Need help with green wood

[xraymtb]

Thanks to a local tree surgeon I've been given a few logs of what I believe is Yew, cut down at the weekend.

I've had a play tonight with a piece and never realised until now just how wet wood can be!!! Taking it down to round wasnt a problem and I loved seeing those long strings pouring off the lathe.

My question is what next? I quickly turned a small vase shape but found it almost too easy to cut and struggled not to remove too much. I also left a really poor finish on end grain.

Does anyone have general tips on green turning or specifics as to how to successfully shape something?

 

[orchard]

I think Yew's toxic mate, so be especially careful whilst wet maybe !

 

[CHJ]

If you are turning green then turn thin and even thickness throughout, then watch it move as it dries.
Alternate is to turn it thick or uneven and fully expect it to split as it dries.

Turned thin and soaked in Lemon Oil appears to help on the anti split front.

 

[moby]

i did the same with some cherry.

it split down the entire length, approx 9''

apparently wood shrinks 3 ways, in length in width and radially. unfortunately radially is the greatest and cause the splits.
splts are caused by rapid drying, so sealing the end grain on logs 'should' help.

i think you should allow a year per inch thickness of log for drying. :shock:

 

[EnErY]

I Turned A Spalted Silver Birch up Woodys Place Before Xmas put It In A Plastic Bag withj The Shavings Left It And Im Now Gonna sand And Polish It as Soon As My Stitches Come Out Of My Hands After My Unfortunate Accident And repair With surgery It has Been Turned fairly Thick Not moved Much And looks good that Was end grain Shall Post It Next Week .
i Have Taken A Liking To Wet Wood Turning And Have Also Turned Yew Excatly the same Some Bits Do Move But it Makes It Look Unusual well at least I Think So I Turn end Grain With Tools made With Carboly tips of Which are Also used For deep Hollowing This is The ToolI like turning end grain with Both Wet And dry
also I Use It For A multitude of sins even pen turning i have the tool in 4 different sizes
Good Luck And Enjoy I Do
Regards
Bill

 

[CHJ]

....i think you should allow a year per inch thickness of log for drying. :shock:

And the rest, that's an oft quoted guide for slabbed/planked wood with free air circulation in log form it will take longer.

Yes most definately seal ends ASAP minutes not even hours exposed end grain will start to split.

There are some notes on storing/drying green wood in the help sticky at the top of the section.

 

[Tazmaniandevil]

I do a lot of green turning. I love watching things change shape as they dry. You inevitably lose some of your work through cracking, but enough survives to make it interesting. I rough turn stuff too, pack the piece in a brown paper bag with the wet shavings and store in the airing cupboard.
Depending on the wood, there are sometimes fairly nasty splits to contend with. Experiment with fillers though. It makes the finished work interesting. I use epoxy, car body filler (with different colours of hardener), and even this stuff.
The airing cupboard speeds up the drying, but increases the risk of cracks.

 

[Spindle]

Hi

Regarding turning green wood:

I would recommend using freshly sharpened cutting tools wherever possible, (not scrapers / tools used in the trail), and ensure you dry everything thouroughly afterwards to keep rust away from tools and equipment.

Some of the green yew I've turned in the past has developed splits as I've been turning it - it can be that fast!!

Regards Mick

 

[CHJ]

Mike, another approach that is the norm for many turners of green wood is to rough turn and dry the piece before finishing.

This entails turning the piece to the basic form you intend, once again the even thickness is important. Expect it to distort to an oval, a 200mm bowl will typically move 15mm out of round so leave enough wall thickness to allow recovery.


Once turned, wrap the outer of the bowl whatever in thick paper or several layers of newspaper and place the item somewhere where it can have reasonable air movement but gentle warmth.

(for a bowl, inverted on spacers or an old cake rack I find best )
The location is all down to you finding the best place in your setup. Main thing is to provide them with a localised even humidity location, the aim is to achieve the same rate, or at least a complimentary rate of moisture loss from all surfaces.

A sample of what I'm talking about can be seen in the bottom images of this page

Here's some stacked in my conservatory, other folks just sling then on a shed shelf for a few weeks or months.

 

[tekno.mage]

Turning wood green can be fun - but unless you are very skilled at keeping the wall thickness of your item thin and very even, it's highly likely that the item will split as it dries :-( You have already discovered that it is difficult to get a good finish on wet wood (especially the end grain).

What a lot of turners do is to rough turn items from green wood, then leave them to dry for weeks, months or even years before finish turning the items. Some of these rough turned items will split, some won't and most will distort in shape! You can slow down the splitting by painting pva on any exposed end grain and knots after rough turning as this slows down the rapid dying of the end grain which so often leads to splits. The main benefit of rough turning green wood is that it speeds up the drying time (and gives you the fun of easier turning and long shavings!)

Green wood is also great for practising on as it cuts so much more easily - and the second part of your question was how to shape something on the lathe. This is definitely down to practise, but you can help your self by having a sketch of what you want to make to hand so you can keep an eye on it whilst turning and hopefully copy the shape you want. For more accuracy you could cut out a cardboard template of the shape you want and use this to keep testing the shape you are cutting until it fits the template.

 

[mikeyew2]

I was lucky to get some yew log too, about 9" diameter. There is an interesting section a couple of feet long, flattened to a D shape. The log was cut through half way along this section for ease of transport.
I'm a self taught turner and often spend time wondering which way to align the bowl I intend to make from the log. Given the naturally occurring semi circular section, does anyone have an opinion regarding the options - natural edge or rim towards core?
I sealed the logs and they look split free so far, but I have also experienced the speed that yew can split.
Any help appreciated.

 

[CHJ]

.....I'm a self taught turner and often spend time wondering which way to align the bowl I intend to make from the log. Given the naturally occurring semi circular section, does anyone have an opinion regarding the options - natural edge or rim towards core?
.....

Log Orientation for Turning PDF

 

[mikeyew2]

Thanks for this pdf Chas, it looks ideal. I'll be tempted to make one of each example.
Mike

 

[sammo]

Hi all - I was given a mixture of green logs, mainly Oak; and been wondering what to do with it all; I have so far been using the non-oak logs (and I have no idea what they are) to practice on; and this has been a lot of fun.

However after reading this on Saturday I am going to paint the ends and sort them all out so that I am not left with a whole lot of wood for the fire pit.

Chris