Turning and finishing wet wood?

[Jimjam66]

I was wondering what the process is. I notice that all of the turners on this forum seem to finish their creations as part of the turning process, but I also hear a lot about how much better it is to turn wet wood than dry wood. So do you turn AND finish wet wood, or am I missing something?

 

[Grump]

It largely depends on what and how big you are turning wet.
At least it does for me.
You will get differing views so I ain't going into detail for fear of retribution.
I am in a shy mood today.

 

[Woody]

David there are many different ways but here are the two main ways of turning wet wood but remember which ever way you choose the thickness must be constant walls and bottom the same thickness to allow an even drying and to hopefully avoid it splitting a lot of people leave the bottom thicker for some strange reason and the bottom splits also don't bring anything you turn et indoors especially when the central heating is on

method 1/ lets say an 8" bowl turn it to about an inch thick all over with a spigot on the inside and a dovetail recesses on the outside weigh it and make a note of the weight then place the bowl and some shavings in a cloth or paper bag not plastic then every so often take it out and weigh it and when the weight is stable it can be returned to the lathe on the inside spigot first and redefine the dovetail recesses and all of the outside and sand to a finish

Method 2/ turn the whole thing as thin as you dare and sand now depending on how wet it was you may be able to finish it with oil I wouldn't recommend polish because if there is any water in the wood it will destroy your finish oil can displace a small amount of water but if it is to wet then it will have to be weighed the same as the thick one a good thing about this way is you end up with a distorted bowl or when it is finished you can turn a disk to wedge inside to stop the distortion the amount of distortion will depend on the wood type Yew and fruit woods behaves very well Ash, Sycamore and Chequer wood move more and holly can do a 45deg turn around

But at the end of the day David the only way to gain real experience is to give it a try turning wet wood is a completely different experience to dry turning on some wood like Sycamore you will have long streams of shavings flying over your shoulder go on give it a try you wont want to go back to dry wood LOL
I hope this is of help to you mate happy turning now for the other 1,000 ways of doing it

 

[paulm]

I'm not going to be able to add to anything that Woody has said except for BOIL IT. Well I'm experimenting with boiling and having some good results at the moment but only do it when the SWMBO is out otherwise you will have sore ears.

 

[Penpal]

David most pro turners I know buy a ton or so of burl for example and because over here it can get as hard as nails they wet turn it rough to thickish wall thickness pile them up in controlled drying situations natural etc then come back to them because after all they are production turners, with natural drying it is slow. Taking Woodies advice is great watch the shavings fly but learn the shrinkage patterns for each timber, how to cut the blanks for the best results and be prepared anyway for loss percentages.

Have success kind regards Peter.

 

[Neil Lawton]

Depends on what result you are after David.
If you want to make several items the same, ie plates, then I would suggest that you part turn and re turn when dry, as woody suggests.
I tend to go freestyle, and let the wood do what it wants, but there are ways of controlling the finished result. Which way you mount the blank will determine which direction it will move. If thin enough you can clamp certain woods into a set position. look up Andrew Hall (the hat man).
This Cherry bowl was turned 2 days after the tree was felled and finished immediately in food safe oil then brought straight in to the house, to do its own thing.



Cedar of Lebannon, exudes a sticky sap. In this picture, the inside is coated with thinned sanding sealer. When dry, the residue was removed with a wipe of Cellulose thinners, re sanded and finished in Danish oil.



Didn't want the bowl section to move too much for this one, turned the foot longer, re turned and sanded back when it had finished drying, to make it sit even.
Sycamore Burr.

Finish is Food safe oil.
Hope this helps.
Neil L.

 

[Pete B]

Hi David,

I've turned and finished wet a few times with mixed results.
I ve pretty much tried everything part turning wise. the only wood i have boiled was Cherry and it didn't work at all, but i think it might with other less cracky woods if you know what i mean. But part turning i ve settled on approx 10 to 15% of the diameter. I leave a foot or recess on the outside and then cover the outside and a bit over the rim with lots of cheap screwfix pva, the plaster additive sort, painted on the outside and i lose less than any other method, i ve tried.
I 've used the shavings method and thats a good one as its quite quick, but if you do a lot its another job.
I love roughing out bowls from wet timber as its so quick and fun with the long shavings. Haven't been selling many bowls though so i have loads dried ready to finish.
I really want to have a proper go at thin wall wet turning to a finish though, some of the stuff i have seen really inspires me as very good, just like the work shown above. Something about the bowl finding its own shape i really like.

Pete

 

[stevenw1963]

I finished turning a large vase out of wet wood t'other week.
Being an impatient git I finished it in woodwax22, then took it indoors & left on the windowsill above a radiator.
Each morning for about three days there was a small pool of water underneath it, I didn't seal the bottom of it.
Now it's completely dry & hasn't moved a bit, one crack showed in a knot 3/4 of the way up the vase.
The vase is about 13 inch high & 7 inch diam at the widest point.

Oh, turning wet wood is a different experience entirely and one you will enjoy. You'll end up thinking you've been in a shower tho

 

[Jimjam66]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I really can't be doing with the whole turn, leave for months then re-turn approach, so it will have to be the alternative (or let the wood dry a little longer before I even start). Will let you know how this progresses.

 

[Grump]

Most of my work is spindle turning as opposed to bowls.
I have found more or most water leaks from the end grain, any wet turning I do turned near the finished diameter allowing for remounting then stand on a wooden floor and let it drain naturally gives me best results.
Other shapes, I have a dustbin outside full of wood shavings and bury them in it, it has a loose fitting lid so moisture can get in and out without being soaked.
I don't do any large pieces wet, like you can't be arsed with all the agro.

 

[paulm]

Depends on what result you are after David.
If you want to make several items the same, ie plates, then I would suggest that you part turn and re turn when dry, as woody suggests.
I tend to go freestyle, and let the wood do what it wants, but there are ways of controlling the finished result. Which way you mount the blank will determine which direction it will move. If thin enough you can clamp certain woods into a set position. look up Andrew Hall (the hat man).
This Cherry bowl was turned 2 days after the tree was felled and finished immediately in food safe oil then brought straight in to the house, to do its own thing.


Cedar of Lebannon, exudes a sticky sap. In this picture, the inside is coated with thinned sanding sealer. When dry, the residue was removed with a wipe of Cellulose thinners, re sanded and finished in Danish oil.

Didn't want the bowl section to move too much for this one, turned the foot longer, re turned and sanded back when it had finished drying, to make it sit even.
Sycamore Burr.
Finish is Food safe oil.
Hope this helps.
Neil L.

Some lovely bowls there Neil. Thanks for showing them

 

[Pete B]

I have done the same the pva on the outside and straight into the living room and very scientifically when its gone oval its dry enough, as well as weighing until it stops losing weight. Its much quicker but i ve lost a lot more like this.
I ve also got some big vases that were not thin enough, pva'd and gently dried and big cracks so a feature with bronze is called for, and next time i need to try and get the wall thickness correct.

Pete

 

[Woody]

The best of our native wood's I have found to turn wet to finish and oiled yet remain stable is Yew in my lounge I have two of the many large vases and bowls that I turned and they have retained there shape and none of them have split nor moved well hardly moved at all not enough to be noticed

 

[Jimjam66]

So this is what I ended up with. It was a piece of the Budleiah my outlaws trimmed last weekend, and I wanted to make something they could keep to remind them of it. No particular reason, I'm just strange like that. I wanted to keep some natural edge (because the rest of the grain is a bit bleh) and I had an image in my mind of the shape I was after. Unfortunately the finished shape only slightly resembles that image, and I over cut the base so that it appears to small for the rest of the vase. Ah well, at least it can be an experiment in turning wet wood! I don't have a tool for hollowing either, so the inside surface is far from perfect.

 

[Grump]

Looks like you did well to hold it together let alone get a shape on it init?

 

[stevenw1963]

got to agree with Brian on that one David, looks like you did well to keep it together, but, don't let it put you off.
Get another piece of wet wood on the lathe.

You sound like an impatient git like me I don't like waiting for wood to dry then turn again etc.

 

[Ralphsputin]

Bodge job? That comes from the name for the old pole lathe turners, bodgers. The reason was that if you turn wet wood, which they did, it looks great for a while but as the wood dries and seasons it warps and cracks. I've often seen turning demonstrations using wet wood - it looks tremendous and the wood sings as it comes off the chisel in great long ribbons. If you don't mind your spindles going a bit bent, bowls oval and boxes with lids you either can't get off or won't go on but imho it isn't worth the bother.

 

[paulm]

Very Interesting Ralph

 

[Woody]

Bodge job? That comes from the name for the old pole lathe turners, bodgers. The reason was that if you turn wet wood, which they did, it looks great for a while but as the wood dries and seasons it warps and cracks. I've often seen turning demonstrations using wet wood - it looks tremendous and the wood sings as it comes off the chisel in great long ribbons. If you don't mind your spindles going a bit bent, bowls oval and boxes with lids you either can't get off or won't go on but imho it isn't worth the bother.

I'm sorry but I have to totally disagree with you on this one Ralph no turner worth his salt would ever make a box out of wet wood for the reason you state and the same with spindles I have turned a lot of wet wood into natural edge bowls and had very few crack and if they do they can still be laced up and they still sell quite well in fact sometimes better than other bowls , some will distort but even that can be controlled with plugs like the hat man dose but like you it is just my opinion