Experiments with dead wood ... ...

I'm sure people are beginning to wonder about me, seems every time I hear a chain saw I'm off looking to see what's being cut down, although it is paying off, just the other day I acquired 2 large sections of Silver Birch, which was going for fire wood, it'll be a while before I can use it, but even so.

I will also (fingers crossed) be getting some Holly and Apple in a few days time, which will further expand my collection of logs.

A few weeks ago I did a shrub removal job for a friend and I decided I'd have a go a turning some of it, I asked if I could take some, which receive a slight raising of the eye brow, and a look of "what on earth do you want that for ? " but I took some of the more usable pieces home.

It turns out it's some kind of Cypress tree, but because it had been pruned on a regular basis it wasn't very big and as a result of the pruning some of it had died, and it's the dead bit's I took most of, mainly because I figured I could turn it straight away, if it's dead it won't warp or crack as there's no life left in the wood.

Even wood that's been cut down still has life in it, it will shrink and grow with the temperature and humidity of the air, but dead wood won't, at least not so much.

So this is what I made from one bit of the dead wood - 

It's an interesting colour.

It turned pretty well, and I managed to get a great finish on it, and even though it didn't appear to be very hard wood, it is, even though it's a small pot it feels sturdy, and the point on the lid is quite sharp.

Another picture -

With the lid off.

You can't really see it in the pictures, but in some places it has a kind of pale pinky colour to it, which is quite nice. I burned the dark band in while it was on the lathe, this is an easy way to add a little detail to an item, you basically hold a piece of wood to the piece whilst it's revolving and friction does the rest, although if you hold the wood to the piece for too long you'll get fire !

I've found this technique is a good way to add a little extra interest to an item, but it works better on some woods than others, I've also found that it's best to use a piece of the same wood, rather than a random bit you might have lying about, you can also use a welding rod or even one of those ceramic tile saw blades, the ones that you hand cut tiles with.

The Apple tree I have my eye on is also dead, so I hope to start turning that more or less straight away, so I'm quite looking forward to turning a load of new stuff.

Thanks for reading.

Leyandii ... ...

I don't consider myself to be an expert in all things wood, in fact more often than not I find I'm left puzzled by the way some woods behave, despite my best efforts to prevent said behaviour, I do learn though, probably learned more about different types of wood in the last few years than I have my whole life.

And  few weeks ago I got another lesson, in Leyland cypress which is also known as Leylandii, yes the scourge of the neighbourhood, in fact there was a program on the BBC the other day all bout this particular tree ---> Hedgewars (opens in new window)

I know that these trees have caused endless arguments all over the UK, there's a good chance that when you look down your street you'll probably see some, I always liked them when I was a kid as the larger tree's are pretty good for climbing, if you don't mind getting covered in the sticky sap that is, and now I have an new appreciation for them, in a slightly different form though.

I've been on the look out for new supplies of wood to turn and I put an e-mail out to my local freecycling group and I got a surprise in the form of a chap who had just cut down a load of them, in fact there were quite a few and some as tall as 40 feet or more, so I now have a pretty large pile of wood, and I've only made one trip, got loads more to go.

This is the first thing I made from it (which actually took 3 weeks to make) -

I was surprised by the grain.

It is still very green wood (which just means it hasn't be cut down for long) and I was a little worried about cracking and warping, turning exposes the heart wood and forces the wood to dry out faster than it would do normally, but this pot has been in the house for a few weeks and so far it's fine (it's now in my shop) I do this with all my turned stuff, once it's finished I bring it in the house if it cracks it's no good for selling, if it doesn't it goes in the shop, kind of like quality control :-)

Having this wood has also changed the way I approach turning, hundreds of years ago people didn't dry wood out in kilns, they just cut it down and turned it roughly and then left it for a few weeks, then they finished it off.

This is how I'm looking at the wood I use for turning, I cut it to a good length and leave it for a week or 2, then I turn it roughly, then leave it for a week or 2 then I finish it, and it seems to work, not sure this would work with some of the fruit wood I have, but it's worth a try, yes it takes longer, but I'm getting less failures, and it's still quicker than leaving a bit of wood for 2 or more years for it to season.

So if you happen to notice your neighbours hedge growing a little tall, just take a minute to think about how nice looking this wood is, and instead of cutting it all down and burning it, why not try your hand at carving or turning it :-) and if you don't want to, some one else might want it, maybe your friendly neighbourhood wood turner.

Interesting stuff - 

Leylandii can grow 1 metre a year, and no one actually knows how tall they will get,some have speculated that they may even get as large as Redwoods, which is huge, Leyland Cypress (Leylandii) are actually a hybrid tree, their parent species being Monterey Cypress and Nootka (Alaskan Cypress) at least that's according to this page on Wikipedia - Leyland Cypress (opens in new window)

I'll leave you with a few pictures, thanks for reading.

Pictures - 

Experimenting ... ...

I tend to think of myself as an experimental type of person, I'm always messing around with ideas on how to do things differently, and it has to be said I don't always get things to work how I wanted, but it's no reason to stop trying.

Just lately my main focus has been on wood turning (no surprise really) and although I have loads of wood I can't use it all as I have to wait for it to season a little first, and it was this that got me to thinking about ways to make sections of wood for turning, with out waiting for wood to season, so I can use already seasoned wood.

And not only that but I was thinking about patterns and wood grain and how to make some more interesting designs, this isn't a new idea for years wood turners have glued various types of wood together for artistic reasons and made some fantastic things.

 So the other day I made this -

What do you think ?

 Okay so it's an experiment, I'm quite happy with it, I like the way the grain goes in kind of a zig zag pattern, this pot is made from 3 different bits of wood, I'm now planning another one, but I'll be putting it together in a slightly different way to see if I can get the grain pattern a little more fluid looking.

It's made from 3 bits of 3inch by 2 inch wood, just normal pine I had lying about, I cut 3 sections and glued them together, with each section aligned differently, I tried to get the grain to run in opposite directions, the next one I make will hopefully stand out a lot more.

I also wanted to see if the glue I used would stand up to being put on a lathe and spun at 2500rpm, was a little worried that things might fly apart at speed, but it held, I left it to set for about 48 hours, and it's just normal wood glue, I also used some clamps to make sure it was held nice and tightly.

One of the problems I need to work on is hiding the joins, I think I can do this by thinking about where I put various design features, and by being clever with my cuts.
You can see the join in both pictures.

The join -

Notice the straight line about half way up ?

It has to be said that you can't see the join that well from various angles, so it won't take much more tweaking, least I don't think it will ? but I'm hoping I can make it as near to invisible as possible, this might be helped by changing the way I glue the wood together, maybe even change the glue, like I said it's all in the tweaking :-)

Over all though I was pleased with it, and the idea works, it just needs a little messing with to perfect it, at least on the outside as having the join visible on the inside isn't as important as what it looks like from the outside, it's a pot, you tend not to spend time staring into it that much, least I don't

You can clearly see the join on the inside - 

The join from the inside.

I could make it less visible by sanding the inside and polishing it, but for this piece I didn't pay too much attention to the inside :-)

Another picture - 

A nice little pot / box

Feel free to add any comments you have on the design, and whether it's worth taking further, I will start working on the next experiment, which is along the same lines, so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading.