TobyB
Established Member
Sorry if this seems like a gloat ... but I could do with some advice.
Lucky day today - on my way to buy some bread, walked around the corner and find the councils finest parks people taking down a beech tree. An "any chance I could ..." is met with "help yourself".
I stagger back and forth from my house, bread forgotten for now ... and pile this lot of logs on my front path ...
Never had lumps of green wood like this before - learnt the basics of how to turn with bits of firewood making egg cups and goblets, and have bought bowl blanks for salad/fruit bowls to turn larger things - but never anything as big as this. Now I have these I don't want to waste them.
These three big logs look like an opportunity to try out some big hollow form work - never done anything bigger than a vase before - but here's a chance maybe? Not that I have any big hollowing devices ... yet! Phil Irons is demonstrating on Saturday at Snainton which isn't too far away - and that's the sort of thing I have seen him doing at Harrogate ... so might get some ideas ...
I have painted the ends with some old exterior gloss to seal them ... I've got a 15 cms faceplate I thought I could mount them with ... and then do the outside with my 13 mm bowl gouge ... is that safe?
This log had some bark missing, and a section looks dry/dead/split ... should I throw that away? I don't have a bandsaw, but do have a small chainsaw ... if I split it in half I thought I might get one or 2 bowl blanks out of it?
And then there is that crotch bit with a few branches coming off.
Will it be full of splits, or interesting grain. I wondered if the best use of it was a bowl, with the base from the area facing upward in the photo and the hollow from the flat cut surface that is the base in that picture? But that would be end-grain for at least some of it ... will it split? Any advice on how best to approach it, to get the best use from it?
I was thinking with this being very fresh/green indeed, I'll need to rough turn, then leave things in a bag of shavings to dry, and then come back to them 6 months later ... or I think that's what I have understood from various books and postings ...
I appreciate for some the best advice will be "drop it off at mine, I'll deal with it" ... but would like some ideas about what to do and what not to do with these.
Lucky day today - on my way to buy some bread, walked around the corner and find the councils finest parks people taking down a beech tree. An "any chance I could ..." is met with "help yourself".
I stagger back and forth from my house, bread forgotten for now ... and pile this lot of logs on my front path ...
Never had lumps of green wood like this before - learnt the basics of how to turn with bits of firewood making egg cups and goblets, and have bought bowl blanks for salad/fruit bowls to turn larger things - but never anything as big as this. Now I have these I don't want to waste them.
These three big logs look like an opportunity to try out some big hollow form work - never done anything bigger than a vase before - but here's a chance maybe? Not that I have any big hollowing devices ... yet! Phil Irons is demonstrating on Saturday at Snainton which isn't too far away - and that's the sort of thing I have seen him doing at Harrogate ... so might get some ideas ...
I have painted the ends with some old exterior gloss to seal them ... I've got a 15 cms faceplate I thought I could mount them with ... and then do the outside with my 13 mm bowl gouge ... is that safe?
This log had some bark missing, and a section looks dry/dead/split ... should I throw that away? I don't have a bandsaw, but do have a small chainsaw ... if I split it in half I thought I might get one or 2 bowl blanks out of it?
And then there is that crotch bit with a few branches coming off.
Will it be full of splits, or interesting grain. I wondered if the best use of it was a bowl, with the base from the area facing upward in the photo and the hollow from the flat cut surface that is the base in that picture? But that would be end-grain for at least some of it ... will it split? Any advice on how best to approach it, to get the best use from it?
I was thinking with this being very fresh/green indeed, I'll need to rough turn, then leave things in a bag of shavings to dry, and then come back to them 6 months later ... or I think that's what I have understood from various books and postings ...
I appreciate for some the best advice will be "drop it off at mine, I'll deal with it" ... but would like some ideas about what to do and what not to do with these.
