Sign up turningg log in Sign up using Google. All kinds of stresses will inevitable build storing green wood for turning zone inside the wood until vor splits open. When the hollowing is finished, use your preferred method of drying. As green wood is very cheap if not free, woodturners who understand the green turning process can save a lot of money on material. Temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees are optimal for drying and reducing the growth of unwanted organisms. These forms are very difficult with dry wood. This usually takes anywhere from 1 or 2 days to 3 weeks depending on the moisture content of the wood, the ambient humidity and temperature, and the species.

It helps when seasoning or storing any piece of wood to seal the end grain against overfast evaporation of moisture. If you do not do this the end grain will split in hot weather.

The best seal is candle wax or paraffin wax. Melt the wax in a shallow tray and dip the ends of the piece of wood in it. If it is a disc of wood for a bowl, roll the disc in the molten wax to coat the entire periphery of the disc.

Take precautions against fire - as with a chip pan. Some of the prettiest turned objects are made from branches and small logs of Laburnum, yew or similar trees. These can be turned green or part seasoned. If they are well sealed after turning, perhaps with three or four coats of sanding sealer, they will be O.

It is worth trying the following home grown timbers. Using green or part seasoned wood from hedges, woodland, gardens etc for your woodturning projects. Stable Wood Does not exist! Seasoned wood 4" thick or more is virtually unobtainable The reason is purely economic. It takes many years to fully air dry a 4" plank of wood or several expensive weeks in a kiln.

The high wastage and the cost of the overheads are so high that most sawmills are reluctant to cut anything thicker than 2" for stock. Thicker timber is available but it is usually sold as "part seasoned" before it has a chance to dry fully. It is a sad fact that many sawmills, even reputable ones, will sell thick wood as "kiln dried" which is only dry on the outside skin.

If you turn something out of it - say a bowl - you are asking for trouble. The stresses inside the timber are released when it is turned and it will soon warp or split. You might be lucky and find some timber which has been stored for years for some reason, but normally you can be sure that wood more than 3" thick will be only "part seasoned" and will not be suitable for turning immediately into a finished object. Using part seasoned wood One of the big advantages of being a woodturner is that you can use green or part seasoned wood without waiting years for it to dry - provided you know what you are doing.

Useful sources of supply. Friends with large gardens or woodlands. Firewood merchants Tree surgeons, estate maintenance contractors, farmers etc. Timber auctions Old furniture Sawmills Offcuts from furniture makers Specialist woodturning shop Green Turning of Bowls A hundred years ago, the woodturner was an important member of the village community - every bit as busy as the village blacksmith and employed to make furniture and household "treen", including lots of wooden bowls for the kitchen and dairy.

The process of making a bowl from green or part seasoned wood is very straightforward. The advantages of this process are many. You can buy the wood cheaper and have a much better choice of material. You can get material as thick as you like for nice deep bowls. Wastage from the log due to end splits etc is eliminated.

You can use pieces with wild grain which would not dry properly if Storing Green Wood For Turning Rate left in the plank. Wet wood cuts easier and quicker Less dust is generated so that is healthier for your lungs The disadvantage is you have to look some weeks ahead - you cannot buy wood as you need it, you have to maintain a stock.

Storing rough turned bowls Once the bowl is roughed out it has to be stored in such a way that it dries out as quickly as possible without splitting. Drying can be accelerated by warmth but moisture has to be prevented from evaporating from the surface too fast or the bowl will surely split. With coarse grained quick drying wood such as elm and walnut you can dry a large bowl from green in about 6 weeks.

Simply wrap it well in twenty or thirty layers of newspaper open up a whole newspaper and use it to wrap the blank to make a parcel and keep it in a warm room. Tape it up so that no gaps show. Write on what it is and date it. My father Peter Child use to rough turn hundreds of elm bowls and protect them with "paste wax" before drying them in the airing cupboard. Paste wax is a kind of cheap floor polish used commercially in factories, hospitals etc.

End seal coating such as Mobil "C" would do just as well. The Seasoning Process There is no such thing as a dry piece of wood. Every wood blank or finished turning will lose or absorb moisture from the air until it eventually reaches an equilibrium point with its surroundings. The equilibrium point in, for example, your living room depends mostly on the average value of the relative humidity from month to month.

If the atmosphere is very dry due to the central heating, then all the furniture and wooden objects in the room will lose water to the air until the percentage of water inside the wood drops to the value corresponding to the conditions.

I can prove this by using an electronic moisture meter to measure the water content of the oak beams which have been "seasoning" there for years, maybe more. Wood warps if its water content changes. It shrinks if it loses, and expands if it gains. Commercial logging is wasteful The commercial method of processing wood is as follows. Any lumps and bumps together with the top and bottom planks are thrown away.

Even though all reasonable precautions are taken during seasoning, there is a great deal of wastage due to splits. Planks especially thick ones always split at the ends so a percentage is lost there. Planks with any thickness suffer from surface splits and split open around any features in the grain such as knots, crotches, wild or swirly grain - all the prettiest bits.

This is because these parts of the trunk will simply refuse to dry evenly. Let's hear it for turning green wood! When you receive your wood turning bowl blank, you can rough turn your item to speed the drying process.

For example, when I am turning a 10 inch bowl, I will leave Storing Green Wood For Turning 45 it one inch thick. A 20 inch bowl will Storing Green Wood For Turning Point be 2 inches thick. Mount the blank to your lathe between centers using a proper size spur drive in relation to blank size. Turn the outside of your item to its basic shape making a tendon for a chuck at this time. Remove the item from your lathe and remove the spur drive. Turn item around and remount using your preferred method. I would then true the outside shape before hollowing the inside in case of change from spur drive set up to chuck set up.

The inside should be of uniform thickness following outside shape to minimize checking and excessive stress during drying. Even wall thickness will encourage even drying and limit warping when turning green wood.

If using a faceplate instead of a spur drive, you can turn the outside to your basic shape and then begin hollowing following the above directions. When the hollowing is finished, use your preferred method of drying.

I like to use Pentacryl Wood Stabilizer on my rough-turned green wood. We now sell this product and it is one that I would never be without Storing Green Wood For Turning Job in my shop.

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