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shredded wheat-----aspen

Charlie Knighton

Charlie Knighton

Joined
Jan 20, 2006
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Martinsville, VA
i roughed out some green aspen today and in places it just shreddes, this is my first time with aspen so i am curious, is that part end grain???????

i also boiled it this afternoon and will try to finnish it next week

any suggestions, do's and don'ts or must do's

thanks

ps: way better than green pine!!!!!! :D :D
 
Wonderful stuff, aspen. Favored by the Finns for sauna (sow'-na) benches because it's splinter-free and always seems cooler than any other piece of wood inside the building. Favored for the floor of carts and stone boats because it dents when struck a blow rather than splitting.

Interlocked grain protects it from splitting, but there are many changes in direction to create "fuzzies" (or chatoyance) along the way. Couple this with the soft, long fibers that favor a Finn's bottom and you'll know that you really want to turn aspen dry, when it can't bend and flop so much.

Fortunately it's almost bulletproof in drying, along with the whole willow/poplar family. Hog it without regard to fuzzy in any way that removes wood, set aside to dry and sharpen your tools before you re-turn. It makes great translucent pieces if you stay sharp and get support from a steady. Oil soak and set the bowl on the table, where it gives a kaleidoscope of patterns as the sun swings from east through south in my dining room.
 
aspen

will boiling it an hour and set aside for a week should that be enough to dry it it or check the weight til it stays the same do it???????
 
Check the Backside of the endgrain

Not sure what you mean by "shreads"

If you have lots of torn grain it is most likely from dull tools, not riding the bevel, cutting in the wrong direction.

If you have a bit of fuzz then it is more due to the wood.

Check the BACKSIDE of the ENDGRAIN If you are turning a face grain bowl the endgrain comes around the outside twice. Proper cutting on the outside of a bowl is from the foot to the rim. This lets the gouge cut the long fibers with a fiber behind for support which gives a clean cut and most of the cutting direction is toward the rim. However a little bit of cutting is done around the circumference direction sort of straight up. as the endgrain comes by everything is ok to the middle of the endgrain once past the middlle of the endgrain (the back side) the part of the cutting done in the circumference direction cuts fibers with no supprt behind then and you get a bits of fuzz on the backside of the endgrain.

The backside of the endgrain will be the problem area on almost any form.

Final cuts with a sharp tool and lighter cuts will improve the surface. Sometimes different cuts produce a better surface. If I'm not getting a good tool surface I'll try using a pull cut instead of push cut or switch to a 1/4" bowl gouge.

happy turning,
Al
 
baitbegger said:
will boiling it an hour and set aside for a week should that be enough to dry it it or check the weight til it stays the same do it???????
Click to expand...

Weight is best indicator of its status. but one swallow does not make a spring, and two consecutive daily readings don't mean stable. Stable for a week if you're hot to trot. You added a day or so to your dry time by boiling, but it's unbound water, so no sweat.

What counts in time to dry is how thin the wood is. Moisture has to get out, and the farther it has to go, the longer it takes. Aspen has twisted grain, so you can get in trouble trying to cheat on roughed thickness. Normally, with domestic hardwoods, a 5-7% of rough diameter over desired final thickness figure works well for a bowl with the heart up. When the distortion is unpredictable, might want to go to a bit more, like the 7-10% you hear a lot about. Otherwise you may find you can't turn lumps and bumps into circular walls.

Since aspen hardly ever cracks, you can probably leave it in the open, as long as you don't have hot air from a duct hitting it. Other woods are not as friendly. I'm betting three weeks.

Once it's dry, you should have better luck turning.
 
bag of shaving

i have the rough turned aspen in a plastic bag of shavings, would it dry faster just sitting out , no vents, just basement

what oil should i soak it with, i did a search on oil soak and got many suggestions such as use stainless steel bowl or even plastic bag but not a definite answer on what type of oil to soak it in

i called craft supplies and they had a bowl steady so that is coming

i have 4 more blanks of aspen so i really would like to get it right on the first try and improve as i go

thanks for any help :) :)
 
baitbegger said:
i have the rough turned aspen in a plastic bag of shavings,
Click to expand...
Do not use a plastic bag -- the moisture cannot excape. Use a brown paper bag
 
thanks

now in brown paper bag thanks :eek: :eek:
 
Even paper might be too much. Look at it, and be prepared to change the bag after cutting some end grain if it's picking up mildew. Black mildew runs deep and fast into aspen.

My approach is to spin the daylights out of it after it's rough to throw as much moisture as possible, then make sure it's surface-dry before putting it down low where the humidity is high. I lost some lovely curly maple to black mildew stains and end sealers when I was experimenting with that, so I'm real cautious.

You know that you can just tent it with newsprint, right? Inside of a bowl is under compression as it dries, so you really don't need any humidity help there.
 
paper bag

i am not using newspaper, i have brown paper grocery bag with shavings not sawdust below and above rough turned bowl is this ok?????

i have it on 3rd shelf about 4' high but will move it to floor shelf and check daily for black mold

if any mold appears should i rechuck and turn mold off??????????

for an oil soak of 24 hours would a 2 to 1 mineral spirits to linseed oil be ok????? :eek: :cool2: :eek:
 
glue block or chuck

the aspen turned beautifully yesterday, set up steady and once wood dry used chisels to clean up , when i put it on jaws and tried to get the tenon cleaned up it caught on straight edge chisel where i was tring to get profiled marks off the side of tenon, it tore two edges off :eek: :eek: , it was so light at about 1/8 on inch

should i in future use glue block when turning something that thin????????

i rough out another aspen blank today i like this wood :) but was so disappointed yesterday, i had to leave the shop and take a walk
 
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