Joseph Zammit

[Joseph Zammit]

Hi I'm new to this site. My name is Joe Zammit from Ontario Canada. I love turning bowls from any wood I can get my hands on. I have rough turned bowls that have been drying for about 8 years, & I have some from red oak, maple, birch & willow. The red oak I find is giving me some problem finishing. Is this normal, do you think it's too dry after 8 years?
This may sound silly but I was thinking of soaking them in water for a few minutes.
Joe

 

[hockenbery]

Joe
the red oak is going to be hard when dry.
It should be fine to turn Sharp tools and light bevel riding cuts with a bowl gouge should do the trick.

However if you push too hard on the bevel the oak will beat you up without cutting.
If you don't ride the bevel the oak will bounce the cutting edge around making an Uneven surface.
Your tool will get a little warm but if it gets hot it is either dull or your a pressing the bevel too hard.
All the truing cuts are interrupted cuts so don't let the gouge push forward when the air comes by.
On really hard wood there is a tendency for people to push hard and push into the air space and the gouge is taking too big a cut then the wood comes by.

If you soak the bowl in water it will swell up and "warp" when it dries again It would likely reduce the hardness.

When I rough out bowls I try to get an even wall thickness and a smooth surface which makes the returning so much easier.
When I re turn it I line up the the peaks and valleys on the rim. Square the rim, true the tenon, true the outside, hollow it to desired thickness.

Al

 

[Mark Hepburn]

Joe,

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum. I know, not much in the way of advice, but just a friendly hello!

 

[Bill Boehme]

Any kind of oak is really hard once dry. Be persistent. You might need to sharpen your bowl gouge every couple minutes. Depending where it grows, it might also have a very high mineral content. I had a piece of white oak burl that would dull my tools in a matter of just a few seconds due to its high mineral content. It wasn't until I got a carbide tipped tool that I was able to finish turning it.

Because red oak is ring-porous, it might work better to use an oil finish or if you want a film finish, consider using a rubbed-in shellac and wax finish that is able to fill pores.

 

[hockenbery]

Joe,

Two more thoughts.

1. Have you joined and AAW chapter? If not consider doing. Most chapter welcome visitors.
Our local chapters have a lot of winter time Canadians.
Ontario is a big place but it has ten AAW chapters. They are filled with people eager to share with other members.
If you haven't hooked up with a chapter you might consider it. You will have a lot you can share with other members and they have lots of folks able to give advice on things you have trouble with. Find a chapter near you
http://www.woodturner.org/search/custom.asp?id=1509

2. Let the tool do the work. Hard oak is going to resist cutting more than the maple and other softer hardwoods. Our natural reaction is to meet force with force and push harder on the gouge. This makes things worse. Just the opposite is needed. Patience is needed more than strength.
When the cut meets resistance. Slow the feed rate pull the tool back a little to make the cut shallower.
Sharpen the tool more often.

I like to to turn oak. Live oak especially. But mostly I turn natural edge bowls from green oak that cuts wonderfully.
Then I don't have the hard second turn. Oak can make beautiful bowls.

Have fun
Al

 

[Bill Boehme]

... I like to to turn oak. Live oak especially. But mostly I turn natural edge bowls from green oak that cuts wonderfully.
Then I don't have the hard second turn. Oak can make beautiful bowls...

It seems like most woodturners avoid oak, but like you I love it, especially white oak and live oak. I have only had one opportunity to turn live oak after a neighborhood tree blew down in a storm. It was a joy to turn green live oak. Turning dry live oak is not so much fun, but doing as Al said makes life much easier. Live oak was used in sailing ships -- under most circumstances cannonballs and bowl gouges both bounce off it without making much of a dent.

 

[Hu Lowery]

serves them right!

It seems like most woodturners avoid oak, but like you I love it, especially white oak and live oak. I have only had one opportunity to turn live oak after a neighborhood tree blew down in a storm. It was a joy to turn green live oak. Turning dry live oak is not so much fun, but doing as Al said makes life much easier. Live oak was used in sailing ships -- under most circumstances cannonballs and bowl gouges both bounce off it without making much of a dent.

Joe,

Welcome to the forum! You have excellent advice already so nothing more to be said from this beginner.



Bill,

Serves them right if bowl gouges bounce off, they shouldn't have been loading their cannon with bowl gouges anyway!

Hu

 

[john lucas]

I only avoid Oak because of the acid in it. It's one of the worse things I've turned for rusting the lathe and chucks. I don't find it difficult to turn at all either green or dry. I make a lot of handmirrors from dry oak. So far the only Oak that has been difficult to turn was barnwood. The gray side apparently has silica in it or something. Dulls a tool almost instantly. Once you cut off about 1/8" or so it turns like any other oak.
I don't know about shooting a bowl gouge out of a cannon but i once had a gouge with a 4 foot handle on it. I felt like Captain Ahab about to harpoon a whale every time I picked it up.

 

[Jamie Straw]

Welcome from another newcomer

Joe, welcome from me too! AAW is a great place for advice and commiseration. I have a little experience with casework (square, flat stuff) and red oak. Because of the large pores, it always needed filler in the grain, in the few projects I made with it, I wet-sanded with Watco for that purpose. As a relative beginner, red oak makes me a little nervous on the lathe, but I find it very useful to test a newly-sharpened tool on, lets me know immediately whether it's truly sharp or just a wannabee.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Speaking of cannons and bowl gouges reminded me of this graphic I created back when I used to be the newsletter editor for the Woodturners of North Texas.



Then I find out that some copycat painter named Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze ripped off my illustration.