Wood Turning

Yeah on that file business .FWIW the very best hunting knife I ever owned was made from a repurposed file that came from Solgen Germany .It would hold an edge like a razor .My dear old dad lost it some place on the side of a mountain in Colorado.

An oven with a "soak heat " is probabley the best method of annealing but there are others .One is to flame it up to about 1400 degrees in a forge then toss it in a bucket of powdered lime .It will still be hot to the touch after about two days .

Then again it depends on the file .Some are so brittle just dropping them will break them .Some like a black smiths hoof rasp you could probabaly use for a hammer .

Often times you can find heavy old files at flea markets etc for next to nothing .
 
I received the pepper mill from that Stig made for me out of the bda cedar I sent him.

It is BEAUTIFUL and the finish is superlative!
It has made it back to Tasmania with me, passed quarantine with admiring remarks from the officers. Now to get some peppercorns and use it. Right now its sitting on the mantlepiece being admired.

THANK you Stig!
 
Most welcome, Fi.

It was a true pleasure working with that wood.

And my shirt smells of it as I write this.
That bag of shavings in the closet sure works wonderfully:)
 
Stig, is holly any good for turning? I have some biggish chunks sat in the yard (up to 400mm diameter)
 
Yes it is very good. Dense, easy to work, but it discolors very quickly. Some people vaccum dry it to keep that lovely white color.
 
Here is a black acacia (Acacia melanoxylon[\i]) from a tree we cut down a few months ago.

I caught an edge either because I was being careless or because I'm new and don't know what I'm doing! Either way, now I have to shave off the top inch of what was otherwise on its way to becoming an amazing bowl.

I love the color of this wood

ImageUploadedByTapatalk HD1377026162.326927.jpg


love
nick
 
Nick, practice some shearscraping.
That way you can get a much better surface straight off the tool.
Cuts down on sanding time and gives a better end result.
 
That's a native Tasmania timber Nick, treat it well!
Quite sought after over here for carving, floors, cabinets etc. local name is Blackwood.
 
Epoxy mixed with various colored powders, like those used to dye concrete, can make for some good fill of voids. You van also mix in wood dust with the epoxy. It generally dries a different color from when before it has cured, except black, so a sample try first might be good. Some dried epoxy you can pare away with a chisel, but too hard stuff will crack. Mistakes are a bummer, but repairing them well is also an art.
 
It's all done. I just chiseled it off. Even if I fixed the crack, I'd have a large gouge to contend with.

The bowl looks pretty sexy, I gotta admit!
 
stig said:
Including a branch center as close to the edge of the bowl as you are doing, will almost certainly cause a split when it dries out...
Click to expand...

I'm learning that. I've been intentionally experimenting with it so that I can learn more about how the local woods react. That piece of lemon euc, by the way- is totally dried out now and didn't crack a tiny bit nor did it warp in the slightest.

There are many others for which the same cannot be said.
 
I've had mixed experiences myself drying Black Acacia. In the slab form it tends to be pretty stable, but sometimes I have run into material that went nuts while drying and warped all to hell. I don't recall when the trees were cut, but I do remember some of it being from older trees that you would probably figure to be more stable, but that wasn't the case. Hard to figure sometimes.... My favorite wood for drying without problems is Walnut, without a doubt one of the finest woods for woodwork, and it dries pretty quick as well. Nick, I know that there is a species in the southland there that is different from both the Claro that is up north, and the Eastern Black Walnut. It might be similar to English Walnut, which although tends to be lighter in color that what is more readily available in the states, still it can be primo stuff. It might even be English Walnut in Southern California, or a close derivative. Maybe try getting some of that wood for turning if you have the chance, you could be pleased with the results.
 
Once I get the use of my right shoulder/arm back I will be cutting a nice walnut log up for turning blanks... I'll send you one Nick.
 
Great offer, Pat! Most of the Walnut that the wood dealers sell is kiln dried. It's a shame really, so much of the fine color is lost that way. They can dry slower in kilns and it isn't so bad, but it is less convenient for them than baking it quick. The great thing about Walnut is that you can dry it outdoors with predictable good results. Here is some air dried Claro Walnut, someone ordered a desk for their young son. Really top grade material that I was lucky to get. The other major Walnut species in the states isn't so wild as Claro, but when air dried it can also be extremely nice. Works easily too, certainly fine for turning.
 

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Yes, MB, made that too many years ago when in the states. I had a customer that really liked Claro Walnut. He advanced me some money to find a bunch of it for future projects that he anticipated having built. It worked out real well, some large trees that had been cut and milled came into focus, I think from an estate in the Palo Alto region of N. California. It sat in my shop and the stack of wood grew smaller over the years as I made things for his home and office. I still have three three wide boards of it, would like to make a table for myself some day out of it.

Thanks for the compliments. :)
 
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