Bags o' blanks

After hauling all that wood home on Saturday, then next logical step is to cut it up, right? I took the chainsaw back out on Sunday and started cutting blanks. With a bit of practice, and some trial and error on getting the block to sit still, cutting octagonal blanks with a chainsaw is not too hard. I've been debating buying a bandsaw to cut round blanks, but I'd need something that could do depths on the order of 10 inches. The cost of a bandsaw with that capacity is prohibitive, and not really worthwhile if it's only for rounding out the blanks. With a roughing gouge, I can carefully true the octagonal blanks before I begin shaping.

I cut the following blanks yesterday, all approx. 9" diameter x 10" height:

• 2 locust
• 4 maple
• 3 beech

so I'll have plenty of rough turning to do this week. I cut them tall because the logs allowed, and I'd like to do some deeper vessels. I can always cut one in half to make 2 shorter bowls if I want. All the blanks went in paper bags to stay moist until I can rough-turn them.

I started roughing a beech blank that looks (so far) to be nicely figured. I purposely cut the blank from beneath a location where a 6" branch had been trimmed so I could take advantage of the grain pattern underneath. All I can saw so far is that the beech is really hard, so I should get used to doing a lot of sharpening. I shaped the outside last night, and I'll rough-out the inside tonight or tomorrow. When it's done with the rough turning, I'll post pictures so you can see what the grain looks like inside and out.