Star Trek Wood

[BaileyNo5]

It has wormholes.  Plus a little spalting.  It is Birch I helped harvest in February of this year.  I would like to wet-sand this "wessel" (remember Chekov?  OK, it's a bowl), with something that will fill the wormholes, some of which are relatively large.  I really don't want to use CA glue, as my respiratory system really doesn't like it.  Any other ideas, Cap'n Kirk?   

[Wipedout]

don't like CA - then use epoxy

[Ricc Havens]

    the worm holes add character.  Don't fill them.  Here is a spalted hackberry hollowform I recently finished.  The more I used the air hoes to blow out the sanding dust in the worm holes the more the holes became visible.

Ricc

[chips ahoy]

Nice piece Ricc, very well done.

Mel

[robo hippy]

You could leave the holes and cracks. I would take it back to the lathe for a little bit of high angle shear scraping with a fine burr, in the 600 to 1000 grit honed or wheel burr. It would clean up a lot of that tear out. You can wet the wood also to help, use a spray bottle, or damp cloth, let soak for about 1 minute, then just barely turn off the wet part. A finer burr really makes a difference, especially in difficult wood.

robo hippy

[BaileyNo5]

the worm holes add character.  Don't fill them.  
Ricc

You could leave the holes and cracks. I would take it back to the lathe for a little bit of high angle shear scraping with a fine burr
robo hippy

Nice looking vase, Ricc.  How did you finish it?

I think between Ricc and robo hippy I have a solution.  Get rid of the tearout, and leave the wormholes.  You are right, the tearout is the real problem.  It is bad right at one of the wormholes, so I guess I'll just have to turn it down until it's gone.  Thanks!

[robo hippy]

I can't tell without looking at it, but some of that tear out may be from rot. That stuff you can't turn out. Try very fine shear scrapes. If that doesn't work, then 80 grit on a firm backing of some sort and slow speeds. The backing will keep it from digging in too much, or as much in the softer areas. You may also apply some penetrating oil type finish and let it set, then turn again, which could help. Overall though, a nice shape.

robo hippy

[Ricc Havens]

Thanks for the kind comments guys!   

Lately I have been finishing pieces following Keith Burns "10-minute" finish (although it usually takes me longer than 10min).  http://www.keithburnswoodturning.com/tutorials/

But this piece kept soaking up the Antique Oil like a sponge.  So I did 4 or 5 coats over two days then buffed per hi tutorial.



Ricc

[MichaelMouse]

OP. Don't "shear scrape."  The shape and orientation will respond beautifully to a straight chisel or skew, or if you're fortunate enough to have them, broad sweep gouges.  Keep the cutting angle as low as possible to cut the pecked-out sections which are suffering from some scraping you did in the past. High angles rip, low angles cut.

[BaileyNo5]

I had to move the picture to a different web location, so here it is again.  Also included a pic of the other side.

MM, what you are looking at here is the result of a freshly sharpened Thompson bowl gouge, taking light cuts.  It is not the fault of the tool - rather, my technique (or lack thereof) and punky wood.  And unfortunately I do not trust myself with a skew in my hands.  I did take a few passes with a big scraper, and it did help.  But the cuts were so light it was going to take forever.  So I went to the 60 grit glued to a 2x4.  Much faster and worked like a charm.  

By the way, some of what I thought was massive tearout was actually intersecting wormholes.  So I left them as they were.  I'm sure Spock would have concerns about the fabric of the universe coming apart at the seams!