Generations

My son (9) and I went log hunting on Tuesday afternoon. He was really enthusiastic, and wanted to help me get "just the right piece." Let's back up...

A few days earlier, he had seen my first turning attempt and declared that he wanted to try it too. I told him that he could try turning with my help, and he was really excited. (I'm not sure yet how exactly I'm going to safely encourage his interest, but I don't want to discourage him from trying his hand at woodworking either.)

... so we're at the giant power company log pile (most of which is rotten, heavily cracked, pine, cedar, or some combination of the above) and he's running & climbing all over the place looking for the "right size" piece for him to turn. I shifted his focus a bit by explaining about cutting smaller blanks from larger logs, and about wood types and problematic symptoms to avoid.

We wound up taking a nice size log that I believe is oak, and brought it home for some trimming. Then he got to watch me hack it to pieces with the chainsaw! (arguably his favorite but most feared part) I explained each cut, how we're trimming the ends to get past the smaller cracks, and how we're avoiding the hollowed pith. We talked about grain direction, and spindle blanks vs. bowl blanks. Not only did he fully understand the concepts, he was actually interested.

We wound up with 2 good bowl blanks and one spindle blank that he wants to turn into a trophy with a Mario Brothers (Nintendo) mushroom character on top. He's such a creative kid that it's great to see him have an opportunity to explore a new medium. I'm glad that he got to witness the transformation of a log in a pile into a set of turnable blanks for a planned project. More importantly, I enjoyed sharing that process with him and knowing that he learned something new as a result.