Now it’s time to finish this bowl — years in the making because I was distracted by work and family. But it’s also scary to finish turn a large bowl like this one. A large blank like this one is rare, very hard to come by. I rough turned it years ago and waited for […]
Read More...For this lathe woodturning project, I rough turned a piece of maple about three weeks ago. The maple was green which is very easy to turn. I wanted a natural edge bowl. At the time, I considered finishing it in just the one mounting. However, wet wood clogs sandpaper very quickly. So, I thought I’d […]
Read More...It’s long past time to finish this woodturning project. This piece of plum came originally from a tree in my back yard. Several years ago, I rough turned it, painted it with a wax emulsion, placed it in a brown paper bag and left it on my shelf. During the drying process, it shrunk radically […]
Read More...Turning green wood is a pleasure. Shavings fly off in wonderful cascades. But, the challenge comes when the drying wood splits or develops a crack. Don’t throw away the bowl. Instead, turn it into a creative opportunity by concealing, accepting or emphasizing the crack. Creative opportunity just knocked.
Read More...I rough turned this bowl on my wood lathe. Then I coated it with was, wrapped it in brown paper bags, and left it on a shelf in the shop to dry. Then life intervened and it has been several years. I think it is a very nice woodturning project. The bowl is now dry […]
Read More...Last week we had a late spring snow storm here. The very wet snow brought a maple limb down on a friend’s home. He cut the limb down from the tree and his house and gave me one of the larger limbs for woodturning. Now I owe him a bowl to give to his wife. […]
Read More...Some time ago, I obtained some walnut from a builder who had cleared some land for homes. I promptly sawed the wood into manageable chunks and sawed each piece into halves through the pith. I coated each cut surface with a wax emulsion. I turned much of the wood soon thereafter, recoated each piece with […]
Read More...Woodturning green wood is fun. But it is hard to have patience after rough turning a beautiful bowl while the wood dries. Here, I rough turn green apricot then dry the rough turning in a microwave oven. Finish turning was just a few hours later. All finished within 1 day. My plan was: Rough turn […]
Read More...For this woodturning project, I’m having some fun with a piece of green apricot from a neighbor’s tree. No midnight wood harvesting, he asked for help and I was only too happy to salvage the wood. Now I have a small pile of apricot for a lot of woodturning projects – some large and many […]
Read More...