Just how did they use the green wood turned on the pole lathes ? having tried turning on a normal one , Its great for smell ect but the finished product tends to split and warp as it dries , Would have thought that turning dry seasoned wood would have more productive / ilan
Green wood turning
- Thread starter ilan
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Sounds like you are talking in the past tense, pole lathers are still about.ilan said:
Wood is usually split and shaved prior to turning so it does not split so bad. I am not an expert and Eric would say it better than me. I have made things on my pole lathe and not had any splitting. The finished product is sometimes put in a brown paper bag and put somewhere to dry slowly.........
Eric_Methven
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
It al depends on what you are turning, the type of wood you are using and how and where you dry it.
You need to prepare the wood fistly by cleaving it from the round log. You cleave it with an axe through the pith - the dark bit right in the centre of the growth rings. Most logs will be cleaved into four or eight pieces depending on the original diameter and the product being created.
Once cleaved, you will have a wedge shaped piece if viewed from the end. Use an axe (traditionally a side axe) and trim it down to as round as you can get it. You then move it onto a shave horse, and with a drawknife, remove wood until you have a cylinder of wood.
Find the centre on each end, make a small depression with a gimlet and smear some fat in the depression to aid lubrication. Mount the wood on the pole lathe after wraping the cord around the work.
Use a roughing out gouge to work the wood down to the desired shape then use a straight chisel - about two to two and a half inches wide, to finish the piece. You use the straight chisel at an angle on the wood and take thin shavings off working from the centre towards the ends.
Take a handful of shavings from the floor and, holding them in your hand, burnish the work by pressing the shavings against the wood as you turn the work with the treddle.
Remove the finished piece from the lathe and place somewhere to dry. Drying of a small piece should take a couple of days.
When using greenwood you WILL get shrinkage. It is known as tangential shrinkage in as much as the wood will shrink around the tangent more than from the radius. So when dry, the piece will be slightly oval in section. This is how you tell really old chairs from modern ones made to look old. The legs will be slightly ovel in section from being turned green in the woods by someone known as a bodger.
If turning chair legs in this manner, leave the tennon slightly oversized and put it back on the pole lathe once dry. Then you turn the tennon down to the correct diameter so it stays round and fits the mortice in the seat of the chair.
If turning bowls from greenwood, cracking and splitting sometimes occurs because the wood shrinks too quickly. This is best avoided by drying slowly in a dry but not too warm environment, a cool breezy place is ideal. Even then, the bowl will take on a slight cupping once dry because of the way the tangent shrinks at a greater rate than the radius.
Hope this helps. If you can get up to the bushcraft weekends up here in the north east (Morpeth area) I'll be building a pole lathe and shave horse in the woods and will be running regular workshops.
There's nothing wrong with turning seasoned wood from a kiln dryed source on a power lathe, but on a pole lathe it's like carving a brick rather than modeling with clay.
Eric
You need to prepare the wood fistly by cleaving it from the round log. You cleave it with an axe through the pith - the dark bit right in the centre of the growth rings. Most logs will be cleaved into four or eight pieces depending on the original diameter and the product being created.
Once cleaved, you will have a wedge shaped piece if viewed from the end. Use an axe (traditionally a side axe) and trim it down to as round as you can get it. You then move it onto a shave horse, and with a drawknife, remove wood until you have a cylinder of wood.
Find the centre on each end, make a small depression with a gimlet and smear some fat in the depression to aid lubrication. Mount the wood on the pole lathe after wraping the cord around the work.
Use a roughing out gouge to work the wood down to the desired shape then use a straight chisel - about two to two and a half inches wide, to finish the piece. You use the straight chisel at an angle on the wood and take thin shavings off working from the centre towards the ends.
Take a handful of shavings from the floor and, holding them in your hand, burnish the work by pressing the shavings against the wood as you turn the work with the treddle.
Remove the finished piece from the lathe and place somewhere to dry. Drying of a small piece should take a couple of days.
When using greenwood you WILL get shrinkage. It is known as tangential shrinkage in as much as the wood will shrink around the tangent more than from the radius. So when dry, the piece will be slightly oval in section. This is how you tell really old chairs from modern ones made to look old. The legs will be slightly ovel in section from being turned green in the woods by someone known as a bodger.
If turning chair legs in this manner, leave the tennon slightly oversized and put it back on the pole lathe once dry. Then you turn the tennon down to the correct diameter so it stays round and fits the mortice in the seat of the chair.
If turning bowls from greenwood, cracking and splitting sometimes occurs because the wood shrinks too quickly. This is best avoided by drying slowly in a dry but not too warm environment, a cool breezy place is ideal. Even then, the bowl will take on a slight cupping once dry because of the way the tangent shrinks at a greater rate than the radius.
Hope this helps. If you can get up to the bushcraft weekends up here in the north east (Morpeth area) I'll be building a pole lathe and shave horse in the woods and will be running regular workshops.
There's nothing wrong with turning seasoned wood from a kiln dryed source on a power lathe, but on a pole lathe it's like carving a brick rather than modeling with clay.
Eric
Hi thanks for the information unfortunatly its a bit of a long haul from sth of the river . still i have seen pole lathes in operation . If i can get the dates early enough for next years meet i hope to go along then thanks ilan
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