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.

New haul of green wood

Today I cut and hauled 3 carloads of wood from a neighbors house. They took down a beech and a locust this week and left some for me. Well, they left a 10 foot trunk section of each, and they were each 20"+ in diameter. I took my chainsaw, and spent most of the afternoon cutting, loading, hauling, unloading, and cutting some more. I also figured it wouldn't be very nice to leave a 4 inch bed of shavings on their lawn, so I cleaned that up with a rake, leaf bags and shop-vac. I took the shavings home to line a path to the woodpile, and it wound up being 2 leaf bags full plus 4 times of filling the 16 gallon shop-vac.

I put the wood together with the massive pile of maple that I got last week and put a tarp over it (actually it took 2 tarps) to slow the drying. I'm not patient enough to put sealer on all of it, so I'll deal with the checking and rough-turn as much as I can as soon as I can. So far I've not had any trouble taking checked logs that have sat for a while and just cutting off the ends. I'll cross my fingers for continued luck.

Rest day?

No turning tonight. Besides being bitterly cold outside (and almost that cold in the garage), I've being running on very little sleep this week. I'm resting up for tomorrow, because in addition to the usual family stuff I'm going to section and haul the beech and locust logs that my neighbors saved for me. That beech is really heavy. Ugh.

Second finished bowl

I made another small bowl, start to finish, tonight in about 2 hours. I used oak, which I think I hate. It has a very open wide grain, which doesn't lend itself to small bowls with thin walls. I does have a nice natural stain though (you can see the black streaks in the photo). I finished this the same way that I did the cherry, but the cherry really takes the finish better.

Speaking of thin, I measured the wall thickness at about 1/16", which is not too shabby. In this photo you can see the translucence.

This bowl has a few unsightly tool marks, but if you just turn it the right way on the shelf, they're not so obvious! I enjoyed the shaping, and I like the concept. The wife says it looks more balanced than the cherry one, which I agree with. I made a point to try a shallow footless bowl with thin walls, and considering that every time I try an oak piece I break it, I think this was at least successful as a learning experience. And besides, you can enjoy the shape from across the room as long as you're not close enough to see the tool marks.

Community

I have to give props to the folks on the message boards at the Woodturner's Resource. I've found it to be a great place to ask all sorts of questions. I'll announce that I'm a complete beginner, and not get one condescending remark. Everyone is friendly and helpful. I look forward to asking all of my stupid questions, and I know I'll get many great responses. Already, I learned a ton about the best ways to dry bowl blanks. (The general consensus is that Dave Smith's alcohol soaking method is the way to go. I won't get into the details, but you can find them here.)

I set up my compressor today, and I didn't realize how helpful it's going to be with blowing the sawdust out of my shop. It made my cleanup go very quickly. I also ripped (lengthwise) the other log I got from the power company (did I mention that I love my new chainsaw?), and I'm looking for help identifying the species. It has some ineresting darker streaks running through it, and the general grain pattern looks nice to. Hopefully it will turn well and produce a nice bowl.

Meanwhile, I'm cleaning the garage/shop while I wait for Jet to open tomorrow so I can order the replacement switch for my lathe. It's hard being patient.

Update: Damn, looks like the species above is eastern white pine, which is soft and prone to cracking due to wide rings from fast growth.