Eddie Kish

[Edward Kish]

Hi all, just joined up a few days ago. I've been woodworking for most of my life, but picked up my first lathe a few months ago. Pretty basic four speed craftsman, 3/4 threaded headstock etc. Really been enjoying turning and looking forward to learning more! This is also my first time joining a forum in years after spending a great deal of time on them in the past. Great to be here! I'll throw up some pictures of my projects so far. I live in Northern VT where my family owns lots of land with plenty of maple and oak, although I'm finding it difficult to wait for fresh wood to dry enough to turn this early in the game .

 

[Mark Hepburn]

Hi Eddie, and welcome! You'll find this a very friendly place. And I can tell from your work that you're already getting comfortable with that lathe. Like you, I did mostly flat work for about 35 years before getting interested in turning a few years ago.

I took a few classes and shopped around for a club. If you have a club in your area (and I'll bet you do), you may want to think about joining. Anyway, welcome to the forum!

Mark

 

[Mike Johnson]

Eddie,

Looks like you are having fun with your new lathe, there are several methods you can use to speed up the process of drying green wood. If you are turning bowls you want to rough turn them when they are green and then return them after the piece has dried. The smaller the wood piece the quicker it will dry, so you might want to process some wood into smaller billets, and process some larger pieces that you set aside for turning in a few years.

Looks like you have a liking for spalted wood pieces, there are several methods you can use to spalt green logs that will produce the spalting. There are a number of articles and books that have been written about the process, you can also purchase the spalting fungi spores to inoculate green logs, but if you have processed your own spaled wood you can mix the wood chips into the soil and set your green logs on top and keep the soil moist to start the spalting spores into the green log.

 

[Edward Kish]

I like spalted wood as much as the next guy, honestly I just have a lot of firewood that was stored in a somewhat moist basement and so pretty much every piece of maple is spalted. Terrible to work with, though. The large mallet was supposed to be functional, but then looked too pretty and the soft, punky wood wasn't going to hold up long to lots of saying

 

[Bill Boehme]

Welcome to the forum, Eddie. You have some very nice pieces there.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Welcome Eddie. As Mike said you do not have to wait for the wood to dry to turn. Most of the fun is seeing those curls come off the wet blank.

 

[hockenbery]

Welcome.
As others have said, There are lots of things you can turn from green wood.
I mostly turn green wood

 

[Mike Johnson]

Eddie,

There are several options for spalted wood that get punky, you can dry and stabilize the wood with a resin and then turn it. Many of the pen blanks sold today are stabilized using this process. Some woodturners will spalt the wood and stop the process to maintain a viable wood that is solid but still exhibits the fungal staining of the wood layers. You can microwave the wood to kill the fungal growth or some woodworkers will heat or boil the wood to kill the fungal spores.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Stopping spault is simple remove moisture and it stops. Fungal growth requires moisture, it is not necessary to kill the fungus.

 

[Edward Kish]

Thanks for the advice guys! I've turned some REALLY green wood (had a branch come down and turned it a few weeks later, i almost had to change my shirt it sprayed so much water at me!), but look forward about learning more about the right ways to do it to avoid splitting etc. I do love the idea of turning and letting it warp

 

[John Torchick]

Welcome to the forum. Joining AAW and a local chapter would be a good move. Did it and never regretted it. As f or drying, some make a DIY kiln out of an old refrigerator or dishwasher. Also, I have seen plans for a solar kiln.

 

[Lamar Wright]

Welcome to the forum Edward, you'll get a lot of help here as I have. Happy turning!

 

[Mark Hepburn]

Hey Edward, if that spalted maple becomes a bit of a problem, I'll bet some on this forum just might be willing to purchase some of it.

Hope that doesn't sound crass.