Turning firewood into - more firewood.

[pidgeonpost]

Last year I bought a s/hand lathe with a view to doing some small scale turning. This was partly with the intention of using up accumulated oddments of timber left over from larger projects, and partly for the fun of it.
I'd done a small amount of turning 10+ years ago, mostly knobs or handles for other items, but also legs for a few stools. I didn't do enough to become slick at it but I'm having problems getting back into it now.
I have a couple of cubic metres of kiln dried ash firewood, all 10" - 12" long so I thought that would be worth a try. Better than buying blanks and turning them into firewood, I thought. It's not going well.

The tools are hand-sharpened and seem pretty sharp even if the bevel angles aren't spot on and some a bit multifaceted. I'd prefer to improve my hand sharpening rather than buy a jig which I guess will still need tweaking to suit the tool type.
I'm particularly interested in turning the smaller items - along the lines of what Richard Raffan turns out with great ease on YouTube. I guess it's a case of keeping on keeping on. Any thoughts?

 

[Hugh M.]

I am totally self taught so perhaps not the best opinion to trust. I watched RR as well. As an aside before he moved to Oz, he understudied with two people I knew in S Devon. What are the odds? I shall raise a glass to Dougie Hart and especially Rendle Crang later.
I learned (still learning) on scraps of pine. You should do better with the ash. You turning between centres?
I turned a corner (boo!) with especially the skew chisel when I made a lot of the same things.
I did several batches of snowmen only using the skew. I got the odd catch but even Mr Raffan gets the very occasional one.
I then purchased a light pull mandrel and made a load of acorns and other pulls. You definitely get better the more you do it.

 

[Tris]

Like many here I found Keith Rowley's 'Woodturning, a foundation course' invaluable. Covers the basics of turning and tool sharpening clearly
Not sure exactly where in the forest you are but there's a good wood turning club in Gloucester, or you have @Paul Hannaby nearby for 1-1 tuition

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Don't be talked out of buying a jig. Easier and far more economic with expensive tools. By the time you've done it freehand, not got it quite right and done it again you'd have done it once perfectly with a jig and removed probably less than half the material.

 

[Paul Hannaby]

I sharpen many of my tools on a simple tiltable table. That helps get consistent bevel angles and you can make your own if you don't want to splash out and buy one.

I also use jigs for things like fingernail grind spindle gouges and one or two long grind bowl gouges but most of my bowl gouges are straight grinds rather than swept back.

I think you have already realised that Rome wasn't built in a day. Practice is needed to improve your technique.

If you weren't already aware, the Forest of Dean Woodturners meet monthly in Weston Under Penyard and there February meeting is tonight. Visitors always welcome.

Most firewood is cut short and as a result is full of splits but if you find a few decent bits amongst it, wood is wood wherever it came from! Some of my best work came from firewood!

 

[rob1693]

Getting a woodburner got me into woodworking, the amount of great timber I burnt over the years still hurts

 

[pidgeonpost]

Thanks for your replies and encouragement, folks. I guess most of us hit something of a brick wall at some point so I shall persist, and I may do a 'refresher' at some point.
@Hugh M. I've done between centres to rough out cylindrical stuff and turned down to enable gripping in a chuck prior to end-grain hollowing, but the results are poor. I also previously went down the light-pull route but sold the mandrel when I sold my last lathe.
@Tris I'm in the Westbury/Newnham area. Thanks for the tip about the Gloucester club, and thanks also to @Paul Hannaby for mentioning the Forest of Dean Club and for your excellent website.
@Phil Pascoe As far as sharpening is concerned I WILL have to take a closer look at making sharpening easier. My Elektra Beckum bench grinder is a 6" model with rather inadequate toolrests. I have an elderly Axminster adjustable toolrest that screws onto the grinder mounting board but it's still a devil to get the tool anywhere near the correct angle.
@rob1693 Yes, it hurts to think about it. Back in the 90's a load of walnut kept us warm for part of the winter.

 

[bbtex]

Thanks for your replies and encouragement, folks. I guess most of us hit something of a brick wall at some point so I shall persist, and I may do a 'refresher' at some point.
@Hugh M. I've done between centres to rough out cylindrical stuff and turned down to enable gripping in a chuck prior to end-grain hollowing, but the results are poor. I also previously went down the light-pull route but sold the mandrel when I sold my last lathe.
@Tris I'm in the Westbury/Newnham area. Thanks for the tip about the Gloucester club, and thanks also to @Paul Hannaby for mentioning the Forest of Dean Club and for your excellent website.
@Phil Pascoe As far as sharpening is concerned I WILL have to take a closer look at making sharpening easier. My Elektra Beckum bench grinder is a 6" model with rather inadequate toolrests. I have an elderly Axminster adjustable toolrest that screws onto the grinder mounting board but it's still a devil to get the tool anywhere near the correct angle.
@rob1693 Yes, it hurts to think about it. Back in the 90's a load of walnut kept us warm for part of the winter.

I've sone some woodturning although my lathe has been a bit inactive for quite some time. However, one of the most important things I learnt was that effective, fast, repeatable sharpening is critical. Hand sharpening is great for bench tools but for woodturning, you will really need to use some some form of powered grinder. You can make do without using the many jigs available for use on a powered sharpening system, although you'll probably still use the small table that comes with most grinding wheels. I started with the most basic, 8" grinder with a tilting table but had a bit of an epiphany when I bought the Sorby system. Once you know that you can quickly refresh your edges, then you can concentrate on learning the different turning techniques.

 

[pidgeonpost]

I've sone some woodturning although my lathe has been a bit inactive for quite some time. However, one of the most important things I learnt was that effective, fast, repeatable sharpening is critical. Hand sharpening is great for bench tools but for woodturning, you will really need to use some some form of powered grinder. You can make do without using the many jigs available for use on a powered sharpening system, although you'll probably still use the small table that comes with most grinding wheels. I started with the most basic, 8" grinder with a tilting table but had a bit of an epiphany when I bought the Sorby system. Once you know that you can quickly refresh your edges, then you can concentrate on learning the different turning techniques.

Thanks. My hand sharpening efforts are getting better, but not better enough so, despite my reluctance, I'm leaning towards one or other of the powered systems. Funds won't stretch to the Sorby or Tormek offerings, even secondhand. The Einhell mentioned above might fit the bill though.

 

[Tris]

I have a jig similar to this on a record 8 inch grinder, does fingernail type grinds and square on grinds well. There is another attachment on some that allows for consistent skew grinding, but a simple platform will do just as well. If you can get a grinder with a minimum 1" wide wheel that will help

https://lathetoolsuk.com/product/gouge-chisel-sharpening-jig/

 

[mudman]

Thanks. My hand sharpening efforts are getting better, but not better enough so, despite my reluctance, I'm leaning towards one or other of the powered systems. Funds won't stretch to the Sorby or Tormek offerings, even secondhand. The Einhell mentioned above might fit the bill though.

Hand sharpening of turning tools really is a non-starter in a lot of people's books. You don't need the more expensive options, and a simple grinder should be adequate, but try and go for a wide wheel and preferably a slow running one. Then you can either buy a suitable jig that will help with achieving the more awkward grinds used in woodturning but if you are just using skews, scrapers, roughing gouges, and traditional grinds on your bowl gouges, then you can probably make do with the small tilting table on the grinder.
One thing though. When choosing a grinder, make sure that the spindle can accommodate a CBN wheel as this is a typical upgrade path for a grinder. I bought my grinder from Axminster many years ago and found I can't find a suitable CBN wheel even with adapter that will fit it.

 

[niall Y]

I have been at a slightly different stage over the last few days. Now that my firewood supply is running low , I have been going through my store of wood set aside for turning to see what I can put on the fire. It is being intercepted before it even reaches the lathe.

And, sad to say there was quite a lot of it to go. Many different varieties as well, including Ash, Blackthorn. Hawthorn, Laurel, Laburnum, Sea Buckthorn and Lilac. Much had split, so was of little use, except perhaps for light pulls etc. - some even had woodworm. Though, despite this,I still have a fairly respectable stash left.

And now, my new firewood has nicely painted ends and some of it even has the name of the species written on it.