Oak question

Drew Watson

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Location
Salt Spring Island, BC Canada
I recieved a call tonight from my Step brother that some oak had been brought down up the street and asked if I could use some for turning. well I jumped on the chance and drove right over. The rounds were a bit bigger than I expected but we wrestled a couple into the pathfinder in the dark and drove them home with a slight glint of glee in my eyes as I finally have some fresh wood to play with on the lathe. When I arrived home and unloaded the rounds I noticed a slight darker color in the middle of the rounds and I got to thinking why were they brought down and if they are any good at all or did I just waste my time. Advice if there is any would be appreciated.
 

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Cut them down the middle and remove the pith.

Seal the ends and turn when ready.

Oak because of it's coarse grain doesn't take fine detail but I've turned some. My wife loves the stuff I make from oak.
 
The oak I've turned liked to move a lot when drying. Most of it warped, cracked, or both. (These were all pretty big pieces.) When it did survive the process, it resulted in a nice-looking finished product. Like Ken said, do get the pith cut out of those rounds and get it the rest sealed as soon as you can.

And I wouldn't worry too much about the darker brown colors in the middle. Even if it is a disease or some other malady, it might end up looking good in the finished product.
 
Looks just like fresh cut oak is posed to.:thumb:
Nice haul
I turn quite a bit of stuff from oak. But I only use seasoned or kiln dried.
 
Seal it with what? :dunno:

Nearly anything. AnchorSeal is very popular, but cheap latex paint (couple coats) works well, too. I've sealed some blanks with paraffin melted into mineral spirits - that worked very well. Gotta' work like BLAZES, though, 'cause it's gotta' go on HOT and the wood's COOL so it hardens nearly instantly.
 
Drew,

Normally, when you cut the pith out, you would cut a 1” to 1 ½” slab out of the middle, taking the pith in that cut. Because those are large logs, try going another inch or 1 ½ “ beyond the pith and remove a 3” to 4” slab including the pith. Then cut the pith out of that slab and you will end up with two nice quarter sawn blanks.

When you seal it, seal the end grain and about 2” down the end grain on the side. You don’t need to seal the whole log.

Also, before you make your first cut, look at the rings and try to have the rings the same on each side of the center. If the rings are spaced far apart on one half and narrow on the other, then you will have uneven warping when it dries. If the rings are about the even on each side, you will have less distortion.
 
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Just thought I would add that the reason you are sealing the ends is so that as the log dries the water has to evaporate through the edge grain or sides. Hopefully at the same rate. If the ends are left unsealed the water will evaporate out the ends way faster than in the middle thus causing cracks. I will also add that sealing will not 100% prevent checking just slow it down.
If you are going to air dry those before you turn them seal them and set them aside foe the next 5 years or so.
 
Drew Nice Score. :thumb:

With the burr oak here in IA, I've had good success rough turning it and putting it in brown paper bags. I check on it every couple of days and put it in a new bag if the bag is damp. If it seems to be drying to quick, I put the first bag into another bag (double bag). I love to turn oak, but do wash your hands right away with some orange goo stuff. The tanin will stain your hands. Also it will stain the bed of your lathe so I put down fresh paste wax before each session at the lathe. Good luck and make sure to post some pics of your results.
 
Drew,
Congrats on your haul...looks like a good one too...You didn't say which kind of oak you got.... I picked up some red oak that had fallen across the road.... it had some black running through parts of it like a spalting... mostly in the sap wood, but made for some interesting pieces... I usually cut pretty close to the pith.. I hate to waste any wood, but you got some really good advice on handling the logs...
 
I don't know what kind of oak it is as i didn't see the tree before it was down. I spent the entire day with the chain saw cutting it up. Wow was it hard. I got quite a few good chunks out of the 32 inch diameter one and the dark color was just the color of the moist wood. How long do i have to wait before I can turn it? I tried turning a cylinder of one of the blanks and man was it nice to work with. It cut just like butter. Big curls were coming off and I didn't have to re sharpen the tools even once. It is really wet and I did did have to clean up the lathe right away after. I just don't know if I should turn any more of them and what do i do with sealing something that I rough turned?
 
I’ve been told that wood dries at the rate of one year per inch, so if you have a six inch chunk of wet wood with bark off, it would take three years, drying from both sides. If you rough turn a green log bowl to 1 inch thick, it would dry in about 6 months, drying from both inside and outside. To make sure that it is dry, weigh the blank or rough turned bowl (I use grams) then after a few months weigh it again, then every month or so until it stops losing weight. Then its dry.

I don’t seal a rough turned bowl. I pack the inside of the bowl with wet shavings and put it in a paper bag and place it in a cardboard box on the floor of the coolest part of my garage. I stir up the shavings every week until they are dry, then discard the shavings. Haven’t had any crack yet. There are other methods like soaking in DNA but I haven’t tried that.
 
SOunds like you got a bunch of good stuff to play with. :thumb:

...How long do i have to wait before I can turn it?...

Zero hours. :D

You can turn it as soon as the tree hits the ground. If I know I'm not going to turn a piece of fresh wood within the next day or so, I won't even bother to seal it. Then you just have to wait for the rough-turned bowl to dry, which will be much faster than trying to dry the whole blank. The methods Jeff and Chuck have mentioned to dry the rough-turned bowl will work just fine. The DNA-soaking approach is another way...described here. Although I don't follow Dave's procedure exactly, I still get pretty good results. And keep in mind that pretty much however you approach the drying, eventually you'll have some that warp or crack too much. It just comes with the territory. ;)
 
Thanks for the help with this I am planning on rough turning everything as soon as possible ( this week I hope). One of the blank is 12x12x6 and the other is 12x12x10 I got 10 blanks in total out of the one piece and still have two smaller ones to cut up and one full bin of waste to get rid of. I don't know if the big ones are too big or should I cut them down in size by 1/2? I really want to turn those big ones while they are wet if I can. I have a wood shed outside and was thinking of putting the blanks into paper bags and allow them to dry as slow as i can. I will do the wood chip way as i have a fair bit of chips from cutting them with the chain saw. I am concerned as it is just coming up on Winter and if it freezes what this will do to the blank? I am sure that I can find space in the shop to store them if I have to and it is cool there and it should keep them from freezing. I took some picks of what I got out of the one big piece and the one I turned already also some small chunks of Pacific Dog wood that I scored a year ago and had sitting around outside. Not much in the way to turn in the dog wood but still enough to make something out of.
 

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Heck yeah, those are nice looking blanks. Personally, I'd leave the big blanks the size they are and make big pieces out of them. (I don't remember...you do have a bowl gouge, right?) And yes, turning them wet will make your life a lot easier (and more fun). :D

I don't know if freezing the rough-turned bowls would be a problem or not. I know some guys have turned frozen wood with no issues, but I'd be afraid of freeze/thaw cycles contributing to cracking of a drying bowl. I think the cool shop would be better, just to play it safe.

For the chips you dry the roughout with, try to get fresh wet ones. There's usually plenty at your feet after you're done roughing out the bowl.
 
I really can't tell from your pictures, but looks a little like the White(Champion) oak I got from a friend last year... she had a tree that was 52" at the base standing in her front yard... it died a year earlier and was taken down by the power company... I went over to get some of the wood and help them clean up the yard... I went through two chain saws trying to cut that wood... it was summer so it was hot and I could work for about 1/2 an hour then had to sit a few minutes.... never did get the trunk cut... another neighbor with a big skip loader put it on a truck and took it to saw mill... that was some hard wood.

Your blanks are great and will make some nice bowls.... good luck and we'll wait for pictures....
 
Heck yeah, those are nice looking blanks. Personally, I'd leave the big blanks the size they are and make big pieces out of them. (I don't remember...you do have a bowl gouge, right?) And yes, turning them wet will make your life a lot easier (and more fun). :D

I don't know if freezing the rough-turned bowls would be a problem or not. I know some guys have turned frozen wood with no issues, but I'd be afraid of freeze/thaw cycles contributing to cracking of a drying bowl. I think the cool shop would be better, just to play it safe.

For the chips you dry the roughout with, try to get fresh wet ones. There's usually plenty at your feet after you're done roughing out the bowl.

I know I might sound like a broken record here, but as i have never done this before (turning the big blanks) How do I attach them to the lathe to turn them? Is there some certain way to do this?
 
I really can't tell from your pictures, but looks a little like the White(Champion) oak I got from a friend last year... she had a tree that was 52" at the base standing in her front yard... it died a year earlier and was taken down by the power company... I went over to get some of the wood and help them clean up the yard... I went through two chain saws trying to cut that wood... it was summer so it was hot and I could work for about 1/2 an hour then had to sit a few minutes.... never did get the trunk cut... another neighbor with a big skip loader put it on a truck and took it to saw mill... that was some hard wood.

Your blanks are great and will make some nice bowls.... good luck and we'll wait for pictures....

Yes Chuck it was white oak ( just looked it up the species chart) It was hard to cut intially but after doing some well needed tuning on the chain saw and taking the rakers down a bit it cut better. Still need a new chain though.

Pictures will be coming as i progress on these.
 
Here is something you might try I know Dave Smith personally & he does use this system.

Drying rough turned bowls quickly.

Dave Smith Longview Washington

I posted this on Woodcentral and expect a lot of discussion there. I will try to answer your questions here also.

Fred Holder was kind enough to publish an article I wrote about drying bowls in More Woodturning. I am not sure where you can obtain a copy of the November issue or if Fred has extra copies available for purchase. The process is something I have worked on for many years and it has proven very effective.

In the interest of turners who would like to turn bowls from green wood and give them for gifts this coming Christmas I am posting the process in a nutshell. Please let me know your results, good or bad, so I can write a followup article about the general use of the process.
************************************************** ***********************
ALCOHOL SOAKING GREEN BOWL BLANKS IN A NUT SHELL.

Turn the bowl to a thickness of ½"for small bowls(< 6 inches). Larger bowls may need to be thicker to allow for distortion.

Place the bowl in a container of denatured alcohol.

Let soak for 2 or more hours.

Remove the bowl and place it on a rack upside down for 1 hour to let the surface dry.

Wrap the bowl in heavy paper such as a grocery sack. On a bowl simply gather the paper around the rim and secure with a couple turns of masking tape. On a closed form the paper can be tucked into the opening and held in place with masking tape across the opening. The opening must be open to allow air circulation.

Place the bowl upside down on a rack so air can circulate into the opening.

Record the weight and date on the bottom of the paper. When the weight stops decreasing it is ready to finish turn.
************************************************** **************************
Small bowls will stop losing weight in one week or less. Large bowls will take about two weeks. Hollow forms very in drying time due to the small opening which inhibits air exchange. It is not necessary to record the weight every day but initially you may want to check the progress to satisfy your curiosity. I keep my shop heated and dehumidified year round so my drying time may very from what you may experience.

Nearly every turning I have posted on this forum has been dried using this process. There have been some failures but they have been rare exceptions. So don’t use a priceless irreplaceable piece of wood to test this drying protocol.

I owe a big think you to the many people who helped me test the alcohol drying process during the past year and those who encouraged this project. They validated my findings, edited text and gave me the confidence to publish the results. In no particular order these people are David Propst, Bill Grumbine, Dominic Grecco, Jennifer Shirley, Mark Kauder, Larry Hancock, Scott Greaves, Sean Troy, Barb Siddiqui, Mike Schwing and Ellis Walentine.

Good luck.

Dave Smith

With a shop full of dry bowls in Longview, WA.
 
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