turning white birch...

[Chris Studley]

my neighbor has been doing some cutting at his work,and he has brought me home some odds n ends. he brought me some red cedar, which I have turned before. He has also brought me some white birch which I have not turned before. does anyone have any tips pointers or things to watch out for such as, does it move a lot while drying more so than other woods. also, has anybody been able to pull off a natural edge leaving the white bark. I look forward to taking a look at your responses prior to diving in. Thanks in advance....IMG_20131031_194818_960.jpg

[David Gilbert]

I recently scored some white birch. Mine had already started to spalt but hadn't gotten punky (yet). I really enjoy turning it wet. This is how I normally make my bowls. It moves quite a bit, probably like soft maple but not as much as beech. I normally turn my bowls to about 1/4" and then let them warp. These birch bowls warp and distort but so far haven't cracked. You can also use AnchorSeal on your blanks. I am doing a test on the original AS and the new version, AS2. So far, use the original if you can get it. My wood has a variety of browns, reds and pinks and my only regret is that I didn't get more of it.

I think that it would take a monumental effort to keep the bark on for a NE bowl. The stringy nature of the bark would be tough to keep it all in one piece. If the wood had been cut in the winter, you might have a chance to keep the bark on but not with wood that was harvested in October. Mine also had a number of grubs that would cause problems for a NE bowl. Some of these climbed out before being stepped on and some were just cut up with a very sharp bowl gouge.

Enjoy and cheers,
David

[George Overpeck]

I turn lots of birch, so much that I can barely compare it to other woods since I've turned so much birch compared to everything else. I have fine luck with single bagging it after roughing. If it cracks I usually suspect that it was in invisible crack that was already there and popped open while drying. Lots of times when it is felled it will get a very subtle crack that you have to find and work around, but it's usually one crack across the entire log instead of lots of rays.

Fall cut birch probably won't keep it's bark on without CA between the wood and the cambium, so if you really want the bark on use the CA right after you rough.

[Chris Studley]

Thanks guys, keep em coming...