Thank you to all the Woodchucks who have shared their skills at our monthly demos. The art/craft of woodturning has many, many different ways of turning firewood into beauty. As a woodturner, I have barely scratched the surface of the craft. I am just barely reaching out past simple turning skills to adding some carving. Past that, there is off-center turning.  There is painted decoration.  There is adding other materials.  When I turn the pages of American
Woodturner, I’m amazed at the skills displayed there. There are so many intricate items, composed of multi-axis
turning with carving and painting, I don’t know if I can get near them.  So, when Nick, Dave, Janet, Russ, and Mike Glod and others do demos for us, I am truly thankful that we can step up past the simple concepts we all use.

Wood and Edges

The hardness, toughness, and porousness of wood is a factor we have to deal with when we use the stuff for
various objects. Burls, as an example, can have several different textures and hardnesses within fractions of an
inch. Burls can also have hidden fissures which make blow-outs a real danger. Different sharpening angles work well with different wood hardnesses Generally, the harder the wood, the steeper angle you want on your gouge. Soft wood can be handled with a narrower angle on the gouge.  Regardless of the blade angle, the sharper the tool, the cleaner your cut will be. With variable-hardness woods, like spalted maple and burls, my advice is to use a steep-angled gouge 45 degrees or more, use a high spin rate, and take shallow cuts. By a high spin rate, I mean close to the high end for the diameter of your workpiece. Remember, the larger the diameter and the more out-of-round
of your workpiece, the slower your turn rate needs to be for safety.  I intend to do some more scientific testing of woods and gouges in my own shop so I can make some honest statements on how to get the best out of my tools. Maybe next month?

If you want better information on any aspects of turning, particularly safety, a good first step is to contact one of the listed mentors on the back page of “Chatter”. The next good step is to look up American Association of  Woodturners. There is much free info available on the website. And it can’t hurt to join, either.

Arny

Last modified: June 5, 2018