End grain tear out

[PaulH]

Just been attempting to turn my first small bowl out of a piece of monkey puzzle kindly donated by a fellow member. The grain runs across the diameter of the bowl so I encounter end grain twice on each rotation when shaping the bowl edge.

I am getting a lot of tear out on the end grain and as a result have a lot of sanding to do to finish the bowl. I'm assuming the tear our is caused by one or more of the following:

1) Blunt tools (or at least not as sharp as they should be - but they are as sharp as I can currently get them and they do work well for spindle turning which requires very little or even no sanding, so is this "sharp enough"?)
2) A difficult piece of wood (Is monkey puzzle difficult to work?)
3) Bad technique (I'm an absolute beginner....)

Any advice to overcome this problem would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Paul.

 

[Blister]

Hi there

1, tools must be sharp
2, when shaping you can take bigger cuts

3 but when getting to the end the last few passes must be very fine and a fairly fast speed

you should then end up with something that requires sanding through the grades

120 / 240 / 320 / 400 etc

you cant sand out bad chisel marks

hope this`helps

 

[CHJ]

Paul, you may need to resharpen your bowl gouge before each of the last couple of passes.

Have you tried stiffening the end grain with sanding sealer as you are nearing final shape, and re-apply before the final couple of very light passes?

Also try "wetting" the end grain fibres, wet with a drop of water or liquid detergent, if you intend to oil the finished article wet the fibres with finishing oil, no two specimens may behave the same but rarely is anything lost by experimenting.

 

[TEP]

Hi Paul.

Don't understand how you are turning the Monkey Puzzle, usually with that tree you work on end grain running with the lathe bed. That way the branch stubs radiate out from the centre so as you have the branch heart wood showing around the side.

Unless of course you are using the lower half of the tree which has very little of the branch wood showing, which is generally a dirty white in colour and is a very hard wood to finish because of it being so soft. In my experience even softer than pine.

If you are using the soft wood do as Chas has suggested to stiffen the fibers, but also shape the bowl more so as you are cutting the fibers at a better angle than head on. Example more of a curve on the sides, flat bottom - flat sides usually gives end grain tear out in most woods if the grain is running diagonally across the blank.

 

[geoff_tulip]

hi paul
with most bowls you will get some kind of distinction in finish on the two sides of the bowl with end grain - at least until you turn a few. the end grain will require more sanding tahn the rest - usually - and can be a real pain -
if you are gettting more tahn this and are maybe getting chunks out rather than flattened grain then you may need to look at you technique - it would be a first if you had got it perfect first time !!
get a few pieces of scrap and turn them down to nothing - repeating the curve of the bowl again and again - boring but great practice and save frustration at torn grain.....
check your toolrest is close to your work and there is no tool vibration

dont forget my offer - anytime - bring the bowl and gouge and we can run through a bowl....

 

[PaulH]

Thanks to one and all for the suggestions - at least I have several things to try and have at last found a use for sanding sealer!

Paul.