Doc Green's woodturning tips.  Wood tends to fracture along the grain; it splits easily. The wood fibers are very str ong along their length and are able to support impressive loads either in tension or compression, but the side-to-side connection of the fibers to one another is very weak, relatively speaking. This is what causes the problems with screws in end-grain wood. Damaged wood is weak wood. When you drive a screw into end-grain wood without a pilot hole, the wood surrounding the screw is compressed in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. Transverse compression occurs because the screw diameter pushes th. () Wood Turning 7 Tips STOP end grain tear out wood bowl woodturning - YouTube. Bowl Turning. Lathe Tools.  () Bowl Gouge - Which Way to Cut - Supported Grain Cutting Direction Woodturning Video - YouTube. My Favorite Food. Favorite Recipes. 11 The End of End-Grain Turning In MY Shop! 12 Or, Is It Really the End? The Origin of the Wood. My Dad (shout-out to Steve here) had given me several pieces of Eastern Black Walnut that were too nice and large to chunk up for pen blanks, so one of them was turned into a bottle stopper while the other piece I decided I would use to try out the process of end-grain turning to make a End Grain Wood Turning Zone small hollow vessel. It all sounded so easy and grand.  End grain is so sturdy in fact that it is the orientation used for butcher blocks (although for health reasons wooden cutting boards should NEVER be used with raw meats) and even, believe it or not, for paving streets! From the mid-nineteenth century up until the early twentieth century, end grain wood blocks were used as pavers in municipal streets. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Best thing to do is totally finish the outside, before starting the inside. Turning up the lathe speed makes it more difficult for the tool to repeat bad end grain wood turning weight and instead it will start to create new env cuts. While I did this test for my own purposes, I thought it would be cool to share the results so you can draw your own conclusions. I guess the end grain doesn't like that?

By angling the tool edge, the sheer force of the metal to the wood is reduced, and a cleaner cut occurs. Think of an old-school paper cutter. The blade drops down at an angle and makes a clean cut. If that same blade were lowered parallel to the table surface, the paper would probably fold and rip.

This also happens to the wood fiber ends. The angled cut is especially important when using a negative rake scraper. A more gentle and cleaner cut is made, rather than the scraper meeting the bowl surface at a flat degree angle. This technique is described further in my round nose scraper article, check it out. Shear scraping is a bowl gouge technique that feels foreign and odd at first but is incredibly valuable for creating a smooth finish.

Incorporating the gentle approach of a steep cutting angle as described above, this bowl gouge finishing technique can produce results that rival beautifully sanded finishes. I encourage you to learn more about shear scraping by reading this article about perfecting the bowl gouge shear scraping cut. Occasionally, depending on the species and age of the wood bowl blank, wetting the surface can help to raise fibers. Like little limb hairs, some wood end grains need a boost to position them for a clean cut.

Wetting the wood surface can raise fibers and allow the sharp bowl gouge to make a clean pass. No matter what I did to try to achieve clean cuts, there always seemed to be areas that tore and ripped out. At this point, if no other tips are working, try applying a layer of shellac to the whole bowl or just the trouble areas.

I mix my own shellac using shellac flakes and denatured alcohol. The shellac will harden the soft, loose fibers and present them better to the sharp bowl gouge. When the cuts are made, instead of falling over or breaking off, the wood fibers stand tall and are cut clean.

Want to know all the steps for making the best shellac available, read this next. Just like the shellac technique above, CA can be used in specific areas to solidify the wood fibers and make them easier to cut. Sand any trouble areas still remaining with focused attention. Do not sand with the lathe on as this will only increase any tool mark hills and valleys.

Instead, find the trouble area, usually along the end grain, and sand with the grain to remove any tell-tale marks. Sanding by combining lathe rotation and detailed with-the-grain sanding lathe off is the ideal way to achieve a smooth final finish on your wood bowls. I have an article all about how I sand my wood bowls. Check it out. Grain tear out can be discouraging, but with persistence and patience grain tear out can be a thing of the past.

Take your time and experiment with one or a combination of the above tips to eliminate the tear out on your wood turned bowl. And if all else fails, try turning a more forgiving wood.

On the other hand, if you really want to learn or torture yourself find some old ratty and punky pecan or similar wood to turn. Hey Kent, I bought a larger lathe to be able to turn larger than the 5 inch bowls and cups I have turned. Starting with the new lathe I used the same higher speeds. My new lathe has 3 variable speed ranges. And a having much better success. Hi Kent, I came across one of your very helpful videos yesterday and will watch more in the coming days.

Having watched a few experts making the entire process look effortless. In with both feet and my confidence was dashed almost right away. I actually bent twice my gouge that I bought years ago to accompany my original machine. I was getting quite intimidated by this much more powerful machine.

I bought what I think is a very good bowl gouge but at this time progress is slow. I noticed in the video yesterday that when you started to dig out the inside of the bowl you just confidently presented the tool and off you went.

I do eventually hope to join a wood turners club in the area at some point but because of the current situation all these activities are suspended. Keep up the good work, you have a very pleasant style of presentation…. Best Charlie, Newtonville, Ontario. Putting over these ideas and techniques is an art, too — congratulations!

I will tackle tear-out with renewed confidence now. Yorkshire, UK. Great article! Will use the tips. End grain drives me crazy. Anyway, I was looking at the stack of logs in my garage and started to wonder how one turns a vessel?

Do you turn cross grain like you do with bowls, or do you hollow out the end grain? And how do you dry it once it is rough turned?

Last edited: Jan 2, Jim Ketron. Most vessels are turned end grain not all but most. Joined May 29, Messages Likes 0 Location billerica, ma. You can go at the grain from any orientation, depending on what you're looking for in a finished product. Just remember, always cut downhill to the grain direction. When a piece is mounted lenghtwise on a lathe, this would mean cutting downward towards the axis when cutting on the outside and upward towards the outer diameter when cutting inside a bowl.

Side mounted, just the opposite. This holds when you're working inside the vessel too. When turning end End Grain Wood Turning Games grain on a vase, go ahead and turn it to finished thickness while green. Make sure that this is a very even thickness, especially if the vase contains the pith of the tree. This will decrease the likelyhood of cracking, although there's still a real chance because of that pith.

You'll lose a fair number to cracking the pith again but less so if the thickness is very consistant. The other option on side grain is to turn to finish and let the piece deform. You get some cool results. Ok, let me make sure I undersand. Turning end grain would mean placing a log between centers and cutting the "bark" side of the log.

I know you should remove the bark before placing the log on the lathe for safety reasons. The inds would be at the drive cener and tailstock.

Turning side grain would be ripping the log and having the end grain facing away from the centers. The bark side would be facing the tail stock. Is this correct? Bill Boehme Administrator Staff member.

Beta Tester. You have it right on turning end grain, but for side grain, you could put the bark side of the wood either way -- towards the tailstock or towards the headstock. Usually the bowl has more figure if the bottom of the bowl is closest to End Grain Wood Turning Zero the center of the log, but not necessarily and there is no "rule". You could even have it sideways so that one side of the rim Is near the center of the log and the other is near the bark side, but then it could be an end grain turning, depending upon which way the bowl opening is facing -- in other words, an end grain turning does not need to include the center of the log -- it can be off to one side of center so that it does not include the pith.

Your results may vary. As we might expect, the stain shows the impact of sanding to a greater degree. The big surprise here is what happens at grit where the color actually appears darker. This result was confirmed with a second round of testing so it is what it is.

But why it is….. What kind of goober stains walnut?! Well, I do. Even in these stained samples, after grit the samples all look the same to me. While I would have preferred something like maple for the blonde wood test, poplar is all I had in the scrap bin. And once again, we see that same phenomenon we observed in the Sapele Stain samples where the grit is actually darker than the grit sample.

As expected, the stain does a better job of showing the impact of End Grain Wood Turning On sanding to higher grits and this Poplar set in particular show some significant color differences between , and grit. But once again, at grit the sample gets darker. Like the Sapele samples this test was repeated with the same results.

Magic is the only obvious explanation. I hope the video and images provide you with enough data points so you can draw your own conclusions. Hopefully you found this information useful. The Wood Whisperer is proudly sponsored by brands that Marc trusts.

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