My Wood Blanks

[Mike Goetzke]

I cut my first 8 bowl blanks last weekend. A pair looks like this:






To my inexperienced eyes it looks too scary to turn as is, but, should I ditch it or chop it smaller for turning something little? (Plus is it common to find cracks like this in green wood?)


Thanks,

Mike

[Bill Boehme]

You could knock the corners off the last one to make getting started a bit easier. I always have a large supply of thin CA on hand to take care of cracks. If you don't have the end grain sealed with Anchorseal, I recommend doing that ASAP. Otherwise rough turn them immediately and put them in a heavy paper bag to slow down the drying.

In the future I suggest leaving the wood in log form until you are ready to use it.

[Michael Mason]

Your eyes are correct, I would not turn that. There is too much good wood to turn rather than taking a chance on that kind of crack. As Bill mentioned, I would leave in log form with the ends sealed until ready for them. You will lose some on the ends but usually not that much. And yes, green wood exposed to the air cracks very quickly, so you will have to figure out what works in your climate to slowly dry them.

[Brice Rogers]

I have learned that fresh cut wood can start to show cracks within an hour of being cut if not covered. Usually the cracks don't go too deep at that point. But they will grow with time. That is why many turners immediately coat the end grain with either anchor seal or with paraffin (or latex paint, etc.). Even temporarily wrapping/taping the ends with Saran Wrap (or equiv) will help a great deal.

After I process a log (first cut into short lengths, then cut out the pith (usually), then cut out round or close-to-round blanks or at least knock off the corners), I will stick it into a plastic grocery bag if I am not ready for the next step. I learned that I should never leave it out after it is at that stage. The next step is to rough turn it to a uniform wall thickness of about 10 percent of the diameter. Then stick it into a paper bag filled with the wet chips/shavings. After I have a blank that is ready to rough turn, I try to do it in just a few days. I saw a video where the wyomingwoodturner (IIRC) would put the blanks in a bucket of soapy water if he couldn't get to them right away.

I agree with Bill to leave the wood in log form until you are ready to use it. Even then, you should coat the end grain as that is where most of the moisture leaves from.

[David Hill]

+1 with Bill.
Anchorseal, paraffin, or at least latex paint on the ends is great for storing until you can get to them. As for the crack you showed, to me that's minor compared to the stuff I use (have no idea what I'd do with a "perfect" blank). CA glue for the small cracks is your new friend.
I don't do the paper bag....seems Mesquite doesn't need that & if I'm turning woods that "move", generally I get those done quickly.

[Brice Rogers]

I had a spalted log (liquid amber) that I had rough turned the outside. But I had an injury and was forced to leave it in a paper bag for 5 months. As could be expected, the outside of the log dried and shrunk while the inside (wet) retained most of its moisture and stayed expanded. So it cracked badly on the outside. I liked the wood character enough that I proceeded (after 5 months) to hollow the piece. Also, I thought that I could learn something from the process. Before hollowing, I was concerned with it blowing apart, so I used superglue on all of the cracks, low speeds, light cuts AND I wrapped the outside with filament tape. Then I wrapped it with shipping company "saran wrap". That way, if it lost structural integrity, I minimized the chance of something coming off and hit me. After rough hollowing, I readdressed the cracks with superglue and sawdust and let it sit for a while for the final drying. Here is a picture of the in-process work and the finished bowl.



IMG_0028 (1024x768).jpgIMG_0024 (1024x768).jpg

[Mike Goetzke]

Thanks for the responses.

I should have given more detail to start. This log was about a year old. I Anchor-Sealed it right away and sealed it in some heavy mil bags. I stored it on the side of the house that doesn't get much sun and covered all of the logs with a heavy tarp.

Thought I'd practice on the smaller pieces (some of this sycamore was about 24" in diameter). This one had a branch growing out of it. I cut 1"-2" off the log ends and trimmed off the branch. I was ready to trim it round on the BS till I saw this. Hopefully the other pieces are fine.

Mike

[John K Jordan]

I usually cut blanks with visible cracks into smaller squares for small bowls, boxes, and spindle turning. I slice off the ends with the bandsaw and reseal with anchor seal and let dry additional time. (Thick blanks can take many years to dry properly) Much of the wood I'm using now has been drying 6-10 years.

When the wood is dry, I usually take another thin slice off each end and flex it to see if any cracks remain. If I find significant cracks at this point, I take more slices until I either get past the crack or put it in the burn barrel. If cracks or checks are small enough to work around, I mark the extents with a red Sharpie marker so I'm not surprised when I finally put it in the lathe. I also usually skim the sides of the blanks too which lets me better see both the quality and figure in the blank.

JKJ

[Reed Gray]

I would not try bowls out of that piece. Looking at the second/middle picture, the crack starts along the growth ring, then splits of radially. So you have ring shake in the piece, notice that the dark line from that ring continues. It will most likely split along the growth ring in the future. I would split that wedge off and turn a cylinder out of it, saving it for a box or hollow form. You may be able to get a small bowl if you center it on the ring, and turn/split all the rest outside the ring off. You can flood it with thick CA glue, but I would never trust it.

robo hippy

[Bill Boehme]

David Hill and I are both mesquite turners. I think that he might concur with me that if mesquite doesn't have at least a few major cracks there's probably something wrong with it.

Seriously, whatever your experience level, if something tells you to not turn a piece, then don't. Sometimes we should listen to our gut.

[Dick Strauss]

At a minimum I would split/saw off that cracked section and review the piece for other cracks (the removed pieces might be able to be used for end grain boxes, hollow forms, spindles, tool handles, etc). After all of your cracks are gone, resize the piece to account for the pieces that have been trimmed away. If you can't resize the blank without the remaining wood looking very out of proportion or smaller than you had hoped, plan to make hollow form/end grain box blanks out of that larger remaining piece as well.

Be safe!

[Mark Greenbaum]

Did I miss it? What type of wood is this? If it's a type prone to cracking from wind shake - do not turn it. I had a beautiful log of cherry turned to a nice cylinder preform for an urn at JC Campbell, stepped away to sharpen my bowl gouge, came back and it was split for end to end.

[Prashun Patel]

That wood appears to still have the pith in it. I would cut the top bit off so your south of the pith.

Then I would take it to your bandsaw, cut off that crack, and then cut it into a round blank and see what you're left with.

I dry all my bowl blanks from green wood. A lot of them have some checking and splitting. I'm always surprised at how much I am still left with even after I trim off the cracks.

With some clever cutting, you may end up with 2 very serviceable small, quartersawn pieces on the uncracked half.

[William Bachtel]

Wood is Red Elm, and I wood cut the crack off or out completely.

[Mike Goetzke]

Did I miss it? What type of wood is this? If it's a type prone to cracking from wind shake - do not turn it. I had a beautiful log of cherry turned to a nice cylinder preform for an urn at JC Campbell, stepped away to sharpen my bowl gouge, came back and it was split for end to end.

The wood is sycamore.

Mike