Hi all,
I need help again. I plan on asking at the next turning meeting and finding someone who can take a look at my technique, but I'm impatient and thought I'd get anyone's ideas here in the meantime.
I was practicing some cuts and shapes on some semi-wet dogwood from my yard (tree died naturally 1 year ago). I was just trying to make a mushroom from one of the limbs, full section, about 4" in diameter. Everything went well until I got to the top, where I was cutting on end grain trying to round it out. I simply could not avoid catches in this particular area, and have launched this piece out of the chuck at least 5 times. the end seems VERY irregular while it's cutting and almost pulls the tool into it. I even used the Easy Finisher (which I'm trying to avoid until I learn the traditional tools first) with a really light touch. Still launched it. I'm new at this, and don't know what to expect, but this seems excessive in the catch category.
Is cutting end grain on wet(ish) wood usually this difficult/dangerous? Just trying to figure out if it's the wood, the tools or the turner.
Thanks in advance for any advice!...
Dan