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Question for you Florida guys

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One of my sons from Deerfield Beech brought a couple mahogany logs sections with him to our family vacation in OBX last week. Came from a neighbors yard that got wiped out during a spring storm. They got sealer applied until I could get them. Put the chainsaw to one piece today and was excited to get to it. First time turning wet mahogany and was surprised at how much spalting had taken place. I thought it was unusual for mahogany to spalt because of how oily it is.

Anyway, is this an unusual occurrence for this wood? Like I said, never turn this wood wet before. These pieces are 10" diameter and 3.5"+ deep and they were sort of hard to turn in that even after forming the bowls, it was hard to get the rpm's over 700 without the lathe shanking like crazy. No voids, just the water must not have been distributed evenly.
hog 1g.jpg hog 1d.jpg hog 1e.jpg hog 2a.jpg hog 2e.jpg
 
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One of my sons from Deerfield Beech brought a couple mahogany logs sections with him to our family vacation in OBX last week. Came from a neighbors yard that got wiped out during a spring storm. They got sealer applied until I could get them. Put the chainsaw to one piece today and was excited to get to it. First time turning wet mahogany and was surprised at how much spalting had taken place. I thought it was unusual for mahogany to spalt because of how oily it is.

Anyway, is this an unusual occurrence for this wood? Like I said, never turn this wood wet before. These pieces are 10" diameter and 3.5"+ deep and they were sort of hard to turn in that even after forming the bowls, it was hard to get the rpm's over 700 without the lathe shanking like crazy. No voids, just the water must not have been distributed evenly.
View attachment 34574 View attachment 34575 View attachment 34576 View attachment 34577 View attachment 34578

Probably caused by heavy water on one side.
 
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That doesn't look like mahogany to me, but no idea what Florida mahogany looks like. Way too pink for what I've seen. Also never heard of water being distributed or even only being on one side of wood. Hard to imagine one side of a log being wet and the other dry.
 

hockenbery

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Everything spalts in Florida.
Haven’t turned much of it because it it rarely grows this far north.

did use it in a workshop I did for one of the more southern clubs.
It cuts nicely.

have your son be on the lookout for florida transplants I like better than the mahogony
Red gum eucalyptus, camphor, and florida Rosewood.
 
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Everything spalts in Florida.
Haven’t turned much of it because it it rarely grows this far north.

did use it in a workshop I did for one of the more southern clubs.
It cuts nicely.

have your son be on the lookout for florida transplants I like better than the mahogony
Red gum eucalyptus, camphor, and florida Rosewood.

While we were down there last fall we went to a nature walk park called Constitution Park. I think they have planted most every known species of native south Florida trees. Quite an experience. All the while just wishing I could be left alone with my chainsaw for a few hours! Just a sampling...…
con1.jpg con2.jpg con3.jpg con4.jpg con5.jpg
 
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Got to the 2nd piece today that happened to be a crotch piece. I didn't have any control how it was originally cut and was a bit worried the 2nd nub might be a tab short. Anyway, sliced it open and presto, crotch looks solid all the way thru so I'm a happy camper for now. Not sure if the bark will survive a NE but going to give it a try. Need to some more CA glue.
hog 3a.jpg hog 3c.jpg hog 3h.jpg
 

hockenbery

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Too bad they cut off one upper part of the “Y”.
You won’t need the bark. I would plan on taking it off.
Paint or burn the rim. You’ll have a nice functional bowl. One might have a mitten sort of rim.

Check for bark inclusions still may be some shallower ones.
As long as there is solid wood in the tenon you should be fine.
Also looks like most the bark inclusion if there is any will be in the hollow of the bowl and not be in the bowl
CF71D15A-CABC-4ADA-9378-063D7036FC5A.jpeg

i don’t think you need any tips you already cut it nicely. The thread has slides and a demo video for turning a heart shaped NE bowl.
https://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/naural-edge-bowl-from-a-crotch.11058/
 
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I assume u used band saw to split that crotch piece.....do u use an apparatus with fence to split the crotch?
 
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Charlie,
No, I cut it with the chainsaw. Sat it in my log processing center. It's the kind that the Minnesota Woodturners had put out a pdf about a few years ago.
 

hockenbery

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I assume u used band saw to split that crotch piece.....do u use an apparatus with fence to split the crotch?

I have cut a few very small crotches on a bandsaw but I can’t split a crotch for a 10” bowl on a 12” depth of cut saw.

I use a chain saw too. Here are photos of the sequence.
Cut a notch in a log section to hold the crotch 18A34DF3-5E6A-4453-81B0-BE2C54A11A37.jpeg

put the crotch in the notch so that the piths are in lineA2527E42-6A75-4EC1-BA03-C0DD64450362.jpeg


Cut vertically through the piths.44695850-B5CD-4E2A-AF05-CAD02F0063C6.jpeg
 
Last edited:
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As a follow up, got to turn one of the blanks today for NE shape. Was going to leave the bark on but hit a bark inclusion that wiped out a good sized piece of bark. Not quite the amount of feather I was hoping for but that's the way it goes. Put one coat of tung oil on it today and will repeat 2 or 3 times over the next few days. 1/4" to 5/16" wall thickness and right now 11 1/4" x 11 3/4" diameter.
crotch1.jpg crotch2.jpg crotch3.jpg
 
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