Pear blank

[woodfarmer]

Today I roughed out a little bowl from some green pear wood. It is straight off the 1/2" gouge although I did wax it to slow down drying for when it gets finished off. Really like the wood it deepens in colour quite quickly so in a few days will be much redder.

 

[winemaker]

Nice

 

[SteveF]

fantastic looking bowl \ wood

Steve

 

[woodfarmer]

fantastic looking bowl \ wood

Steve

Yes, I was -very- lucky being given a stack of green pear even though it was 200+ mile round trip with the trailer. It cuts beautifully, completely different to the oak. shavings came off like a roll of ribbon unwinding.

Today I started another odd piece of a very hard and knotty bit of wood. No idea how long it will take.

 

[Paul.J]

How you gonna store it now its been roughed out WF?
I should get as much green turned as possible and try differing ways of drying em out.

 

[woodfarmer]

How you gonna store it now its been roughed out WF?
I should get as much green turned as possible and try differing ways of drying em out.

I have a big wooden box about 4ft by 2 x 2. My plan is to store all the rough turned blanks in it surrounded by wood shavings. in a cool shaded outbuilding. will cover the box with some paper chicken food bags and pray. I am hoping that a lot of them in a box together will provide enough mass to slow things up, plus they will all be waxed.

Today I discovered for myself the advantage of using a chuck instead of a faceplate. I had an odd piece of wooden gate/fence post which had lots of knots in it and I hoped it would look good when turned. Turns out it was more flawed than I thought. what I had hoped would have been 8-9" bowl is now down to just under 6" and the screw holes are now in an awkward place It could end up as a tea light).

 

[Paul.J]

Sounds a good plan WF,but as i say i would try varying ways to dry the blanks.
There are many ways to try and dry the blanks.
You can finish a blank off thin and let it dry wet in a cardboard box and see what shape it ends up as there will be some movement in the drying stage.
Try wrapping in newspaper,Chas as photos showing this method and as a good success rate i believe.
Try a plastic bag making sure you turn it inside out daily to remove the moisture from the wood,when there is no moisture showing the blank is ready.
These are a few of the cheaper options.
Let us know how you get on with it all and don't be surprised if you have a lot of failure i know i have in the past,and good luck.

 

[hooch]

Very nice bowl
Don't forget to post the final project probably in many months time lol

 

[woodndrum]

There is a lot of free, and tested information on the web about using a microwave to drive the moisture content down. No advice what to do /say if you get caught.
Be very careful to clear up all the waste when turning green wood. There is enough moisture in the shavings to rust tools overnight if in contact with metal.
My favourite use of green fruit woods is to turn directly to a finished shape and wall thickness about 5 to 10mm. Then leave several in a box to dry out in a warm dry place. There will be a lot of movement in the wood, some will split and be useless, but others will twist and distort into pleasing shapes, which would have been impossible to turn.

 

[woodfarmer]

I will try to remember Hooch.

Woodndrum, I will try one today, had a serious chainsaw cut in the blank I was preparing yesterday, close inspection of it in relation to the grain leads me to believe it will split, so it will be somewhat smaller than I had hoped, Be nice to finish something off instead of just roughing blanks, although it is giving me much needed practice.