Tips on Turning a Cookie

[Paul May]

Hi Y'all. I just got back from a trip to South Texas and brought back some Mesquite and a beautiful Pecan cookie (yum). The cookie shows no cracks so far and the pith seems very small. I have seen a few beautiful pieces here turned from cookies and was wondering if anyone had some guidance on what approach I should take? It is about 8-9" in diameter and about 2.5-3" deep. Thanks for any insight.....

-P

 

[Russ Braun]

A Pecan cookie wouldn’t last long in my shop. BTW (I’ll ask the question), what the heck is a Pecan Cookie?? A picture is worth……

 

[Gabriel Hoff]

A cookie is a slab of wood cut thin with a live edge bark feature around the diameter. Here is an example...

 

[Doug Freeman]

A cookie with no or very small cracks (unlike the one pictured above), I make end grain bowls, usually natural edge, relatively thin, 1 turn to help with cracking. May crack during drying, which adds character - part of the design. Tool direction during cutting is opposite a x-grain bowl.

With a large cookie, and or substantial cracking, cut up into blanks for smaller bowls, boxes, finials if long enough.

 

[Michael Anderson]

That IS a beautiful piece of wood, albeit cracked. Prior to turning, I would add some pewa (or similar) to reinforce the cracked sections, especially the big crack on the left. Then, turn it thin, carefully. I would turn it into a gentle outflowing bowl, but that’s just me. A very shallow platter could be cool as well. Definitely be sure to stay out of the line of fire. And, with something like this, it can be helpful to turn in reverse, so you can make long, light push cuts. That’s assuming you have a fixed headstock, and are standing on the “normal” side of the lathe. It will be a beauty of you decide to pursue. Pecan is one of my favorite timbers. It finished like porcelain. Check out Rob Woodward’s album on WOW. He had some Desert Ironwood pieces that might be good for inspiration.

EDIT: I thought the cookie above was yours. Didn’t see that Gabriel posted it. Lol!

 

[Paul May]

Here is the cookie in question...

 

[robo hippy]

A friend has a gallery in LA, and he wanted some drink coasters. The one he sent me was a branch section. I would always worry about it cracking though. These can make good trivets/hot plate pads. It would not be too difficult to make a cross cut sled for the bandsaw so you could get pieces with parallel sides. I did see a chainsaw set up for doing that. Some what similar to my chainsaw chop saw.

robo hippy

 

[Curt Fuller]

My advice on turning cookies would be to rough turn it to a shape and size pretty close to what you want to end up with. They don't seem to distort much in the drying process but will probably crack. If you dig it out in a few months and it hasn't cracked, that would be a good day to buy a lottery ticket. But then you can go about filling cracks, adding pewas, or whatever it takes to make it look nice. Because it's all end grain they seem to dry pretty fast. Here's a large black cherry "cookie" that is partly normal log and partly burl.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

A friend has a gallery in LA, and he wanted some drink coasters. The one he sent me was a branch section. I would always worry about it cracking though. These can make good trivets/hot plate pads. It would not be too difficult to make a cross cut sled for the bandsaw so you could get pieces with parallel sides. I did see a chainsaw set up for doing that. Some what similar to my chainsaw chop saw.

robo hippy

Here is an example of coasters made from a small northern red oak, the process I used to make them was to first cut the disks off of a straight section using a large v block attached to the miter gauge on the band saw. The next step was to cut them through the pith and leave the matched pieces together to dry.

After a few months the two cut sides will no longer be straight so I straighten them on a disk sander and glue them back together. The turning is done using a flat faced wood block with sand paper glued on and held with a flat faced tip about 5/16 " diameter on the live center. The depression on the top can be turned except for the center where the live center is holding it in place. The center divot can be removed using a router table with the bit protruding slightly less then the depth of the depression. Note the friction chuck should be close to the same diameter as the depression so that when you flip it to turn the bottom it will center. The bottom is turned similar except there is a raised ring similar to base on a bowl.
The ones shown were finished with walnut oil, but if some one were to use them on a regular bases an epoxy may be a better choice. The one 4th from the left is on my desk and it did develop a radial check from sweating glasses.

 

[Darryl Fective]

With a cookie it's endgrain orientation, so the inside of the bowl should be cut from center to rim, and outside rim to center. (opposite a normal bowl) If the pith has room to move up or down as it shrinks (thinnish non-flat contour) it will reduce chances of splitting.

 

[robo hippy]

Don, I would never have thought of cutting them apart and then bookmatching them. Good idea! The one I had, I think it is still around some where, was a solid piece. The bookmatch would result in far less cracking loss...

robo hippy

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Don, I would never have thought of cutting them apart and then bookmatching them. Good idea! The one I had, I think it is still around some where, was a solid piece. The bookmatch would result in far less cracking loss...

robo hippy

The only cracking that I know of is the one I have on my desk with only walnut oil for a finish. When a cold glass of water sits on there in the month of July where the humidity can easily reach 90% it will sweat and it is common knowledge that water can leak through red oak so this is what happens when it dries again. The better finish as in some sort of epoxy would probably work but those would turn into some really expensive coasters.