Turning chunks of wood into a nice bowl, plate or
other hollow form is typically a crap shoot. What
is beneath the surface of the starting point is
often only discovered as the piece is turned. But
what if you had more info about what's inside?

Did some of that "visualizing what's inside" work
on my current piece - black walnut - thick bark
still on it. Have posted that to
alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking

charlie b

"charlie b" wrote in message
...
Turning chunks of wood into a nice bowl, plate or
other hollow form is typically a crap shoot. What
is beneath the surface of the starting point is
often only discovered as the piece is turned. But
what if you had more info about what's inside?

Did some of that "visualizing what's inside" work
on my current piece - black walnut - thick bark
still on it. Have posted that to
alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking


A lot of the mystery fades after the first thousand turnings. The first
hundred cords of wood you split and stack teaches you a lot about
interpreting the bark and branches, which also cuts down on the number of
pieces fulfilling their ultimate destiny as heat rather than filling your
pocket.

You can't change the size or composition of a piece, only its shape and
orientation. Some pieces are extremely high failure rate propositions, so
you do them only when the shelves are full of sellers. Did one between
"standard" bowls of outstandingly figured wood yesterday, probably taking
longer than the preceding two roughs on it, and it just didn't look like
what I wanted as I approached final. It gets one more look this afternoon,
and if it hasn't shaped up, it'll sizzle and singe tonight. All the
planning and effort in the world won't save a bad piece of wood or overcome
a bad design choice.

Fortunately the materials grow on trees, and I have pallets of possibilities
out there. Never be afraid to throw something into the fire and move on.
Life's to short to turn crap.

George wrote:

You can't change the size or composition of a piece, only its shape and
orientation. Some pieces are extremely high failure rate propositions, so
you do them only when the shelves are full of sellers.

Fortunately, I don't need to sell anything. I do go for the biggest
piece
possible in a blank, though going for the best piece in a blank is
what
I'm aspiring to.

Did one between
"standard" bowls of outstandingly figured wood yesterday, probably taking
longer than the preceding two roughs on it, and it just didn't look like
what I wanted as I approached final. It gets one more look this afternoon,
and if it hasn't shaped up, it'll sizzle and singe tonight.

No fireplace - the SF Bay Area doesn't get cold enough often enough
to make a fireplace worth the effort. And being a valley, Silly Cone
Valley specifically, a bunch of wood burning in a bunch of fireplaces
doesn't make the air that pleasant to breath. Bad enough during the
summer.

At some point, I hope to be more selective in what I turn. But for
now,
if it can be turned I'll try it. And once I start turning something
it'll
stay on the lathe til I get something or there's nothing left to
turn. OK
so if it's green and splits I'll throw it away. But short of that
it's keep
turning til you find "it" or it's all gone.

All the planning and effort in the world won't save a bad piece of wood
or overcome a bad design choice.

Good point.

To paraphrase
All the ideology and spin won't save a bad war or overcome a very
stupid
executive decision to start that war , with or without sufficient
troops
on the ground.

Fortunately the materials grow on trees, and I have pallets of possibilities
out there. Never be afraid to throw something into the fire and move on.
Life's to short to turn crap.

Up to now just the turning is fun. At some point I'll become more
discerning.
Eventually I may even get to the point where I can throw away a piece
of
wood, of whatever size or shape, which could, at some point in the
future,
be used - for something (other than firewood or land fill)

Wodoworking sure is fun!

charlie b

Hi Charlie

Crap shoot ? So what's the verdict ??

I had a look at the pic's, but any pic' and even more so on ABPW they
don't tell the whole story.
On this particulate piece of wood, there's not much that should be of
any worry to you, the splits on the pith side very probably are turned
away when going in from the pith side, and the small twig knots,( as
what I think they are, going by what the pic' shows) on the outside
might be just on the outer layer of the blank and if not they are small
enough to add interest but not big enough so that they would tear the
wood apart, all this just MO.

No guaranties as one never knows what else there might be in there, but
for what I see, no big surprises.

Crap shoot, No not really.

Most always, one can tell if there are some probable problems in store
or possible, just by looking, but like a lot of things, experience does
help in getting X-ray vision so to speak, the bark hides a lot, but
also reveals in it's way of growing, and it all ads up to what really
(for me at least) makes turning such an interesting hobby, there's
always that infinite of variations in the wood, I just love it.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

charlie b wrote:
Turning chunks of wood into a nice bowl, plate or
other hollow form is typically a crap shoot. What
is beneath the surface of the starting point is
often only discovered as the piece is turned. But
what if you had more info about what's inside?

Did some of that "visualizing what's inside" work
on my current piece - black walnut - thick bark
still on it. Have posted that to
alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking

charlie b

wrote:

Crap shoot ? So what's the verdict ??

Welllllll - I went with the max diameter, which put
the pith side center right in the middle of the Knot
with the soft pith and the splits radiating out
from it. As suspected, that knot ran at an angle
and was gone before I got to the inside bottom of
the bowl.

I had a look at the pic's, but any pic' and even more so on ABPW they
don't tell the whole story.

The higher resolution pictures provided a bit more info.
Scaled everything down and compressed quite a bit to
get the file size down. What I was trying to show was
a method to better understand what is probably below
the surface in order to a) avoid wasting time on a chunk
of wood that, in fact, holds little promise OR a chunk of
wood which, at first glance, looks like a Tosser but may
be a diamond in the rough and b) better plan where to
place the centers to avoid problems and get the best
out of a blank.

On this particulate piece of wood, there's not much that should be of
any worry to you, the splits on the pith side very probably are turned
away when going in from the pith side, and the small twig knots,( as
what I think they are, going by what the pic' shows) on the outside
might be just on the outer layer of the blank and if not they are small
enough to add interest but not big enough so that they would tear the
wood apart, all this just MO.

That's pretty much how things turned out. The potential
problem knot was angled enough to not make it to the bottom
of the inside of the bowl. BUT it did leave lighter grain in
the middle of darker wood in the bottom of the bowl.

There were clusters of twig knots which don't detract - nor add
- much to the piece.

Snip

Most always, one can tell if there are some probable problems in store
or possible, just by looking, but like a lot of things, experience does
help in getting X-ray vision so to speak, the bark hides a lot, but
also reveals in it's way of growing, and it all ads up to what really
(for me at least) makes turning such an interesting hobby, there's
always that infinite of variations in the wood, I just love it.

Experience takes time. Focused expeience takes a little less time.
By paying attention to the relationship between what’s on the
inside and outside of the raw candidate blank I’m going at it a
little
more methodically. Would be interesting to CAT Scan candidates.

Have fun and take care

That’s why I do it and how I try to do it. So far I’m leaving
the shop with all the body parts and most of the blood I
entered with.

charlie b


ps - posted pic of finished bowl from the “dissected candidate”