Stuff I think about at Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:06:16 GMT Random, semi-useless, semi-incomplete thoughts that percolate through the fog of my mind. Mostly about woodworking. Close to the point of failure Random thought:

In turning, the closer you can cut the wood to the point of failure, without actually having it fail, the better the end result. Crotch, burl, spalt, scarring. All failures of the wood which weaken the log and potential board. But in turning, we take those failures, cut away the “good stuff” and get as close to the fail point as possible without it flying apart on the lathe.

Can’t do that in furniture work, except for purely decorative areas like panels and drawer fronts, if you want your piece to survive use. Are turnings more temporal than furniture then? I don’t know. Probably.

The point of this? Dunno. But it sure helps when I cut down a tree knowing that I can use both those nice straight boles and all the junky parts most sawyers leave behind.

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:06:16 GMT Lochlainn1066 Lochlainn1066