But By The Third Piece ...

Lately I’ve been turning three, four or ten pieces from the same
piece/chunk of wood. Not 14” diameter plates or 14” tall hollow forms
of course, but smaller stuff - weed pots and small turned lidded boxes
and, to keep my spindle turning skills up, finials. Last night, while
turning the third lidded box from a chunk of black walnut, I noticed
that that for the first two pieces I’d been focused on shape and
technique, especially the lid fit. The finish was almost an after
thought. I slopped on some Mahoney’s Walnut Oil after sanding to 320.

By the third blank I had the process down. This time I paid more
attention to the wood. There’s often a lot of interesting subtle colors
and figure in black walnut, not just dark brown, almost black. This
time I sanded the end grain to 800 grit and, rather than saturating the
wood with oil, I just used the almost dry rag I used for the Mahoney
oil. Then I sanded the face grain to 600, the end grain again to 800
grit and used the rag again to fill the open grain with fine sawdust and
oil.

I lined up the three pieces in order of creation. The earliest piece
was the darkest, could have been any wood - dipped in used motor oil.
The shape was OK, but not all that interesting. You’d have to look very
closely to see the grain. The second piece had a nicer form but the oil
saturation basically obscured the grain and color differences in the
wood. But the third piece had a nice shape AND just enough oil to pop
the grain a little, without obscuring either the subtle color
differences or the grain figure.

Notes to Self:

With black walnut - GO EASY ON THE OIL!

IT’S THE WOOD - STUPID!

With all the things to keep track of when turning, each critical to the
end results, how do you keep the big picture - the finished piece - in
mind as you go from a chunk of wood to the last wipe down with a clean
cloth?

For smaller pieces, do you tend to turn the same type of wood ‘til the
turning fever breaks or mix it up, working with a different wood for
each piece?

If you stick with one type of wood for a turning run, do you get a
better feel for that particular wood and turn and finish it to best suit
it?

When selecting boards for door panels and drawer fronts I go through a
lot of switching boards around, turning them over, sliding them relative
to each other to get the grain patterns to line up. Finding the right
combination and orientation is either a lot of fun or a PITA depending
on how much wood I want to get out and go through (a large
layout/assembly bench sure comes in handy). But with turning you often
don’t know what the grain will look like for the finished piece and the
next light pass with the skew may blow a piece that was so promising.

Of all the types of woodworking I’ve done, turning is the most like a
crap shoot. Sometimes you get lucky and other times . . . Perhaps
that’s what makes it so addictive - pull the lever - again - and maybe
this time you’ll win!

Could be that I'm just not very selective with what I start with. Maybe
great
turners don't waste time on marginal pieces of wood.

charlie b

charlie b wrote:
But By The Third Piece ...

BIG SNIP

Finding the right combination and orientation is either a lot of fun or a PITA depending
on how much wood I want to get out and go through (a large
layout/assembly bench sure comes in handy). But with turning you often
don't know what the grain will look like for the finished piece and the
next light pass with the skew may blow a piece that was so promising.

Of all the types of woodworking I've done, turning is the most like a
crap shoot. Sometimes you get lucky and other times . . . Perhaps
that's what makes it so addictive - pull the lever - again - and maybe
this time you'll win!

Could be that I'm just not very selective with what I start with. Maybe
great
turners don't waste time on marginal pieces of wood.

charlie b

I personally don't have a lot of time to turn anymore. I had hours and
hours last year because the weather was perfect chamber of commerce
stuff, but the weather didn't cooperate with me and my repair/remodel
business is killing me this year.

But I guess a couple of years ago I started to look at the turning wood
(not he act, the material) like I did when looking for a feature piece
(a top or drawer front for example) on flat work. I make it a point to
dig out a piece of wood that has unusual features, grain, knots, wind
shake, etc. I will mull over pieces of wood for some time before I
chuck them up if it is for a gift or something for me. I can look at
all the stuff I have for an hour before I settle on one, and most of
the time mother nature doesn't disappoint. Some are better than others
to be sure, but I am not a fan of too much straight grain.

I changed the finishes I use on different pieces depending on their
use. I have a bowl that hasn't changed in color a bit, and I used
special brew of thinned polyurethane and something else that escapes
me. I no longer use shellac on anything close to light as I finished a
small Roman style vase with it, and the alcohol in the shellac melted
the spalted ink lines as well as turning my piece of snow white
Hackberry kind of a pee yellow.

Now when I have something that is fer lookin', not fer usin', I use
Johonson't paste wax. I went to a turning convention about 10 years
ago and a guy showed me that. Sand up to about 600 and quit. Clean
with lacquer thinner, then resand if needed. Put the wax on at low
speeds, being careful not to apply until the rag dries out. When the
piece is dry, buff out with a piece of flannel.

Do this about 4 times. It gives a great, soft feel to the wood and it
is dust resistant, and the finish will last if not exposed to water or
abasion (can't use this on the change/penny bowl.

On my other usable stuff now I use a special conversion lacquer left
over from finishing cabinets and it doesn't yellow.

For small pieces I use a homebrew loosely based on the Bonnie Klein
juice recipe. It works great for lamp pulls and ornaments.

Robert

I look at the piece and the end product is in mind as it is just about
to be mounted in the lathe. By the time a spindle project is roughed
out I typically know exactly the shape I'm going to try for.
Mind you I do take some scrap when I go to work out a new design and
practice the new form. I do this with bottle stops. Peppermills I lay
out mentally as soon as the piece is round.

Bowls, totally on the fly.