First it was there, then it was gone
 

So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed. The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation? I consider it a fluke that I actually stopped and looked. I
usually get so caught up in the fever of making wood fly that I don't notice
the wood beneath. Also the wood is spinning fairly quickly so noticing
grain patterns is a bit problematic.

"Kevin" wrote in message
...
So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already
finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed.
The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation?

I would make a platter. Have in the past, anyway.

Before you make such drastic decisions, let me say that there are some
"patterns" which are patterns of moisture only. You should evaluate
carefully when turning a wet piece before serious modification. Wet the
whole thing and see if it looks as gorgeous. If not, down to the planned
depth.

"Kevin" wrote in message
...
So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already
finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed.
The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation? I consider it a fluke that I actually stopped and looked. I
usually get so caught up in the fever of making wood fly that I don't
notice
the wood beneath. Also the wood is spinning fairly quickly so noticing
grain patterns is a bit problematic.

====Prometheus. You are addressing the problem from the wrong direction.
It is apparent that you are not becoming one with your blank prior to
addressing it with your chisel. If you would perform the proper meditation
and ceremony before the chips/curls start flying, you would be aware of the
blank's inner beauty and what it desires to be! Please try to be more
sensitive to its longings, for only then can you transcend reality and
mundane bowls and platters and produce spiritually beautiful works. And
remember, cleanliness is next to godliness, so don't spare the LDD! I
understand this is Arch's technique! *G*

Leif

Hi Kevin

Yes it happens, I have run into knotholes, burly wood, nails, worms,
grubs, parts of the aforementioned G, etc., the thing is you can
usually tell a lot of how and what is in the wood before you get that
far, (no not always, but) it pays to have a good look before you even
start cutting up the tree, and then the blank, still I have chain sawed
slabs off of lathe mounted blanks, to make a platter out of or to get
rid of a bad part, also I don't rough turn , hollow or finish turn
without stopping often, even if it is only to adjust the tool rest and I
always have a look at the wood, after all it is the woods grain, color,
etc. that makes turning wood a joy.
So yes, I would say slow down and enjoy the look and color and grain of
the wood, smell the wood (sometimesG) and enjoy the shaping of
something out of a rough chunk of wood.

http://homepage.mac.com/l.vanderloo/PhotoAlbum26.html

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

Kevin wrote:
So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed. The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation? I consider it a fluke that I actually stopped and looked. I
usually get so caught up in the fever of making wood fly that I don't notice
the wood beneath. Also the wood is spinning fairly quickly so noticing
grain patterns is a bit problematic.

On Wed, 8 Jun 2005 11:45:39 -0500, "Kevin"
wrote:

So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed. The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation? I consider it a fluke that I actually stopped and looked. I
usually get so caught up in the fever of making wood fly that I don't notice
the wood beneath. Also the wood is spinning fairly quickly so noticing
grain patterns is a bit problematic.

Sadly, yes. One of the first things I turned on my lathe was a lamp
made of laminated bird's eye maple. The lamp turned out awfully nice,
but those bird's eyes that I liked so much were nowhere to be seen.
(Duh)

I do stop the lathe fairly frequently to take a look at the grain, but
if you're not going for some specific effect, it's probably not all
that necessary as long as the form is pleasing. OTHO, if you don't
want to stop the lathe, but want to see the grain (and you're not an
epileptic) you could put a strobe light overhead *G*

On Wed, 8 Jun 2005 14:21:52 -0700, "Leif Thorvaldson"
wrote:


"Kevin" wrote in message
...
So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already
finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed.
The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation? I consider it a fluke that I actually stopped and looked. I
usually get so caught up in the fever of making wood fly that I don't
notice
the wood beneath. Also the wood is spinning fairly quickly so noticing
grain patterns is a bit problematic.

====Prometheus. You are addressing the problem from the wrong direction.
It is apparent that you are not becoming one with your blank prior to
addressing it with your chisel. If you would perform the proper meditation
and ceremony before the chips/curls start flying, you would be aware of the
blank's inner beauty and what it desires to be! Please try to be more
sensitive to its longings, for only then can you transcend reality and
mundane bowls and platters and produce spiritually beautiful works. And
remember, cleanliness is next to godliness, so don't spare the LDD! I
understand this is Arch's technique! *G*

Hey! Don't pin that on *me*! I always make my regular sacrifices to
the WW gods. :)

Leif

On Wed, 8 Jun 2005 11:45:39 -0500, "Kevin" wrote:

So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed. The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation? I consider it a fluke that I actually stopped and looked. I
usually get so caught up in the fever of making wood fly that I don't notice
the wood beneath. Also the wood is spinning fairly quickly so noticing
grain patterns is a bit problematic.

Box elder will do that to you a lot... seems to alternate between normal, bugly
and spectacular...
I was about 1/3 of the way into hollowing a box elder bowl a few months ago and
hit a "vein" of bright red... not wanting to take the chance of turning it into
shavings and losing the color, I reshaped the outside to make a smaller,
shallower bowl...

I stop often to clear shavings, check tightness of tool rest, etc... but mostly
to look at the wood...
I love grains, color, defects, figure, whatever... to me, that's part of what
makes wood beautiful and every turning unique..




mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Well, when you think about it, the problem is no different than when
you do flat work. For the display cased I build (for the wooden ship
guys, etc.) I pick my wood and try to work the grains and patterns into
the the case.

But not all of it makes it as it gets cut off. The same with a large
flaw that looks really spectacular; it may look great to me, but
because it is outside the dimension of the final product it will wind
up on the shop floor instead of in the project.

Same thing with turning. How many times did I buy or swap for a blank
that had some really neat features looking at me from the anchorseal
only to turn them all off? Hmmmm.... seems to me too many.

Robert

On Wed, 8 Jun 2005 9:45:39 -0700, Kevin wrote
(in message ):

So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed. The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation? I consider it a fluke that I actually stopped and looked. I
usually get so caught up in the fever of making wood fly that I don't notice
the wood beneath. Also the wood is spinning fairly quickly so noticing
grain patterns is a bit problematic.



by coring out the inside of the bowl you could have the larger bowl and a
smaller bowl with the pretty grain from the same piece of wood.

http://neillswoodturning.myphotoalbum.com/

Prometheus wrote:

OTHO, if you don't
want to stop the lathe, but want to see the grain (and you're not an
epileptic) you could put a strobe light overhead *G*



Which could possibly affect you even if you are not an epileptic.

"Don't go into the light Carol Anne!"

Kevin -

I have that a lot... first the wood is on the lathe spinning and being
shaped beautifully, and then for no apparent reason, it makes a "POP" sound
and there is no more wood in the chuck. only an empty chuck.

first it was there, and then it was gone...

pretty common on my side...

Rob


"Kevin" wrote in message
...
So there I was the other night turning a bowl. As it was spinning away, I
noticed that the wood beneath the gouge seemed to change. I stopped the
lathe and found the exposed grain was truly beautiful. I'd already
finished
the outside and was working on the inside when the grain was revelaed.
The
problem? Well I had only removed about 1/2 in depth of the bowl that was
destined to be at least 2 inches deep. I went ahead and finished and the
beautiful grain was gone.
Has this ever happened to any here? How should/could I have handled this
situation? I consider it a fluke that I actually stopped and looked. I
usually get so caught up in the fever of making wood fly that I don't
notice
the wood beneath. Also the wood is spinning fairly quickly so noticing
grain patterns is a bit problematic.