On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 06:33:15 -0500, "George" George@least wrote:


"Prometheus" wrote in message
.. .

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:07:07 -0500, "George" George@least wrote:

Worst part of it is, it just looks ugly. No color in the raw, and oil
doesn't seem to have done much for it. At least it was a learning
experience, if not a creative one.

Not to pick on you, George, but why couldn't that be a creative
experience? If something has the grain character of a sheet of paper
when you've got it sanded and on that lathe, who is going to come and
slap your wrists if you stain it, paint it, burn it with a torch or
otherwise break with convention? It doesn't have to be practice or
firewood, it can still be art.


Because the creativity on this was in the first turning. Wasn't enough wood
left for me to make anything but minor changes. Score one for the 1 inch
"rule" folks. Takes longer to dry than 1/2", but allows some re-styling.

There certainly is something to that, especially when making a
functional vessel you don't want to poke holes in. I guess my thought
was more that a stain or pyrographed detail could do a lot for it
(sight unseen, of course) and doesn't necessarily require a structural
change in the piece.

Stain is something I've left because in the cross-grain orientation it
absorbs heavily into the end and not the face grain. Looks unnatural, of
course, but even worse, the particulate nature of the pigment also takes
clarity out of the grain where it's not black.

Ahh, here's the nub of what I was getting to. I've been wondering if
that was the reason for the oil & wax school of thought. You know, a
1/2 pound cut of shellac over the piece before staining will even that
out, if you ever feel like trying it again. Staining is nerve
wracking to learn, for sure- just my idle curiousity at work when I
was wondering if the easiest method got accepted as the "right" way to
do it because of that.

I burn the edges of firewood splits, turn odd shapes and anything I like,
from mushrooms through goblets, boxes, bowls and ornaments for fun, even
turn almost every day.

I know, and that's likely the case with most of us- I just notice a
strong trend (stronger in the Wreck than here) towards the idea that
anything but an ancient food-safe oil is bad news. The whole deal is
sort of tounge-in-cheek, as I've been guilty myself of falling into
the same groove of thinking of the "right" and "wrong" ways of
finishing things. I'm just playing devil's advocate, and figured I'd
put in a plug for staining and polyurethane, as they are so often
villified.

Sometimes you just end up with crap. If it wasn't unusual to see an
end-grain bowl entire, this would have hit the furnace which was its
original destination.

True enough- I turn almost all green wood, and I like to run the lathe
sort of fast, so I've had more than my share of things explode when
they dry out at 2000+ rpm. And I've made junk too- I doubt anyone is
able to avoid that, it's hard to tell if something new will look nice
or not until it's finished.