking about it for a while. Now she alerts me (jokingly), if there's a chainsaw going.
The sad part is my neighbours are now giving me the heads up.
Last month I had a complete stranger call me, saying she was cutting a tree...

sigh...I've got a reputation.
But! LOTS of wood!

:)

And yeah, fresh cut wood is awesome to turn, if a little messy.
Olaf

[Thomas Canfield]

The NE looks good. Hate that you had to shorten section, but that happens. Now to let it slow dry for a long time. I used to use Anchorseal, but lately have started packing rough in paper bag with shavings and had pretty good luck since AS not available easily here.

[Ron Rutter]

Why not take both bowls to a finished state if as stated it doesn't readily split?

[David Delo]

Why not take both bowls to a finished state if as stated it doesn't readily split?


Ron,

I think it's alot to do with the individual personal preference of how to complete the task of having a finished product. Maybe if I was trying to make a living at this hobby I would "once turn" the bowl and have something to offer in a shorter amount of time versus doing a "twice turned" bowl. Lots of details on the how-to's that others can chime in on about how to speed up the drying process but for me, I'm not in any hurry and will let nature take its course and live with the results. Right now I have about 50 bowls, HF, vessels in various stages of drying and I'm trying to get that number up to several hundred, so that at some point in the future, I can have a wide selection to pick from for whatever I feel like finishing on that particular day. I've also found that (for me at least), by the time I get the chainsaw out and slice & dice the log, lug it into the shop and bandsaw it (not always), mount it & turn it.......I'm pretty pooped-out and my attention span isn't what it should be for the attention to detail needed to finish it all off at once. Don't know if that makes any sense but that's what works for me.

[John Keeton]

I'm trying to get that number up to several hundred, so that at some point in the future, I can have a wide selection to pick from for whatever I feel like finishing on that particular day.I admire your confidence that you will still enjoy turning the same forms/bowls for that long in the future. My attention span is too short and my boredom threshold too high. I have a dozen or so rough outs, but I even look at those often and think "Nah, I just thought of something else I want to turn." I guess that is why I prefer to process green wood into chunks I can seal and let dry in the barn. It satisfies my meandering inspirations.

[Kent Adams]

That's some beautiful wood. Would it help if you showed it for your neighbor and asked him for some more wood in exchange for making him a few bowls?

[David Delo]

I admire your confidence that you will still enjoy turning the same forms/bowls for that long in the future. My attention span is too short and my boredom threshold too high. I have a dozen or so rough outs, but I even look at those often and think "Nah, I just thought of something else I want to turn." I guess that is why I prefer to process green wood into chunks I can seal and let dry in the barn. It satisfies my meandering inspirations.

I hope so too John. Being that I'm in a basement shop without a secondary sheltered spot to dry wood, I just tarp the log pieces and process 1 or 2 at a time.

[David Delo]

That's some beautiful wood. Would it help if you showed it for your neighbor and asked him for some more wood in exchange for making him a few bowls?

Sort of plain jane right now to me. Maybe it will darken up a bit as it dries I don't know. First time I ever did sycamore but it really was fun & easy to machine. The neighbor took everything to another location for seasoning & splitting so it's gone for now. I have a big cherry burl that's itching me a lot more to get done anyway.