Norfolk Island Pine

[Brian Brown]

A friend called today and asked me if I would teach him how to turn. Talk about the blind leading the blind! His in-laws are from Hawaii, and run a gift shop. They are looking for somebody who can supply some NIP turnings for inventory. They have 33 acres with some NIP trees that have to be removed, and are willing to ship the wood if he can turn it. I searched this forum, and got a few answers to my questions, but the answers generated even more questions. For those of you that have experience with NIP:

How similar is this wood to turning regular pine, especially regarding softness and pitch?
If it is similar, would it be a good idea to use regular pine for practice wood.
How hard is it for a beginner to turn NIP to the very thin walls that become translucent?
How long does a piece have to soak in Danish oil to attain the translucent quality?
How bad is the cracking from the pith, and how do you stop it?
Are the knots prone to shrinking and falling out?
What other problems or issues do we need to watch for when using NIP?

Sorry to ask so many questions, but with the high cost of shipping, I want to waste as little of this wood as possible.

Thanks for the help.

[Jim Becker]

NIP is popular for turning end-grain bowls and vessels that are oil finished for unique transparent effect. Ron Kent is very well known for these, for example. (look in his gallery pages...the glowing stuff is NIP...and he also has a techniques area that will be useful to you) You can get a similar effect from some kinds of pine, such as ponderosa pine. Turning it is just like any similar soft material...extra sharp tooling is not optional.

As an aside, there is likely a good market for this wood with many turners which sounds good in this case, since no one or three turners is going to be able to turn 33 acres worth of the stuff in any reasonable time frame!

[ryan kelley]

Lately I have been turning NIP, What I have found is that it is best to rough out and then soak atleast over night in a bath solution of dishwashing soap( NOT the detergent for machines) then finish turn. Ron Kent explains this on his web site. Sharp tools are a must. I soak mine in a home made danish oil 50/50 BLO and mineral spirits. You need to get thin 1/8"-3/16" max. soak a day dry a day,rub down with 0000 steel wool, keep going until you get the results you want.

[sascha gast]

the advise you got so far is perfect. here is my way of turning NIP

rough turn:

I turn the bowls to about 1" thick, maybe a bit less. then I soak them in a 44 gallon trash can that I have filled with about 15 gallons of water and 15 gallons of Costco dishwashing liquid. that will soften the fibre and prevent cracking and warping. it also smells good when turning. I usually just dump the roughs in there and pull them out as I need them, usually about 24 hours.


finish turning:

I sneak up on the shape, looking for what the wood wants me to do. then, once I am about 1/4" thick, I finish the inside all the way and sand it to 320. most of the time I use a steady rest because the wood is very soft and wants to vibrate, so use light cuts.
then I sneak up on the final thickness from the outside. I leave the very top of the rim about 3/16 to 1/4" thick to have some heft to it, it also looks nicer to give it a bit of a shape.
once I'm getting close to 1/8", I just stick a light inside and turn the lights in the shop off and from here I go by the color of the glow. I make sure the bowl also glows all the way into the foot. be careful with the rim, finish it first, then stay below it, it vibrates too much.

then i part it off, sand the foot and burn my signature in it.

the I soak it in danish oil mix in my 55 gallon trash can I have about 45 gallons of the stuff.

24 hours in oil, 24 hours out. wetsand when you pull it out.
I usually do about 15-20 submersions.

afer that I let them dry for a week or so and then finish sand and buff.

I wait 2-3 weeks if I decide to spray lacquer.

that's it in a nutshell

hope that helps.
wish I could get my hands on some NIP

[Thomas Canfield]

Brian,

I just returned from a visit to the Big Island of Hawaii, and had a couple of pieces of NIP shipped back in flat rate boxes, but that limits one to about 5" diameter material and you miss the impact of the larger translucent pieces. I don't think it would be practical to ship the NIP to the mainland, turn, and then ship finish items back. There are a lot of excellent turners there in Hawaii doing NIP and doing gallery quality work. Kelly Dunn has an excellent webb page showing his work in NIP and other. I wish you lots of luck. The finishing process is quite a process and really tells the story, but looks like a fairly good learning curve required.

[Thomas Canfield]

Should have included Kelly Dunn's site: www.jkellydunn.com/

It definitely is worth a visit.

[Dick Strauss]

Brian,
Trust what Sascha tells you. He has done lots of museum quality NIP turnings so I think he speaks from experience. Here is his woodturning homepage so you can see some of his pieces:

http://www.pbase.com/saschagast/woodturning

You may want to consider USPS flat rate boxes (a 12x12x5.5 box for $12.95 or a 11x8.5x5.5 box for $8.95) for the first few shipments of wood. These rates should be good from Hawaii and will get you started without much initial investment.

I would love to try some of this wood and I'm sure others here would as well. As others have suggested, your friend's family may consider selling some of the wood to outlets such as Craft Supplies USA, etc. They could ship the wood by crate/cargo container to save on shipping.

You don't know it yet but...good luck to you and your friend with your new joint venture!


Good luck,
Dick