Rosewood woes...

[Richard Link]

Finally got a bit of time to play on the lathe the other day. I'm new at this business and have turned about 4 bowls to date so I'm hardly an expert. Two of the bowls were from green wood and the third was a block of dry curly maple. All fun without major issues although I clearly have a ways to go with my skills. This weekend I bought a small block of Indian Rosewood at Rockler to turn a small bowl. Had an absolutely terrible time with catches, exploding rims, miserable hollowing...no fun at all. I currently have something that looks like a nuclear bomb went off on the lathe. Yet I look online and Rosewood is supposed to be a "joy to turn."

Seems strange but my experience with this wood was horrible. Is this a common problem with rosewood or should I switch to knitting.... Tools were sharp and nothing fancy on the form. I'll admit, I'm a bit skittish about going back to it without body armor....

Rick

[Glenn Hodges]

Richard you need to find a turning club. You are probably having some small problem which is magnifying by the time it gets to a fast turning piece of wood. A person in a club can give you some hands on help after he or she watches what you are doing. It is difficult for us to help your problem sight un seen. I have found it helpfull to put the gouge up to the wood and turn the piece by hand to see what happens, sometimes this will give me an answer to what the problem is. Good luck, and find someone locally to help.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Glenn hit the nail on the head. Sometimes these woods that are easy to turn are a little grabby for lack of a better word and therefore you gouge presentation has to be pretty good with the bevel rubbing. I am guessing that may be your problem. I would do as Glenn suggested and find a seasoned turner or club. Then they can watch and correct any problems.

[Barry Elder]

Hi Rick,

From what I read in this forum there must be several clubs near(a relative term) where you live and they have a lot of great turners who give good advice just like the guys above. Having a mentor show you in person is a great investment of your time as it makes learning happen much faster. Keep turnin' and learnin'!

[Richard Link]

Sounds like good advice. I'll look into the local clubs. Thanks for the input.

Rick

[Bill Wyko]

Just curious, what kind of tool were you using to turn with.

[Rich Souchek]

Richard,
One of the Houston area turning clubs is http://www.gulfcoastwoodturners.org/. We meet 3rd Saturday somewhere in Houston, check out the newsletter.
That said, there is a fair number of Houstonians that turn and can help at the beginning.

What part of Houston do you live at?
Rich S.

[Richard Link]

Lets see....

The turning tool was a 1/2" fingernail-style bowl gouge for the most part.

I live in Bellaire (essentially right in the middle of Houston, inside the loop).

Thanks for everyone's input.

R

[Dean Thomas]

Someone at the Gulf Coast Turners meeting will help you figure it out!

Most of this stuff, especially with dry, hard, dense woods happens because of two reasons: dull tools or bad tool technique. Cutting a bowl out of a piece of wood that might not float (HEAVY & DENSE!!!) means that your tool is cutting into every form of endgrain imaginable. That means special tool techniques. Getting the cutting edge in the wrong place, at the wrong time, at the wrong angle means that you're going to catch, or blow something out. And all of that is before you find any defects in the wood!

If your tools are ground at good angles, and if they really are sharp, the culprit is tool technique. Once you learn some good tool technique(s), you'll find that MOST OF THE TIME, you can cut without catches and without major incidents. The thing is that all it takes is a twitch or a half-second lapse of attention and your good technique becomes a catch. Someone, somewhere recently credited Alan Lacer with saying something like your best cuts are those that are right at the edge of disaster.

Some tools are flexible and can deliver nice, good, or great cuts, all while being pretty forgiving about where you've placed bevel, cutting angles, etc. You really have to WORK at getting a catch with a gouge most of the time, unless you start cutting uphill when you shouldn't, or trying to do something the tool just isn't capable of. A skew, on the other hand, is MUCH less forgiving. You have a sweet spot on the skew that is really pretty small, maybe 25-35% of the length of the edge--maybe. Within that little range, you have fair, good, and better cuts. Outside that little window, you have vengeance waiting to happen!

"Houston, we have a problem." Write again after you've visited the chapter!