Green wood tearout?

[Bernie Kopfer]

Sometimes when rough turning green wood into bowls I obtain some very severe tearout. I often spend the time to smooth these areas out but it is so much easier when dry. Is there a good proven reason to do so in the green stage? I coat my bowls with PVA and they dry with the usual distortion. So does leaving tearout cause any problems with the drying process?

[Mel Fulks]

I once worked for a skilled turner , but never developed any real skill. What he did for bowls was rough -turn them thick to let them
lose water. Then he would turn some more. Old time stuff, that still helps.

[Russell Nugent]

I try to get the cleanest cut I can just as good practice when roughing out, but that's really the only reason.

[Bill Howatt]

The tearout won't hurt the drying and it happens because the wet fibers aren't as stiff and strong as dried fibers so they need a sharper edge to cut cleanly and if they don't cut they pull and break. As Russell said, it is good practice, both for cutting and sharpening. The quality of the green surface is also dependent on the species of wood.

[Reed Gray]

Some woods tear out a lot, like cottonwood, or softer punky maple. Some woods don't tear out hardly at all, like pear or dogwood, or pacific madrone. It kind of depends as much on the wood as it does on the turner. Some turn better wet, some turn better dry. Of course, sharp tools are a must. Especially if you are just starting, it never hurts to practice a smooth finish cut on both inside and outside with a freshly sharpened tool.

robo hippy

[Bernie Kopfer]

Thanks for the replies. It appears that leaving the surface rough does not affect or alter the drying process, which was my main concern.

[Richard Coers]

I'm just curious if you are using carbide insert scrapers

[Don Stephan]

Flat and shear scraping can leave tearout on green wood. Shear cutting "downhill" with a sharp blade should yield little tearout.

[Richard Coers]

Flat and shear scraping can leave tearout on green wood. Shear cutting "downhill" with a sharp blade should yield little tearout.

You are doing something wrong to get tear out when shear scraping. The curls off my shear scraper are about twice the diameter of a hair. How can that get deep enough to tear out wood?

[Dave Mount]

Some woods can exhibit extremes of behavior green v dry. My experience with butternut is that it is just wretched to turn green (fuzz, tearout) yet turns very nicely dry. Bradford pear is one of the nicest turning woods I've ever turned, green or dry. I don't have access to madrone, but I made a sphere from a small piece once and it did turn really nicely. I think the only nicer turning wood I've experienced is, oddly enough, burning bush, but it is very rarely found in turnable size.

To the OPs original question, only issue deep tearout can cause for drying is if you're coating with sealer and you don't get good coverage on those areas because of the irregular surface. Other than that, no issue.

Best,

Dave

[Bernie Kopfer]

I'm just curious if you are using carbide insert scrapers

I usually rough turn with carbide and smooth up with bowl gouges, if I feel the need. Carbide is horrible for tearout, particularly with woods like cedar, aspen etc.