The deafening silence. . .

[Dave Mount]

It's been two days since there was a post to this board, that's sad. Maybe all the questions have been answered and we've reached "the end of the internet".

But, I'm hoping someone out there is turning something, and if so, they should post some pictures of it, so the rest of us have something to look at. I post these two not because they are at all remarkable, they're just the last two things to emerge from the shop. Spring is slowly coming even here in northern MN, and there are outdoor chores that are cutting into my shop time.

Two spheres, one black ash burl and one apple, both found wood, both about 3.25" in diameter. Rather than cutting blanks and waiting for them to dry, I've taken to commonly roughing out spheres from green wood, then coating with anchorseal and letting them dry in a paper bag. I've found that the wood dries much faster this way than if left in spindle blank form, and I think it's less prone to cracking, especially in the 3"-ish range I like to use for spheres. Both of these were handled that way. It's highly dependent on the nature of the wood, and how wet it is, but I've found that a 3" sphere from many woods will dry to a stable weight (i.e., dry enough to final turn and finish) in 3-4 months in a heated shop. Dense tropicals go a little slower, and I put two coats of anchorseal on those because generally speaking dense woods seem more prone to drying cracks than less dense, at least that's been my observation. I think spheres dry quickly in large part because their relatively small radius means that most all of the wood is pretty close to end grain. In larger radius bowls, there are larger (longer) portions where the wood is all flat/side grain. That's my theory anyway. It's not intuitively obvious that a 3" thick sphere should dry faster than a 10" green turned bowl with 1" walls, but I think they do.

So I did my part, now someone else please post what you're working on.

Best,

Dave

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[David Walser]

Dave -- First, I love your spheres. The entire series is great. It never ceases to amaze me how different wood looks when it's surface is in a constant curve. The usual grain patterns we expect -- rift, plane sawn, quarter sawn, etc. -- are there, but they're not. I just wish I could reach into my computer screen and pick them up.

Second, I don't believe your explanation for the dearth of posts is correct. People or probably just getting around to doing their taxes.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Like David, I really like you spheres.

Locally, it's spring. While my wife is out of state homeschooling 3 grandchildren, I am at home doing yardwork, trimming trees and getting the tomato patch spaded, fertilized with compost and planted. I also planted some peppers. As I drive the local streets, I have noticed many young families walking on the dikes along the Snake and Clearwater Rivers here in town.

After a year of social distancing I see small gatherings in the neighbors yards once again.

I doubt the death of the internet. I think after having it as the only manner of safe socialization, as spring erupts, they are taking advantage of it.

[Dave Mount]

Thanks David. I have what could be fairly characterized as an unhealthy obsession for spheres, for precisely the reasons you give. I hesitate to flood the board with them, but with only that small bit of encouragement, here are some more recent ones. Have had kind of a flush of finished spheres recently, as I roughed out a bunch of them green (or at least not fully seasoned) around the first of the year and many are now dry and ready to finish. All are in the vicinity of 3" in diameter.

In order: canarywood, sycamore, marblewood, shedua, chakte viga. Apologies for the dust specs on several of them, they aren't that obvious until the camera accentuates them.

The sycamore is really relevant to your comment about the different perspective on familiar grain patterns. The "mini-lacewood" character of QS sycamore comes out as concentric circles in sphere form. I think marblewood is interesting because of all the different types of character; you notice the dark marbling first of course, but the fine stippling from the parenchyma (I think that's the correct structure) is interesting as well; several South American woods have this character.

The last pic is the end grain of a 3"x6"x6" cutoff of Gaboon ebony that I picked up in an online auction very inexpensively. More often than not, online auctions for turning stock go for more than everyday retail, but sometimes something is overlooked, or maybe falls under the axiom of "one man's trash is another man's treasure." I am anxious to see what the swirled black and light looks like in sphere form -- I have high hopes. I have been stewing around about whether to go for maximum drama and take the sphere out of the very center, or to split it in two halves and fill the crack to salvage the left half. Epoxy with graphite powder should not look out of place in that crack.

I am very fortunate to have a tolerant wife. Tolerant, or at least cognizant that her horse hobby has similarly irrational elements. As the joke goes, "Know how to make a small fortune in horses? Start with a big fortune."

Best,

Dave

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[David Walser]

I like them all, but that marblewood sphere is fantastic!

There a a number of possibilities for the Gabon ebony. I suggest you go bold -- cast the left half of the blank with red or blue resin. I think that a bright stripe of color would be an interesting addition.

[Steve Nix]

I’m impressed, love the one in the middle. Several other forums have been very quiet the past several days.

[Tim Elett]

Unfortunately my hands have been on a shovel, more than a bowl gouge, but I want to thank everyone for the replys on my post.
I agree that more turners and wood woodworkers are enjoying some time out getting reacquainted with family members and friends.

[John K Jordan]

I’m impressed, love the one in the middle. Several other forums have been very quiet the past several days.

I think many are busy with the season. I haven't touched a lathe in the longest time. Spring at the farm gets a little overloaded for me. Just in the last few days: put up a new fence section and repaired another fence, incubation in progress, candled about 50 eggs (three new guinea chicks hatched today), have 6 more peacock eggs to pick up and start, clearing brush, loaded and hauled maybe 10 tons of old logs and stumps to to the burn pit staging area, in the process of cleaning out the barn and remodeling the tack room so the horse girl doesn't beat me, a little wiring and mounting lights, turned over a huge compost pile with the excavator, added a beehive nuc and had to assemble new frames, planted more of the garden, mowingmowingmowing, weed eating, and tree trimming, took down four more junk trees in the last week - about 100 to go, cutting a new access through one are of jusk trees, changed oil in the little farm truck and more vehicle maintenance, cleaning up llama manure, moving horses, more spraying for buttercup, spread 2 tons of fertilizer last week, repaired two tubless tires, got to play taxi driver for my Lovely Bride who can't see to drive in the rain/fog/dark. Can't remember what else - oh, finished a scifi book and started on a Hemingway.

I'd LOVE to have some new woodturnings to show - I'm having serious lathe withdrawal symptoms. I have four boxes of new turning wood from friends that I haven't even opened yet and the suspense is killing me. :( Oh, I did cut up some 8/4 and 10/4 mahogany planks from a traveling wood dealer - just to fit them in the shop before it rained. Oh to put some on the lathe...

Dave M, I'll be glad to send you a couple of spare horses. My horse girl is begging to get two more but my pastures and wallet simply won't support eight equines and six camelids.

I think the spherical shape is one of the best to show off the true color, grain, and figure of wood, especially that with dynamic figure. With most turnings you are usually limited in what you can see due to the orientation but holding a sphere in the hand shows all! Beautiful work, as we've grown to expect from you! You are a true sphere-turning expert.

JKJ

[Paul Williams]

Thanks for calling our attention to the lack of posts. I was thinking the same thing. I have been busy with spring yard work and rough turning and sealing the five boxes of wet eucalyptus my wife's niece sent me. Prior to that I had requests for several silhouette glasses, including the two in the photo. The idea is not mine. I tried my first one from a creeker's post when my 14 year old grandson was a baby. Didn't work at all. Since then I have developed a method that works well for me and am collecting photos to share how I go about it now.

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[Scott Winners]

I just finished snow removal from the driveway about ten days ago, got the back lawn pumped out, still have about two cords of melting snow in the back (south) yard and three in the shadow of the house in the front lawn on the north side of the house. My lilly plants are just starting to peek out of the ground - and I need to rewire the garage outlet circuit to my lathe since I found a 4.5% voltage drop at the lathe when the lathe motor was turned on with no stock mounted. Hopefully I can be turning by September. My chores list is very very long this time of year. Thanks for the inspiration though, nice looking spheres.

Could you maybe make one best possible sphere out of the ebony piece and sell of the other for pen blanks or knife scales? Not shopping, jut asking.

[John Hart]

My excuse is that I have been turning a lot but didn't want to bore anyone with my roughouts :)
A friend just gave me two large logs from an apple tree he had to take down. They are wonderfully twisted. Looking forward to that

[John K Jordan]

Thanks for calling our attention to the lack of posts. I was thinking the same thing. I have been busy with spring yard work and rough turning and sealing the five boxes of wet eucalyptus my wife's niece sent me. Prior to that I had requests for several silhouette glasses, including the two in the photo. The idea is not mine. I tried my first one from a creeker's post when my 14 year old grandson was a baby. Didn't work at all. Since then I have developed a method that works well for me and am collecting photos to share how I go about it now.

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Paul, I like your goblets, very nice! I made some years ago but not with stems that thin, with "positive" profiles rather than "negative". This set was for my son and his wife and how I made a template from a photo:

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The pair were a surprise so it was challenging to get useful profile photos!

JKJ

[Jim Tobias]

OK, fairly new turner here(year or so), but I have been exploring a lot of ideas, materials and pieces.457079
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[Jim Tobias]

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[Brian Tymchak]

Prior to that I had requests for several silhouette glasses, including the two in the photo. The idea is not mine. I tried my first one from a creeker's post when my 14 year old grandson was a baby. Didn't work at all. Since then I have developed a method that works well for me and am collecting photos to share how I go about it now.

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I've never heard of this. Very interesting. Thanks for posting Paul!

[Dave Mount]

Thanks again to all that chimed in on the conversation, was nice to have something to read about! Sounds like outdoor activities are consuming a lot of folks' time. I've learned to never ask John Jordan what he's doing because the answer will exhaust me just reading it (and thanks so much for your kind offer John, but 5 horses is quite enough).

Paul, those goblets are cool; I've seen something similar done in paper with a duplicate profiles in black paper opposing each other over a white background, but never turned in the round. I realize you showed the actual profiles to show how you did it, but I think the image you posted is really neat with the pictures and the goblets and the sinuous gap between them. If you had pictures without the layout lines, it would be cool to somehow display the goblets with the pictures.

John, curious about your apple logs. I love turning apple but every time I've gotten a big apple log it's been a disappointment in that (at least in our area) the big ones are full of grain separations and other structural issues that cause a lot of serious cracking during drying, as well as bugs, rot, and other issues. I usually end up pitching about a third of my apple roughs after drying, patching up a third with epoxy and/or CA, and a third or so survive intact, though I am rarely able to get bowls as big as I am imagining when I see the log from the outside. Have you had better luck? I persist with apple because it is often so striking. Pic below is one of the apple bowls that survived to completion. Had a couple small pith checks that I left in to keep more depth in the bowl. But I love the weaving lines across the endgrain, reminiscent of ziricote. It's about 10".

Scott, you are right about the potential for making the cutoffs from the ebony chunk into knife scales and pen blanks. I was thinking maybe small endgrain knobs too. I sometimes get tied up trying to balance getting the "best" out of a blank versus getting the "most" out of a blank. I haven't ever made pens, but I have a good friend that does.

David, I don't know if I have it in me to go that bold (bright colored fill in the ebony crack), but you might push me over the edge. A couple years ago I bought a palette of powdered mica for just that purpose and I haven't worked up the courage to use it. But a bright blue powdered mica fill. . .that might be cool. Actually, since the blank is a little over 6" long, I could cut the blank in half lengthwise, then cut the half with the split in half again, and try two different fills.

Best,

Dave

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[Dave Mount]

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Wow Jim -- you've definitely got a creative bent that I lack, lots of cool stuff there. But just for me personally, I'm an "all about the wood" guy and this piece of curly box elder (I assume that's what it is) is just jaw dropping. "Wow" is all I got for that. . .that's an unbelievable piece of wood, and your design took full advantage of it. I'm saving that pic.

Dave

[Reed Gray]

All of the forums seem to have less traffic this time of year. However, traffic on SMC seems to have gone down ever since they applied the yearly fee to support the site. As far as I know, this is the only forum that does that. Don't know if that is part of the reason or not.

robo hippy

[Jim Tobias]

Dave,
Glad you like the box Elder. It is/was a beautiful piece of wood. Got more I'm planning to get to soon.
I respect the "mostly wood" view, but do think that in the end.....it's all work created on the lathe. Just like square work and round/curved work.....furniture is made many ways but in the end, the basics of the process are all the same.
Thanks,
Jim

[Harry Hall]

Well I just started turning again after a 3 year hiatus, Left to right, ugly weed pot 1 Live oak, ugly weed pot 2 Australian Pine, Norfolk Island Pine Vase, garden dibbler Australian Pine
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[Thomas Wilson80]

Well I just started turning again after a 3 year hiatus, Left to right, ugly weed pot 1 Live oak, ugly weed pot 2 Australian Pine, Norfolk Island Pine Vase, garden dibbler Australian Pine
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Nice! What is a garden dibbler used for?
Tom

[Harry Hall]

its for my sister, its used for creating holes and furrows for planting bulbs and transplants , its marked with 1 inch lines as a depth aid457263

[John K Jordan]

Nice! What is a garden dibbler used for?
Tom

Also called a dibble. It's a good practice piece and a good first piece for a beginner.

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One of these girls made a dibble after her first spindle lesson; the other made a whacking stick to keep her older brothers in line. Also known as a tire thumper.

JKJ

[Paul Williams]

Dave, How far north in MN do you live? I live in Inver Grove Heights SE suburb of St Paul. I visit my sister at Cohasset quite often. I have a large supply of russian olive, silver maple, and 4 old apple trees that will be cut soon. 3 of the apples are standing dead. Also some older semi dry mountain ash. Be glad to haul some to the Grand Rapids area if you need more wood for larger spheres.

[Dave Mount]

Hey Paul -- sorry to be slow, I was off line for a few days, tilling and replanting one of our hayfields.

We live in the woods outside Duluth (not on the shore). I'll send you a PM.

Dave

[David Metzman]

All beautiful stuff!! Keep turning!