29-11-2011, 08:56 PM
Very nice Col, that lathe of yours looks the same type as the one I used to have...is it a 36" Record?
As David said oak is not the best and easiest to turn and finish, quite often the oak comes boxed heart if bought green with a view to drying it yourself, as you probably know boxed heart is no good unless your after the distressed look.
When I ran my sawmill I used to cut and sell turning blanks but I got fed up with time wasters!!
I had one bloke that said if I got any nice turning stock in yew, beech, cherry etc he would buy it no problem. A couple of weeks later I was offered a parcel of yew branchwood from the Tamerton Foliate estate on the Tamar, I bought the lot and hired a 20 ft wagon, two wagon loads in all.
It was lovely stuff and had been down for about 12 months or so, all 2 to 6" stuff, ideal. I phoned the bloke up and told him what I had and he came down to the sawmill yard pronto "How much" he said " 50 pence a running foot upto 3" and a quid a runing foot from 3" to 6" was my reply " no, don't want to pay that much" "fine now p**s off was my reply, I had also sourced a Grade A spalted beech which I had planked up into 1.5, 3 & 5" slabs it was the best I had ever come across, a bit like comparing South American opals to Australian opels, he did not want that either, I managed to sell the beach as one parcel to a proffesional wood turner in London but I was lumbered with the yew, I did not have time to turn it myself so over a couple of seasons I fed it into my woodburner, and very nice it burnt too!
Lawrence.
As David said oak is not the best and easiest to turn and finish, quite often the oak comes boxed heart if bought green with a view to drying it yourself, as you probably know boxed heart is no good unless your after the distressed look.
When I ran my sawmill I used to cut and sell turning blanks but I got fed up with time wasters!!
I had one bloke that said if I got any nice turning stock in yew, beech, cherry etc he would buy it no problem. A couple of weeks later I was offered a parcel of yew branchwood from the Tamerton Foliate estate on the Tamar, I bought the lot and hired a 20 ft wagon, two wagon loads in all.
It was lovely stuff and had been down for about 12 months or so, all 2 to 6" stuff, ideal. I phoned the bloke up and told him what I had and he came down to the sawmill yard pronto "How much" he said " 50 pence a running foot upto 3" and a quid a runing foot from 3" to 6" was my reply " no, don't want to pay that much" "fine now p**s off was my reply, I had also sourced a Grade A spalted beech which I had planked up into 1.5, 3 & 5" slabs it was the best I had ever come across, a bit like comparing South American opals to Australian opels, he did not want that either, I managed to sell the beach as one parcel to a proffesional wood turner in London but I was lumbered with the yew, I did not have time to turn it myself so over a couple of seasons I fed it into my woodburner, and very nice it burnt too!
Lawrence.
