Recent, Wet Willow Turnings

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Hi Guys
I'm back tonight to post a few recent turnings that I turned from wet willow wood. Very white wood.It tells you right away if your tools are dull, cuts get fuzzy. Turned these about a month ago and haven't turned much since being in the hospital for a while. Funny thing about that hospital, they wouldn't even consider letting me bring my lathe in there with me.:dunno: .Anyways here are the turnings. 1. The first turning is of a small vase turned from wet willow, and immmediately sealed with satin poly varnish to prevent cracking. Forget how many coats I used. Notice how the substrate changed color from this varnish.It's approx 7" high.
2.This little bugger is about 41/2" high and turned from the very same wet willow as the first turning.Only difference here is I used several coats of water based varnish to seal the wood from cracking,substrate stayed white I never wait for wood to dry. Life is too short to be waiting for a piece of wood to dry, my opinion only of course.
3.Once again wet willow wood used to turn this 7"bud vase and water based var to do the sealing for me. I know a few of you guys saw these turnings already and I will look forward to seeing what you other guys think. Mitch
 

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Mitch, looks like you did some carving on these as well. What do you use for that? Power carvers or hand? I have some willow I can cut down at my MIL's cabin if I want it...How is it for turning?
 
Jeff
Actually I did no carving at all on these little vases, I have no talent in the carving direction at all. What I used on these small vases was a Sorby spiraling and textureing tool.
As far as how well willow turns on the lathe I would say it is a pretty easy wood to turn but nothing exciting. It is real white and if your tools need sharpened your cuts will be fuzzy no matter how good you are. So sharpen well and often. Keep the speed your turning in mind at all times :thumb:as long as it is safe keep the speed up. Good luck, Mitch
 
Mohammad
Thank you buddy for thinking I was doing some carving here but I must confess I don't do any carving. What I used on these vases was a Sorby spiralling and textureing tool. Sorry you couldn't make out the details. I have a couple other pictures of these turnings and the detail is clearer. Tell you what Mohammad, I will post these two pictures under a new thread so you can see the detail a bit closer. Good luck, Mitch
 
I like the looks of the spiraling stuff. Nicely done, Mitch. :thumb: I'll be checking out the new thread for sure.
 
Vaughn
Thanks Vaughn. I posted a couple more pictures of the same turnings, but you can see the detail a bit better. Hard to get a good picture with this willow. Wood is so white it is hard to photograph, at least for me. If you never saw this tool I can post a picture of it so you can see what is included with the tool. Let me know. Mitch:)
 
Bernie
Thanks Bernie. That is exactly what I thought at first but later I gave in and I am glad I did. To be honest at first I was a little disappointed because of the lack of literature or instructions but later found video clips and now I am glad I have this baby. I intend to use this a lot to finish the bottoms of my turnings soon as I can teach myself. Mitch
 
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