Turning green blanks

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DCBluesman

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I recently heard about a process that some bowl turners are using for turning green wood and decided to try it for myself on pen blanks. Here's the process I used and results.

Purchase an inexpensive brand of liquid dishwashing soap (NOT dishwasher detergent). Make sure it is not anti-bacterial, enhanced with lanolin or any of that other marketing hype. All of those things really messed up the wood. Get it as plain as you can and as close to clear as you can.

Place green blanks in a solution of 50% soap, 50% water. Make sure the container seals tightly and that the wood is covered (it floats, but you can turn the container over half way through the process to insure that there is penetration throughout the blank).

Leave really green wood in the solution for 8 hours. Let it dry until it is surface dry, then proceed with all of the necessary steps for turning. The shavings are a bit unusual...ribbon like. It turns just a bit easier than dry wood.

This wood will take friction finishes, dyes and lacquer (I haven't tried polyurethane).

Results: I find that the green wood turned very nicely. The pens I made have held up well with no cracking or splitting. One slight drawback is that the infusion of the soap may VERY mildly cloud extremely fine figures. I had to use a magnifying glass to see the clouding, but it is there.

After the fact: I tried this to stabilize some dry but punky spalted mango. It stabilized the blank very well and made turning a breeze. The dry wood only need to be in the solution for about 3-4 hours as it sponges the solution up quite quickly.

Those of you who like experimenting may want to try this method while your convection/microwave/dehydrators do there thing. All in all, it was a fun experiment with pretty darned good results.
 
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Doghouse

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It is ok, but it will change the color of the wood slightly. Costco dish liquid works great, 50/50 with water. I soak the bowls over night but drilled pen blanks would take less time.
 

DCBluesman

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I've now done blanks both drilled/tubed and solid. This seems to work equally well with either method. The glue holds the blanks tight as can be. I did experience a minor color change, however that was solved by keeping dark woods and light woods in separate containers.
 

tipusnr

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Probably a strange idea but I'm thinking of using the dyes in some soap as a coloring agent to add interest to some really bland blanks I've got. Still mulling this over so don't know if I'll try it or not.
 

DCBluesman

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I'd give it a shot, Bill. Since this is simply an osmotic (sp? Even with spell checking, I'm not sure on this one) process. The concentration of water in the wood and soap in the soaking solution makes each migrate towards the other. I have every reason to suspect that the coloring of the soap would migrate as well. If you try it, let me know your results.
 
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