THO Game Calls Forums
The Art of Handcrafting Custom Game Calls => General Call Making Discussions => Topic started by: Bucko on February 14, 2008, 10:43:45 AM
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I'd like to ask everyone a question concerning the identification of green wood.I've got a piece of Butternut chucked up and I've got a feeling it may be green wood.Upon drilling my hole the shavings were more of a stringy strand look rather than a chip or curl,I get the same stringy strand upon turning the square edges of of the piece with also a rough turning look.I finished the day yesterday making a nice pen and the gouges worked excellent for that turning and also on another this morn.Would it be my wood ???
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Sounds wet to me. If you are not sure, turn your piece down a bit and than let it sit for a week or two and inspect it. If it is wet you will see some movement. If you turn it all the way, and the wood is wet, the piece will probably move on you and you will lose a piece.
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One easy way to tell if you get green wood or not is if it is completely covered in wax when you get it. If it is, it is green and needs to be dried.
Another way is to use a moisture meter. Some are not too bad in price, but still they are not cheap. It will tell you the moisture content anyway.
The last way, but you have to sacrafice a chunk of wood is to drill it and turn it kind of thin walled and set it aside for a few days to a week. If it is wet, it will warp and you will know.
Some woods turn differently that others. Blackwood can produce the most wonderful strands of wood when turned. I dont think how the curls come off the lathe mean much, but I could be worng on this.
Al @ THO
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bucko,Did you get that wood from woodcraft,If you did I can tell you that it is not dry,for some reason they sell there wood not dry.But try drilling your hole and let it set to dry out then redrill
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I'd just take those peices you've already turned and let them set for a week. If its not dry, you'll know it. :-X
Parker
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I myself would rather turn wet (green) wood. It is so much easier to work with. If you are not done roughing it out yet, make sure you put it in a paper grocery bag with dry sawdust completely surrounding the piece. I have also put the piece in the dust collector barrel and covered it up. At times I forget about it being there until I dump the barrel and wonder what all the turned pieces are. The sawdust will help in slow drying the wood so it doesnt crack or warp as bad. It will take a while to dry this way, but a call blank 1 1/2" square will normally take about 3 weeks to go from 20% moisture down to 8 - 10% in my shop (kept at around 60 deg) this way. The moisture meter I have was around $60.
I know one year while in Colorado, I found a 6' piece of an Aspen tree that was about 8" diameter. I brought it home and cut off a chunk and put on the lathe. Got it turned down to round using a roughing gouge and kept turning it. The shaving I was getting ended up being about 40' long and about 5/16" wide. Course I needed a windshield wiper on my face shield as the water/sap had the front of me covered.
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Thanks for all the replies on my question.The easiest thing to do is to just let the wood sit.I bought the wood as an assortment pkg. from a saw mill on the internet.It's nice wood but obviously not ready too work.I must be slipping as I didn't think of the wood dryness[kiln?].
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Who did you buy it from? You said a Sawmill - was it Goosebay Sawmil>
If so , they are about 20 minutes from me LOL. I can run over and ask them if it is dry or not. They are goog folks.
AL @ THO
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http://clearcreeklumber.com/Call.html This is the site,you'll find the butternut under game call blanks.
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Not the same place but they sure do have some pretty wood. I am going to order a few blanks and see what it is like.
Thanks for sharing that site -
Al @ THO
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It says on the site that you linked to that "All Blanks Are Cut To 2 x 2 x 5 and Are Dry" right above where it says Free Shipping thru February.