Drying wood

Last winter I posted an entry about cutting some quarter sawn Sycamore. Sycamore is a very common timber that generally isn't very pretty unless you cut it on the quarter. Today I took the rough boards and cut the wax off the ends and put them in a rough dimension to make some dinner plates and platters. Then I will age these pieces for a couple more months in my warm shop. The next step will be to round them on the bandsaw and then bring them into the house for another month until I am confident they will be dry to finish. Here are some pictures of this "plain" wood.

Drying process

Today I am removing the wax on the canisters I roughed out this last winter. Then I will bring them into the house to give them some more drying time. By bringing them inside it will give them a more natural state as to where they will be staying once they have been finished. This helps the lids and base fit better over time. Being as large as these are there is more dimensional instability. Drying these properly will be a major part of their longevity.

San Diego Symposium

Heading for San Diego today. The San Diego woodturners are having a symposium. I will have two days of classes before the Saturday symposium. I am looking forward to returning to my roots since San Diego was my original woodturning club. Lot's of great friends there. Can't wait to see them.

finished piece

Well it didn't completely come out as planned but a very nice set anyway. The largest piece of the set warped differently from the rest since it had more fine burl eyes. The next largest piece wouldn't fit into it without taking a risk of breaking it so I will let the largest piece 20" x 12" stand alone as a separate piece. The piece averages 1.5 millimeters wall thickness. This was quite a challenge. Can't wait to do another!!!

Pucker up day

Have you ever had the feeling that a piece of wood was to good to be tampered with? That's the way I feel about this piece.
I have had this veneer quality "turtle back" Madrone burl in plastic for the last few months. This is a 20"x 10", 150lbs. of defect free perfection. I was going to rough it out and make a salad bowl from it but I felt the risk of cracking would be too great. I have decided to make a very thin (2 or 3 millimeter) nested set. Here's the process...
I have high pressure washed the bark clean off. I like the bark but at the thinness of the finished piece it will easily chip off. Removing the bark plus dying the top surface will give me the bark look and hopefully a nice contrast. Here is how it looks this morning. Stayed tuned to see the finished product. I should finish it late today.

The busiest month of my year

Just wrapped up a five day class at Craft Supplies USA. Before that I had the 31st Utah Symposium to do. The symposium went off without a hitch. This is thanks to all the great volunteers who put in long hours without complaint. I will be back in my shop next week taking care of bowl orders. Also, looking forward to making a prototype of a new nested bowl set. Yahoo!

Big Week

The 32nd annual Utah Woodturning Symposium is this week! This is an international event that was started by Dale Nish. It is amazing what it has grown into. I attended my first one in the mid 80's. This is where I met Richard Raffan. Watching him turn made me want to be a professional craftsmen. Thank you Richard!