New wood. !!

[Bob Bouis]

The last one does look like hickory, but around here it would be heavily degraded after sitting for an extended period of time.

Drying wood as logs just doesn't work in my experience. Within a month or two you need to turn it, cut it up into smaller blanks to dry, or toss it, or it will seriously degrade. Cracks, bugs [worms], fungus discoloration. Those logs already look pretty bad but they can still get worse.

I write this and I have a huge pile of wood in my driveway. Oughta get to it I guess.

[Bill Jobe]

The last one does look like hickory, but around here it would be heavily degraded after sitting for an extended period of time.

Drying wood as logs just doesn't work in my experience. Within a month or two you need to turn it, cut it up into smaller blanks to dry, or toss it, or it will seriously degrade. Cracks, bugs [worms], fungus discoloration. Those logs already look pretty bad but they can still get worse.

I write this and I have a huge pile of wood in my driveway. Oughta get to it I guess.

Thank you, Bob. Yes, I grabbed some big pieces and perhaps I should have had the guy cut them down smaller. These pieces cannot be turned on my current lathe. They'll have to wait til I get the bigger lathe I'm planning to by. Since most of what I dragged home was green, yet not sealed I had him cut a couple of inches off each end, then as soon as he shut off his chainsaw I painted the ends right away.
For the most part I have no wood that is dry enough to turn, so I pick up relatively small pieces at a small local mill that has been kiln dried.

[Bill Jobe]

John, thank you for the wealth of information.
I actually bought my granddaughter a sterio microscope for here birthday several years ago because at the time she was interested in bugs and small crestations, so I think I'll borrow it, look at some shavings of this wood to determine what they are and go from there.

[Bob Bouis]

Sounds like a chainsaw should be on your list. It's really far more valuable to a woodturner than...just about anything. You don't need the precision of a bandsaw to cut wood for turning.

While I don't recommend it (I have one, it sucks for serious use), a cheap electric chainsaw can get it done. I think I got the 14-amp (not 14", 14 amp) corded "Worx" saw for about $50. Don't bother with the cheap gas saws. Just make sure you read up on how to use it before starting.

[John K Jordan]

John, thank you for the wealth of information.
I actually bought my granddaughter a sterio microscope for here birthday several years ago because at the time she was interested in bugs and small crestations, so I think I'll borrow it, look at some shavings of this wood to determine what they are and go from there.

Shavings may not help. Cut a small transverse section, no more than 1/2" x 1/2" by whatever you can hold on to is needed but bigger will work. I like about 3/4" wide (since it's easier to write on) and I just shave one part clean. If using a microscope instead of a hand lens it helps if all the samples are about the same thickness to minimize focusing. If the wood is dry and/or very hard, soak in water for a while. Use a new single-edged razor blade (I buy them in bulk) and shave off all saw marks in a section using a slicing motion until you are down to the clean wood. Some references say to sand with fine paper but this leaves dust in the pores, hides the tyloses, and rounds over detail.

A magnifier or LOW power microscope should show crisp pores and rays, like the elm photo. (The power should be no higher that 15x - don't try to use a laboratory microscope which typically has 40x minimum magnification.) A good reference book will help narrow down the type of wood. The Identifying Wood book by Hoadley, the online Wood Database, and the database published, Wood! Identifying and Using Hundreds of Woods Worldwide by Eric Meier can help.

If you start this, do it for every wood your acquire, especially if you know the species for sure. Save photos if possible but definitely save the wood samples and write the species on them. If stumped, send a second sample to the Forest Products Laboratory. You will gradually develop your own reference library and be able to quickly compare samples to new wood. Then you can just shake your head when someone posts a picture of a board and asks what it is.

This is "hands down" the best lens/loupe I have found. Inexpensive, good optics, 10x, internal scale, evenly lighted, even comes with batteries.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CMDIOBK
I think I bought 8 of these so far and give them to friends and have the in the shop and house. Great for splinters, spider ID, currency, sharp tool evaluation, ...
magnifier.jpg

JKJ

[Bill Jobe]

Sounds like a chainsaw should be on your list. It's really far more valuable to a woodturner than...just about anything. You don't need the precision of a bandsaw to cut wood for turningu.

While I don't recommend it (I have one, it sucks for serious use), a cheap electric chainsaw can get it done. I think I got the 14-amp (not 14", 14 amp) corded "Worx" saw for about $50. Don't bother with the cheap gas saws. Just make sure you read up on how to use it before starting.

Yep, got a 14" gas.
My real problem (aside from chainsaw) is that I have no way of roughing anything. At the present time all I have is a 10" swing and moving up to 22". I suppose I could rough the outside.
Perhaps I'll do just that with the bigger pieces....and a couple that need to be cut in half or even 3 sections.

I may need to hire an electrician because my electrician son-in-law works a lot of hours. No way to tell when he'll be free to run the 220 to the garage and I don't think the wife would put up with a 0766 sitting just outside the laundry room.

Oh well, Grizzly's website tells me there isn't one available to ship anyway.

[John K Jordan]

Sounds like a chainsaw should be on your list. It's really far more valuable to a woodturner than...just about anything. You don't need the precision of a bandsaw to cut wood for turning.

While I don't recommend it (I have one, it sucks for serious use), a cheap electric chainsaw can get it done. I think I got the 14-amp (not 14", 14 amp) corded "Worx" saw for about $50. Don't bother with the cheap gas saws. Just make sure you read up on how to use it before starting.

I disagree about the bandsaw. Yes, I use chainsaws to cut round chunks out of trees and occasionally cut them in half. But if it's not too big, cutting a log section in half and trimming is quicker with the bandsaw and far safer than the chainsaw. As I mentioned earlier, I make a lot of spindle/box/vessel blanks up to about 5-6" square but also make most of my bowl and platter blanks with just the bandsaw.

If I had a friend with a chainsaw who would cut the logs into sections for me, I'd get a bandsaw first. I think it is the most versatile power tool in the shop, not only for woodturning but for making jigs, shelves, and more. For woodturning, as long as my log or section is less than 12" in one dimension and not over about 3' long I can process the entire piece on my bandsaw from log to bowl or other blanks without touching the chainsaw. Several times I've had friends without bandsaws come over with a truck full of log sections and go home with the bed full of bowl blanks. Of course, if I wanted to prepare big bowl blanks (up to 24" in diameter), I would use the chainsaw to cut them in half before I moved to the bandsaw.

I use an 18" Rikon but did the same type of processing with a 14" Delta with riser block, just not as fast.

Besides making a bowl blank almost perfectly round so it will fit on the lathe, for me a real value of dimensioning with a bandsaw is it exposes all sides of the wood cleanly so I can evaluate both the soundness and the color/figure. These are things hard to evaluate with a chainsawn surface. Cutting thin slices off the endgrain of a blank and bending them can expose tight cracks and checks that could be a real problem when turning.

After my turning blanks are dry and done warping I usually skim all sides again with the bandsaw to expose clean wood, check for defects created by the drying, I cut any defects away or mark them with a red Sharpie so I won't be unpleasantly surprised when turning some day.

Although I use the bandsaw more than I do the chainsaw it is best, if possible, to have both. I use a Stihl electric around the shop. Although it is not cheap, I can highly recommend the Stihl. I have three gas powered Stihl chainsaws to compare and the electric is definitely no slouch. If I wanted to run a cord I could easily fell and clean up trees with it. I like being able to use it inside the shop too. It is far safer, quieter, starts instantly every time, and is way less trouble than a gas saw.

Another thing I keep handy in my shop is a very sharp hatchet to clean up lumps and such from a log section so it will sit nicely on the bandsaw table, or flatten a section of a bowl blank for my screw chuck or faceplate. Some people use a hand or electric plane for this. And don't forget, people used to, and some still do, use a bow saw by hand to prepare bowl blanks. You can do a great deal with the right hand saw. It would be pretty easy to rough out blanks with a good bow saw so they would fit on a 10" lathe.

BTW, I keep a different kind of bandsaw behind the barn, occasionally handy for woodturning! But it's almost like cheating...

sawmill_small.jpg sawmill_blocks.jpg

JKJ

[Bill Jobe]

Does fresh-cut cedar require sealing of ends?

[John Keeton]

Bill, in my opinion, all fresh cut wood and most kiln dried wood should be end sealed if it is not going to be turned immediately. Even cutting off a piece of kiln dried wood can expose the ends to a change in moisture content and best to slow that process, whether it is losing moisture or gaining it. There are also structural forces that are at play and cutting the wood can release stress.

[John K Jordan]

Does fresh-cut cedar require sealing of ends?

Require? I don't know. I always paint a coat of Anchorseal on the end grain. My cedar turning blanks don't warp and rarely get end checks. However, I don't know if this is because I seal it or if it would not crack even if I didn't seal it.

For turning blanks, I cut blocks with the bandsaw as mentioned before, seal the ends, and stack the loosely to dry. I haven't paid much attention to when various sizes are dry since I have plenty that has been drying for many years and add more periodically.

JKJ