After what I did today I am adding a spindle gouge to the tools to acquire list. The sharp bowl gouges were a pleasure to use but I can see limitations for getting into tight places.
@Len Beck , One reason I like the Thompson spindle gouges is they come in three "flavors", the normal spindle gouge, the detail gouge, and the shallow detail gouge. These successively allow better access to tighter areas and finer detail. The normal spindle gouge is the best for turning coves and beads.
A 1/2" skew is my go-to for tapers, shallow curves, groves and fine detail is tight places, AND for parting off work at the end. Note that I make use of a parting tool to ALMOST part off, then stop the lathe and cut through the remaining thin support with fine saw. This prevents the wood from breaking and pulling out fibers from the end of the work - difficult to fix!
Note that while I prefer the steel in the Thompson tools I never use the his grind on any tools - I think they are put on quickly to sell the tool and are just a suggestion. I've developed my own favorite grinds for gouges and skews - sharpen the spindle gouges on a Tormek with a 1200 grit wheel after reshaping on a coarser wheel with the Tormek gouge jig. Come visit sometime and I'll show all this. (I occasionally had visitors from Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and a number from states closer to TN.
I figure if I can get a half way decent surface on fir or pine then when I find some better wood I should be alright. Next task is to figure out where to source wood. I know I can buy blanks but I would prefer not to. From what I understand green wood is more pleasant to turn and a little easier on the tools. My daughter is actually a mill wright at the local lumber mill but all they get is fir and pine. I’m trying to get a line on local tree trimming services to see if that would be an option. I know a guy that builds log home but again mostly pine and fir.
You CAN get a nearly perfect surface on pine and other soft wood and wood like pine with alternating hard and soft early and latewood. For problem wood stabilizing the surface you are about to cut it with some sealer can help. I've used CA glue on some particularly soft and worthless wood.
It all boils down to two things: the sharpness of the tool and the tool control in from the hands and body motion. A good sharpening system and knowing how to use it takes care of the first. Spindle practice can perfect the latter. An experienced turner or mentor watching you turn can be a HUGE help!. Also, books by Richard Raffand and Mike Darlow are wonderful - I learned most of my woodturning from two books. They have great exercises for learning both spindle and face turning. If you want I can give the exact book names later, just ask.
I do buy and love to use exotic woods like Cocobolo and other rosewoods, Ebony, Olive, etc. A good source of good wood, many exotic, is one of the woodturning symposiums - some wood dealers travel long distances and bring lots of wonderful wood. All you need to bring is money!
But MOST of what I turn is from trees from our area - dogwood, maple, persimmon, walnut, sassafras, ERC, oak, hickory, wild cherry, pear, tulip poplar. I don't know what native species are common in your area but MANY people plant cultivars and other species like fruit trees in their yards. When these come down or need to, the wood is often available for free. If you have a wood dump within a reasonable distance, visit it often.
Also, contact tree services - they are often hired to remove trees and most are GLAD to let someone else haul off the logs, will often even cut them into manageable lengths. All that is needed is a trailer and/or truck and give them your phone number - the tree service people often use a truck with a boom lift and can use it as a crane to move and load log sections.
I have big trailers and equipment and can do this myself so I often have far more wood than I can use - word gets out and turners come to get good wood.
I recently got several tons of water maple from a neighbor: and most went to other turners. I hold the logs off the ground, pressure wash to remove any dirt, they saw, and I load. Life is good.
Another source of free wood are the area road and utility services. I let a county road supervisor know the sizes and types of wood I was looking for and where they could dump and they were GLAD to bring it when working in the area and the drive was closer. I eventually had to tell them to stop since I was getting too much wood, even though I have a sawmill. Electrical utility companies often contract to have trees removed when running new lines or reparing a downed line.
Also, if you have a trailer without sides, it's easy to load even large logs with nothing more than a chain and something for ramps on the side - with parbuckling you can roll even a large log up the ramps by hand, maybe with some help, or with power from a winch, comealong, 4-wheeler or car/truck. I'd sometimes haul a flatbed trailer with my truck, position the trailer next to the log, disconnect the truck and roll the log onto the trailer with a chain pulled by the truck. The method is trivial and has been used for many centuries.
I almost never turn green wood but prefer dry. But almost all free wood is green. Drying round log sections is often futile - besides taking years to dry, the way wood shrinks as it dries inevitably causes checks and cracks and you end up with firewood instead of turning wood. Most people get around this by rough turning bowls and such while green, drying, then finish turning. I seldom do this.
I cut log sections up into turning blanks in sizes that make me happy, seal the ends, and put them on shelves to dry, tracking the dryness by weight. I've been doing this for over 15 year and have enough dry wood for multiple lifetimes and plenty to give to friends and donate to our club wood auctions.
Some of many wood storage and drying areas in my shop. I'm ashamed to say I have wood stored in other buildings on the property. Maybe I need an intervention. Some large pieces DID take maybe 10 years to dry. With enough wood in various stages of drying, patience is easy.
I've taught multiple classes in my shop on processing log sections into blanks and during the pandemic made a video on the method for a club demo (with an emphasis on bandsaw safety!) If you haven't seen it, I posted it on this forum but here's the direct Youtube link if interested. It's long and needs some rewrite but I'm getting older by the minute and probably won't ever do that.
View: https://youtu.be/4Rbdas-jtD0
This method does take a reasonable sized bandsaw and some knowledge of wood and how it dries and moves. I think the book "Understanding Wood" by R. Bruce Hoadly is a must-read for woodturners. (But I'm a compulsive reader with a library in the shop office...)
Sorry for the long blog. I have a passion about this!
JKJ
She thinks I’m totally off my rocker. Just hope when I die she doesn’t sell all my crap for what I told her I paid for it.
