Book Review: Turning Green Wood by Michael O'Donnell
by J. Norman Reid
Delaplane, Virginia
Turning wood while it's still green presents a number of special issues that differ from those encountered when turning dry wood. On the plus side, green wood is relatively easy to turn and cuts well with sharp tools. It's easier to get thin, even translucent, walls with green wood. But on the minus side, the wood is especially prone to movement after turning as it dries, which can not only result in unplanned shapes but—worse—cracking that can destroy all the work devoted to shaping it. To counter this tendency, extra planning and mitigation steps are needed, which O'Donnell covers thoroughly in an organized, easy-to-follow manner. In the process, he takes the reader from harvesting through planning to turning techniques. The result is a complete resource on green wood turning.
O'Donnell begins by considering the tree itself and the parts from which turning blanks may be taken. He describes not only heartwood and sapwood but more importantly reaction wood from branches and leaning trees whose tension yields differently-spaced growth rings. Moisture content is likewise given careful treatment as it relates to the varying shrinkage patterns of different wood species.
Perhaps the most valuable chapter in the book is the one entitled "Bowls in the Tree." With useful illustrations O'Donnell demonstrates the many ways bowls can be turned from cross-grain and end-grain, using different grain and color patterns as well as figure to achieve varying effects. He shows a variety of bowl configurations utilizing crotch wood and burrs, as well as how to plan various possibilities from irregular-shaped log sections. He supplements this by reviewing natural-edge bowls, end-grain bowls, shrinkage and distortion in green wood bowls and drying procedures to inhibit cracking, including using a microwave oven to dry thin turnings.
He then discusses selecting, harvesting and storing wood for turning, followed by consideration of turning tools, chucks and other holding devices, and turning and sanding techniques. Then, before proceeding to actual projects, he includes a helpful section on the essential steps of planning a project that starts even before the blank is cut from the log.
The second part of the book is devoted to detailed, illustrated discussions of six green wood turning projects. These are a delicate translucent cross-grain bowl, a natural edge cross-grain bowl, a translucent end-grain bowl, a natural edge end-grain bowl, a natural edge end-grain goblet and what he calls a part-turned functional bowl. Each project is described in step-by-step detail, from planning and design to selecting the material and sizing the blank, turning and drying the piece, and finally sanding and applying a finish. In each instance the steps are laid out in sufficient detail to be replicated directly or modified as each turner desires, making this a green wood turning cookbook that supports a complete range of turning effects.
Of the many turning books I've seen and purchased, to my mind this one is the most practical for the novice wood turner. As well, more advanced turners can benefit from the background discussions in part one in particular.
Purchase your own copy of
Turning Green Wood
for 25% off!
The author is a woodworker, writer and photographer living in Delaplane, Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains with his wife, four cats and a woodshop full of power and hand tools.
He can be reached by email at
nreid@fcc.net
.
