Bradford Pear turning

[rhahnfl]

SWMBO had me cut one of our bradford pear trees way back today. I took a branch that was pretty straight and about 24" long and put it on the lathe this evening to see what would happen. Didn't know green wood really did turn that easily. This is by far the longest turning I have ever done and I can see why you might want some support in the middle. I turned it down to a pretty good taper and think if I can get it finished that I'll give it to a buddy at work to use with his "Professor Snape" costume as a wand. Started out with a skew to take off the bark and round it but found that my biggest roughing gouge worked even better. Left it on the lathe to see if it'll dry enough overnight that I might be able to sand it tomorrow. Right now it just gums up the sandpaper. Lots of fun...

 

[DozerMite]

It may check and split by morning. I tried that with a piece of walnut once and even oiled it and put it a bag with the shavings. About four hours later it was starting to check. After that I used the soap method.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Sounds like you are doing the right thing with that. I turned a piece of Bradford pear that had been drying for two years into a rolling pin for my wife. Very hard stuff. If I had known it got that hard I would have turned a year earlier.

 

[rhahnfl]

I just checked it again... no checks or splitting yet. Was somewhat drier so I ran a piece of 80 grit and 120 grit sandpaper over it. Seems to sand very well. Going to let it dry some more and sand more tomorrow.

 

[jwoodwright]

I forget who said it, something to do with turning green wood is as good as it gets...

Just be careful of sappy woods. I.E. Spruce. I cut a chunk off the old Christmas tree and was glad I was wearing a face shield. Covered in sticky sap. The gouge was stuck to my hand... But the streamers of Spruce just uncoiling and piling all over. Took 2 days to get that mess cleaned up...

 

[Russianwolf]

I took out a small weeping willow a couple weeks ago. I sectioned the trunk and pulled a small piece out yesterday to play with.

I've been turning wands from scrap as a way to practice and they actually sell okay on ebay, so I was making a willow wand.

It is now the most unique of my wands to date. It isn't completely round as it was somewhat off center when I started it. I'll post a picture as soon as I get to take some. I'm watching it to see if it checks at all. After getting the bark and a thinlayer that was soft underneath that, the wood seemed pretty dry already.