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Turning a chunk of wood into a wonder

Some artisans use lathes to improve on nature

By Art Lander JR.

alander@HERALD-LEADER.COM

For more than 1,000 years, meals were eaten from crude wooden bowls. But the bowls being hand-turned on lathes today are admired as much for their artistry as the organic material from which they are crafted.

These are creations, once part of living trees, with “qualities of warmth and beauty,” said Jamie Donaldson of Georgetown, an avid wood-turner since 1986. “No two are alike.”

In basements and garage shops, turners celebrate the natural imperfections in wood that make their works so beautiful and unique — worm holes; burls; uneven growth rings; curly and fiddleback grain patterns; and spalting, the first stages of fungal decay, which can cause vivid bands of discoloration.

As the wood spins counter-clockwise on a lathe, tools steadied on a wide metal rest remove shavings in long ribbons. From chunks of tree trunks, stumps and limbs emerge works of art and utility. The late Rude Osolnik, who taught wood turning at Berea College for more than 40 years, once said, “the bowl is in the tree; it’s up to me to set it free.” The wood between the tree’s pith (center) and its outer bark, where growth rings form concentric circles, often yields the most visually interesting works.

The artistic works that wood-turners make today include vessels of all sizes and shapes, as well as bowls, platters, vases, sculptures and lidded boxes. The so-called utility products, used in home and kitchen, include salad bowls, wine bottle stoppers, fruit platters, rolling pins, pepper grinders, kitchen mallets, ink pens, spinning tops and candlesticks. Waterfowl calls, used for duck and goose hunting, and grunt calls to bring deer close for archers, also can be made on a lathe.

“You’ll be able to make an endless supply of wedding and Christmas gifts,” Donaldson said.

Be a scrounger

The best locally grown woods for turning are maple, cherry, walnut, locust and osage orange (hedge apple). “Every wood-turner needs to know a tree trimmer, or arborist, as a sources of free wood,” Donaldson said. “Wood-turners have to be scroungers, looking for wood after a storm hits, at city dumps, or what’s left over from logging operations.”

Large sections of tree trunks and limbs can be stored outside but should be off the ground and kept where they are not exposed to moisture or sunlight. A second option is to cut large pieces of wood into shapes that can be turned, and then apply a waxlike sealer to prevent checking (cracking).

“When a piece of wood checks, you lose valuable inches that could be turned,” Donaldson said.

Most bowls and platters are made from wood that has been cut cross-grain, so that the growth rings are horizontal. Lidded vessels are typically face-grain, with vertical grain patterns. A fork in the main trunk of a tree yields feathered crotch wood, which has beautiful interlocking grain.

“You’re looking for a Y-shaped piece. Cut through the pith with a chain saw, and you’ll get two fairly similar blanks,” Donaldson said. “When you turn a piece of crotch wood, the feathered pattern will be in the bottom of the bowl.”

Turners are frequently surprised to find unusual grain patterns or colors.

“There’s always an ­element of mystery with wood,” Donaldson said.

Many wood-turners prefer to work in green wood.

“If you wait until it’s totally dry, it gets as hard as cast iron,” Donaldson said.

Turning dry wood does have some advantages, however.

“It’s dimensionally stable, but I prefer wood that still has some moisture left. It’s softer, and you can finish the piece in one process,” Donaldson said.

Help is available

Wood turning can be ­addictive. Hold a bowl in your hands made from highly figured wood, and you too might want to give wood turning a try.

Experienced wood-turners make excellent mentors. They have the specialized tools and know-how, and they usually are willing to share what they’ve learned. Take a basic lesson or two, and you’ll know whether you might enjoy wood turning as a hobby. Seminars, instructional DVDs, and videos posted on wood-turning Web sites are valuable learning tools for beginners.

Donaldson, who turned his first bowl in 1959 in shop class, laments that schools no longer teach this skill. Markets for turned items include private collectors, galleries, retail stores, farmers markets, and arts and crafts fairs. When an ash tree fell on Donaldson’s house a few years ago during an ice storm, he salvaged the wood and created a carved vessel that a collector bought for $1,500.

“That’s the most expensive piece I’ve ever sold,” Donaldson said. “My bowls typically sell for $100 to $500.”

Getting started

Like many hobbies, wood turning can get expensive, but the major tools — a lathe and a band saw — will last for years.

You can buy a tabletop lathe, a face shield and a set of basic hand tools (gouge, scraper, parting tool and skew) for as little as $350. Large, powerful lathes can cost thousands of dollars, and band saws start at $450.

Don’t forget the safety equipment, primarily a face shield to protect the wood-turner’s face, teeth and eyes from flying wood shavings and any chunk of wood that spins off the lathe. The dust from some woods can trigger allergic reactions, so many wood-turners wear face masks to filter the air and install dust-removal vacuum systems in their shops.