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First Time working with black walnut. There was a lot of end grain tear out; just meant more sanding and sealing and keeping everything nice and sharp.

Black walnut is a pretty dense wood and more difficult to work than I thought it would be, but I really like it; the grain pattern is amazing and have always love walnut because of the grain.

This particular piece of green black walnut was very wet and I used the freezer to dry for the first time. The freezer actually word very well to extract the water.

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That is a lovely bowl. How long did you keep it in the freezer? The only BW I've turned have been store-bought bowl blanks (I still have a couple), and, sometimes it seems, it's like trying to turn granite. I found, however, that the end grain was the easier bit. The side grain is what I've had most of the tearout trouble with. Of course, the tearout happens in those two nettlesome spots where the grain goes from face to end, doesn't it? Going in from the end (hollowing) ... nevermind. You're right - inside or out, that's where it happens. Good work.

Insanity isn't fun.
 

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Nice looking bowl. Interestingly, I have never thought about using a freezer to dry wood.
Thanks for sharing.

Bob
 

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Hey MarK - Thanks! Sounds like the hunk of walnut you had was dried. The one that I had was green and wet as a whistle. The end grain was the wettest - in fact it was so wet that the end grain would not shear or cut, it would just lay down - so I threw that sucker in the freezer for 24 hours. Turned it some more and it was still too wet so I put it back in the freezer for another round. Was pretty dry after thawing out and the tear out was a bit easier to deal with too.

Bob - The idea was not mine and I will not take credit for it but i too thought it was a great idea and it is working fantastic. I got the idea from a fellow lumberjock, Jim from this forum. http://lumberjocks.com/topics/7206

Thanks for the post guys!

Nice looking bowl. Interestingly, I have never thought about using a freezer to dry wood.
Thanks for sharing.

Bob

- BobWemm
That is a lovely bowl. How long did you keep it in the freezer? The only BW I ve turned have been store-bought bowl blanks (I still have a couple), and, sometimes it seems, it s like trying to turn granite. I found, however, that the end grain was the easier bit. The side grain is what I ve had most of the tearout trouble with. Of course, the tearout happens in those two nettlesome spots where the grain goes from face to end, doesn t it? Going in from the end (hollowing) ... nevermind. You re right - inside or out, that s where it happens. Good work.

Insanity isn t fun.

- Mark Wilson
 

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Not picking on you but I wish people would provide the size of their work as a reference. It is a common oversight.

This is the first time I have heard about freezing wet turnings to remove the water. How dry does it get the wood and how long does it take.

Anyway, have you tried microwaving you wet wood? There are lots of "how to's" on the internet so I won't go into a long explanation here. It works great.
 

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No worries Les. Bought the green bowl blank with the dimensions of 6×3.

I have tried using a microwave with moderate success. The wood really warps badly when I use the microwave. My microwave could be too powerful for what I want it to do - might go back after freezer experiments and use the defrost mode on the microwave.

The freezer seems to be more gentle - takes a little longer than a microwave - but I see a lot less warping.
Freeze time - 24 hours
Thaw time - 24 hours

If it is still wet after that, do it again.

I am not an expert by any stretch and I am still experimenting, but so far I like it better than a microwave.
 
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