I'm a novice woodturner, and I'm in the middle of a country table project that requires turned legs, and I'm having a very difficult time turning the wood I have for the project, without catches and tearout, and chip out. I'm asking, am I barking up the wrong tree here with this hard maple, never to be successful?
The table is soft maple, but the saw mill only had hard maple in stock in twelve quarter, so I took it.
As I try to turn the leg, this hard maple, which has continuously reversing grain, looses big chips, is difficult to get my tools to cut it smoothly, and catches happen regardless of how slow & careful I apply the tools to the work.
I've sharpened and re-sharpened the lathe tools. My skew is sharpened as well as I sharpen my plane irons, which cut the same wood pretty well. Continuous honing of the tools with diamond hone blocks does no good, even as I sharpen I manage to create a burr.
The only way I can get this maple to cut fairly well is by using a very slender spindle gouge, which would take me three years to use on these 4 legs.
Following are some photos of the events I've encountered, along a good sections completed via spindle gouge, and a successful cherry pommel I turned with skew to see if this was all me causing the problematic results.
Please let me know if I need to scrap this hard maple & move on to secure some better wood, maybe soft maple. Any comments are welcome & appreciated.
Thanks
The table is soft maple, but the saw mill only had hard maple in stock in twelve quarter, so I took it.
As I try to turn the leg, this hard maple, which has continuously reversing grain, looses big chips, is difficult to get my tools to cut it smoothly, and catches happen regardless of how slow & careful I apply the tools to the work.
I've sharpened and re-sharpened the lathe tools. My skew is sharpened as well as I sharpen my plane irons, which cut the same wood pretty well. Continuous honing of the tools with diamond hone blocks does no good, even as I sharpen I manage to create a burr.
The only way I can get this maple to cut fairly well is by using a very slender spindle gouge, which would take me three years to use on these 4 legs.
Following are some photos of the events I've encountered, along a good sections completed via spindle gouge, and a successful cherry pommel I turned with skew to see if this was all me causing the problematic results.
Please let me know if I need to scrap this hard maple & move on to secure some better wood, maybe soft maple. Any comments are welcome & appreciated.
Thanks