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What’s on your lathe?

John K Jordan said:
Have you ever tried thin CA? It soaks in well and has stabilized some worthless (but beautiful) wood for me. I like the Parson's 3408.
It usually soaks al the wan to the center but I can reapply if some questionable wood is exposed while turning.

You want more oak? I have a big white oak down. Bring a chaiansaw.
When it gets cold I plan to take down two good-sized sassafras, a persimmon, a walnut, and a sourwood - all are in the way. May be time to fire up the sawmill.

JKJ
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I'll try the CA. The tenon broke off without any pressure on it, so the shellac won't be enough.

Sourwood! Calling @Michael Anderson.

I have white oak, walnut, sassafras, and persimmon on the ground. I'll come over and help, though.
 
Michael Anderson said:
Looking good Kent!!!

And oh yeah @John K Jordan knows I’m eyeing his big pasture Sourwood. Like candy haha
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Don't remember how big of diameter the one I need to take out is. It's in the way when I drive the tractor/skid steer on one trail.

I started checking out Sourwood trees years ago for the honey possibilities. I saw a lot in the area, watched the flowers with binocs, never saw a single honeybee at the flowers. A friend said the only way to get sourwood honey is to haul the hives up into the mountains in areas where sourwood is about the only thing blooming. He took several trailers full of hives every year.

I haven't looked around but if there are bigger sourwood we can cut them too.
I have WAY too many trees. Winter is the best time to fell and process live trees. If you come when it's cold, we can look around and see what might be useful. I do know there's a good sized cherry on the edge of a field that REALLY needs to be dropped, someone with a chainsaw and experience. I can pull with the skid steer.

I also have a small grove of dead sassafras which need to come down. I might dig up and push over a couple to see if the wood is worth anything.

BTW, the problem with logs on the ground now when it's warm is many species are very quick to be infested with bugs AND lighter wood can quickly turn ugly from fungal staining - I've had maple, holly, and even persimmon do that.. In some areas they prefer to fell trees when the wood is frozen, but that's prob not going to happen around here!

I recently dug up a big dead dogwood stump from a neighbor's yard. The last time I did that I got some of the most beautiful spalted dogwood blanks ever, zone lines, color. Need to pressure wash this one, cut & see what's inside.

JKJ
 
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R Henrickson said:
Red oak doesn't fume nearly as nicely as white. My experience also has been that oak sapwood (red or white) does not fume anything like heartwood. It tends to simply look dingy. Best results if no sapwood.
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I have ebonized red oak that looked nice, but like you said, it didn't have any sapwood on it. I have no experience with fuming wood that has been soaked in CA, but that would be a concern if I did.
 
Since 1983 I have turned on an old Powermatic 90, salvaged from a school shop. With a low speed of 500rpm, big, heavy blanks were not fun to turn. About 15 years ago I decided to cut some bigger bowl blanks from a pair of logs-- one cherry and one holly, both around 14" in diameter.

The blanks got waxed and tucked into the shadows of my shop. In 2023 I ordered my forever lathe, a Robust AB, and have been busy going through my stash. Yesterday I made to the first of these logs:

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Sometimes you just get tired of beads.... sooooo I can't say no to some color.

11 x 2 sycamore with some unicorn spit to brighten the day. Waiting for it to dry. (good excuse to take a break)


EDIT---- Darn it, turned away most of the character on the inside. Third pic is the backside. Plus if you notice I removed the blue and re-did it. Kind of feels like a piece of balsa wood it's so light now.
 

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David Wyke said:
Friend brought me a new maple log and I had to see what it looked like before I called it a day! He also brought me the small cherry burl I posted earlier. Guess I need to give him a couple bowls😁

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Nice looking wood and bowl David. What is your setup on the tail stock. It looks like you might be using an extension.
 
Ted Pelfrey said:
What chucks do you use and jaw size? Thanks
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The chuck I use for this piece is the stronghold with #4 jaws. I have a couple of Nova chucks that work good but when I bought the 3520c I wanted a larger Chuck and went with Oneway Stronghold. To me it is a much better build chuck than Nova.
The #4 jaws work well for larger bowls and the green first turn. This was the largest jaws Klingspor had in stock at the time for the stronghold. I was planning on switching to Vicmarc but they had none in stock at that time.
 
Paul Vechart said:
Nice looking wood and bowl David. What is your setup on the tail stock. It looks like you might be using an extension.
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I use the Oneway live center and an extension. Purchased the live center from Klingspor Woodworking and I think the extension was from Craft Supplies.
 

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David Wyke said:
The chuck I use for this piece is the stronghold with #4 jaws. I have a couple of Nova chucks that work good but when I bought the 3520c I wanted a larger Chuck and went with Oneway Stronghold. To me it is a much better build chuck than Nova.
The #4 jaws work well for larger bowls and the green first turn. This was the largest jaws Klingspor had in stock at the time for the stronghold. I was planning on switching to Vicmarc but they had none in stock at that time.
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I have the stronghold as well, rarely use it. Wanted a smaller one as it’s huge so went with a Talon, holds great. But the tool you tighten it with gets stuck and is sometimes hard to get in. I’ve read this is common . I bought a Vicmark at SWAT. It’s on its way so looking toward to trying it.
 
Still bead and color free this time.

Gotta love 1/4 sawn sycamore. 11 x 1.75
 

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