New Lathe Owner.

[pwdrive]

Yes that pyracantha is sharp stuff, worse than blacthorn, I hope you are wearing a mask when doing your wood turning Joe, Beech and Iroko can be particularly nasty if machined frequently.

Lawrence.

[Joe]

Pyracantha does sound familiar.

I didn't know about beech dust being nasty, though no dust is going to be healthy, so thanks for the warning.

- Joe

[pwdrive]

That's ok Joe, in general I think is down to prolonged exposure, when I ran the sawmil I used to get lumps growing up my nose, no doubt due to the sawdust and the red deisel we used to brush on the band to keep the resin off, since I packed up fulltime sawmilling they have gone away. Prolonged exposure to sawdust in the air is definately not good, I know that for sure.

Lawrence.

[Yorkie]

Well done on your efforts Joe!

Beech is wonderful wood to turn as it's very close grained and tough. It easily sands to a nice finish and is excellent for such things as tool handles. Ash is often used, and although the grain is more open, it sands to a nice finish. (BTW, there is a saying in woodturning that you should 'sand the shape of the wood - not sand the wood to shape!). Hammer shafts are often made of hickory, as it too is tough, and to a certain extent is flexible so absorbs shock. Stair spindles are often made of hemlock - not pine. It has straight grain, very few knots, turns well and is suited to 'production turning' on copy lathes. Skilled production turners who will make small batches of bespoke stair spindles to customers' exact requirements for house restorations, turn to such a high standard that they get an excellent finish 'off the tool' - that is little or no sanding is needed.

One of the nicest woods to turn is yew, which is very close grained and takes a nice finish, and has very distinctive heartwood and sapwood, which made it prized for English longbows - the 'WMD' of their day. It's strong in compression and tension, but isn't very tough for such things as tool handles.

As to hazards, the risks from beech are where it's spalted. Some woods - notably beech, readily 'spalt'. That is they have spidery black lines running through the timber which some people find attractive, but it's caused by a fungus which is said to be carcinogenic - it should not therefore be used for such things as salad bowls or fruit bowls. Iroko is wicked stuff to turn as the dust is s fine as snuff.

Dust is an ever present hazard - some turners use a powered helmet with visor and built-in air filter, and some forum of dust extraction. I have a dust extractor and an air filter suspended from the ceiling in the workshop which comes on each night for a couple of hours to keep the dust down. I only turn the dust extractor on when I'm sanding, and also wear a proper face mask - not one of those daft disposable paper things that look like bra cups, the only purpose of which is to fool our wives (if we have one) that we're taking sensible precautions.

For occasional turning, a household vac with the extension nozzle near the workpiece is fine. You should sand at a much slower speed than turning speed - if the sandpaper in your had gets hot, too much pressure or too high a speed is being used. It doesn't matter so much on spindle work, but on a bowl, it risks cracking it.

When sanding - whether it's a radio cabinet or a woodturned item, you can only get a proper end result if you 'go through the grits'. This is to go from say 120, to 180, 240, 320, 400. It's not a bit of use going from say 120 to 400 - you'll never get rid of the score marks. I should add that on a veneered cabinet, we should use a cabinet scraper - not sandpaper or it's inevitable - especially on rounded corners, that we'll go through the veneer, which is only 0.6mm thick in the first place. (A paint scraper is NOT at all the same thing as a cabinet scraper!).

That's my two penn'orth. (Well, a shillings worth I guess!)

Rambled and dribbled Yorkie.

[AlanBeckett]

One of the nicest woods to turn is yew, which is very close grained and takes a nice finish, and has very distinctive heartwood and sapwood, which made it prized for English longbows - the 'WMD' of their day. It's strong in compression and tension, but isn't very tough for such things as tool handles.

Perhaps you could tell the TV and Film Companies as the actors are shown nine times out of ten with a Red Indian flat bow. I expect they go round to the Props Dept. and are issued with 'Bow' - idiots.

On the subject of wood if you know of a source of real Ash Spade Handles - Forkandles - let me know. I don't know what they use these days but Ash it aint. I've got an old spade that belonged to my Dad. The blade is only about 8" long now, but the Handle is solid. I keep breaking the modern ones and it's not surprising when you look at the grain.

Alan

[Tedzed1]

Forkhandles eh, no problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaGpaj2nHIo

[pwdrive]

One of the nicest woods to turn is yew, which is very close grained and takes a nice finish, and has very distinctive heartwood and sapwood, which made it prized for English longbows - the 'WMD' of their day. It's strong in compression and tension, but isn't very tough for such things as tool handles.

Perhaps you could tell the TV and Film Companies as the actors are shown nine times out of ten with a Red Indian flat bow. I expect they go round to the Props Dept. and are issued with 'Bow' - idiots.

On the subject of wood if you know of a source of real Ash Spade Handles - Forkandles - let me know. I don't know what they use these days but Ash it aint. I've got an old spade that belonged to my Dad. The blade is only about 8" long now, but the Handle is solid. I keep breaking the modern ones and it's not surprising when you look at the grain.

Alan

Hello Alan, I havn't researched where in general but you can get them, I got one for my cornish long handled shovel a while back locally, nice grain and ash, hickory is good too but I reckon ash has a better balance, I agree, some of the gardening stuff these days is pure cr*p, my missis bought an all steel rake, the damn thing wears you out after an hour or so, to heavy and not balanced, same goes for stainless all metal spades, usless I say, the best spade ever made was the Spear and Jackson general purpose trenching shovel, 28" ash tee handle 8" wide blade, blade when new about 10" long and pointed, top of blade bent over at a right angle so you can realy get some serious foot stomping pressure on it without cutting yer boots in half, unparalled balance, the load wears you out not the shovel, slices through ground like nothing, these were standard army issue on the back of lightwieght and 101 landrovers. You can still buy them. (End of promo.)

I have always found the best places for handles is a general surplus type hardware place or a good agricultural merchants, they usually have them loose in a barrel or container and you can check out the species and grain before parting with any money.
Hope you find one ok, 'nowt worse than not fit for pupose tools.

Lawrence.

[pwdrive]

Hi Joe, the photo's etc. don't really do it justice this is from a load of yew I brought in from my sawmillng days, I actually turned this from green on my old Record 3ft, it was to be a lamp stand but it twisted a bit to much on drying so it now resides under the bed as the burglar basher, it has not seen polish for years and is now a bit discoloured in places due to dust adhesion, but if polished up it comes up like glass, if you look carefully you can see the stubs of some of the epicormic shoots, the lighter patch is some sapwood intrusion, the Rolls Royce of woods in my opinion. If you see anyone triming or felling a yew tree go ask, 'nowt to loose, you wont be disapointed.
Good luck with the lathe work

Lawrence.

       

[Joe]

Nice bit of wood, Lawrence. It'll be a while before I'm turning yew though:-

   

- Joe

[pwdrive]

Nice bit of wood, Lawrence. It'll be a while before I'm turning yew though:-



- Joe

Mmm...... I see what you mean, if you go to a rural church yard in the dead of night (with saw) you are sure to find some.

"Yes m'lud...... bring the guilty b*****d in"

Lawrence.