Laburnum

[Aled Dafis]

Hi, this is my new stash of Laburnum that I picked up from a friend of mine yesterday, it was blown down in the stormy weather just before christmas.

The logs range from 6-8" in diameter, and are around 4 foot long. (The logs along the bottom of the pic are sycamore, brought around by my neighbour when he heard my chainsaw starting up )

Ripping the first couple of logs lengthways was HARD work for my little chainsaw, so I decided to file the teeth with a straight across profile for ripping for the remaining logs, and the difference was amazing!! The difference could also be seen in the sawdust the saw produced, the ripping teeth produced a fine sawdust as opposed to the chips produced by the standard crosscutting teeth, but the cut progressed quite a bit quicker, I'd guess about 50-70% quicker with a lot less stress on the user. I'll be keeping this chain just for ripping from now on, and buying a new chain for crosscutting.

Cheers
Aled

 

[Bemused]

Some nice wood there Aled, you going to be using it wet or fully converting it?

 

[Blister]

Nice stash :mrgreen:

But I am a bit surprised you did not keep a couple of logs to turn vase type projects :wink:

 

[Aled Dafis]

I would have Allen, but I've never had any luck turning any vase type pieces with the pith still present, they've all split on me. Any tips on how to avoid this??

Also, most of these logs had started decaying in the middle so I decided to use this as a "feature" on bowls.

 

[Blister]

Aled

they've all split on me. Any tips on how to avoid this??

The way I have managed to avoid splitting is to turn in one go to an equal wall thickness including the base

Weigh and record the weight

Then Put the item in a plastic bag with some shaving you turned from the piece , this slows the drying down

Every other day remove from bag , turn bag inside out and re bag with some different shavings or balls of news paper

Keep going until the weight stops reducing

May sound tedious but it only takes a couple of minutes to do :wink:

 

[Dieseldog]

Some nice wood there
Never Turned Laburnum , got given a small bowl from one of my Teachers at my local club
And Fern Britton brougt it at a Fair i was doing in my local Village

 

[Aled Dafis]

Some nice wood there
Never Turned Laburnum , got given a small bowl from one of my Teachers at my local club
And Fern Britton brougt it at a Fair i was doing in my local Village

Laburnum is lovely wood to turn, nice and hard, but turns easily. The stark difference between the light sapwood and the chocolate brown heartwood is lovely. Here's one I prepared eariler...

Cheers
Aled

 

[Aled Dafis]

Aled

they've all split on me. Any tips on how to avoid this??

The way I have managed to avoid splitting is to turn in one go to an equal wall thickness including the base

Weigh and record the weight

Then Put the item in a plastic bag with some shaving you turned from the piece , this slows the drying down

Every other day remove from bag , turn bag inside out and re bag with some different shavings or balls of news paper

Keep going until the weight stops reducing

May sound tedious but it only takes a couple of minutes to do :wink:

I've tried this method but failed, I'll have to try it again and see what happens. Laburnum is particularly prone to splitting at the pith, so I'll have a go with something a little friendlier to start with.

Cheers
Aled

 

[Dieseldog]

Some nice wood there
Never Turned Laburnum , got given a small bowl from one of my Teachers at my local club
And Fern Britton brougt it at a Fair i was doing in my local Village

Laburnum is lovely wood to turn, nice and hard, but turns easily. The stark difference between the light sapwood and the chocolate brown heartwood is lovely. Here's one I prepared eariler...

Cheers
Aled

Thats a nice looking piece of work. =D> ...Do you have a foto of the underside ? just trying to get somenew ideas
(hammer)
Thanks Dave

 

[philb88]

That bowl looks great!

Will it stay that flat as it dries?

 

[Aled Dafis]

Thanks for your kind comments guys.

Dave - Here's a pic of the underneath, it's a complete curve, so the bowl actually wobbles/spins if touched.

The rim is about 8mm thick, it could do with being thinner to be honest, 4 or 5mm would have been better but there's a few worm holes in the sapwood at one corner so I was concerned that taking it any thinner would weaken the corner and result in it breaking up. Here's a profile pic from the side, it sits at an angle due to one side of the rim being slightly longer than the other, I quite like it that way, it adds a little to the overall effect.

Phil - this bowl was actually turned from seasoned Laburnum, it had been in the workshop for at least a couple of years before I turned it. If I were to turn the same bowl from wet wood I'd start by rough turning the shape, but leaving it 10-20% oversize, in fact I'd leave the "flat" rim quite thick as I'd expect it to cup quite a bit when drying. After rough turning I usually leave the bowls in the workshop (very low level heating but dry and insulated) for about a month and then bring the bowl in to the house for say two months to dry thoroughly. I try to weigh my pieces every now and again, and write their weight on the bowl, and as Allen mentioned above, when they stop loosing weight, they're at equilibrium with their surroundings, and therefore "dry".

Cheers
Aled

 

[CHJ]

Whatever you do store it under cover so that it does not get wet, sapwood deteriorates rapidly if wet.

 

[Aled Dafis]

Whatever you do store it under cover so that it does not get wet, sapwood deteriorates rapidly if wet.

Yes that's my job for tomorrow, the pile is still out on the lawn at the moment, and it's raining! They'll be safely undercover by tomorrow night.

 

[Jacob]

Whatever you do store it under cover so that it does not get wet, sapwood deteriorates rapidly if wet.

But the heart wood is extremely durable, rot and insect resistant. I found this by accident when chopping up some rotten old laburnam logs for firewood and finding perfect heartwood under crumbly sapwood.
Small pieces are excellent for tool handles. It goes a lot darker than the colour of Aled's bowl.

 

[CHJ]

....But the heart wood is extremely durable, rot and insect resistant. I found this by accident when chopping up some rotten old laburnam logs for firewood and finding perfect heartwood.
Small pieces are excellent for tool handles. It goes a lot darker than the colour of Aled's bowl.

Yep, got a whole stash of 'cores' awaiting consumption, will go some way to offsetting the frustration of finding fungal growth and soft sapwood on the logs that weren't protected well enough.

 

[Dieseldog]

Thanks for posting up a pic of the underside but my brain is playing tricks on me
as the underside looks like a bowl to me ...looks weird :?

 

[condeesteso]

Blister - your managed drying tips (bag, shavings etc. ) much appreciated. New to me but very handy, and makes total sense of course.

 

[Aled Dafis]

Thanks for posting up a pic of the underside but my brain is playing tricks on me
as the underside looks like a bowl to me ...looks weird :?

Yes, looking at it again it does look like it's concave, but the "bowl" is in fact coming out at you, i.e. this is the underside of the bowl with the underside of the flat rim showing.

Cheers
Aled

 

[gregmcateer]

Aled,
That bowl looks lovely.
re ripping using the chainsaw - could you post a picture of how you mean re sharpening - ie the tool you use and the position against the chain?
I am having a nightmare ripping logs and your solution sounds great.
many thanks in advance,
Greg

 

[Chrispy]

I always think of Laburnum as the home grown rosewood, very similar to work with and correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's of the same family too!