 This is nice Ralph. Is the wood easy to turn?
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Marc Yes it has a nice tight grain, unfortunatelly it is a dry timber i would have liked to turn it wet. Ralph
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Not always possible though, is it mate.............I was lucky to get my Plum wood wet and turned it to size but, most cracked badly even though I had coated the ends..........I blame that wet/dry/wet/dry weather we had/are having 
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yes it is a bit hit and miss with our wheather, but as a general rule of thumb i always turn wt timber to aboutn 1mm and let it warp, looks great, some still splt but not many Ralph
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My problem was I didnt know what I was going to turn, so I just rounded it and sealed the ends...............I also found out that PVA glue works as good as sealer too! (thanks go to Baz for that info  )
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I could have done with someone telling me what to do as well, I had a small Cherry tree in the garden i stored it in case i ever needed it, but no more it split, and then when i stored it in the shed it dried too much and now Resembles some very old unusable spalted timber. Still might know better next time.
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 Ralph. Lovely piece i really like natural edges, as for sealing end grain with pva, i only learnt that this week. I could have saved a deal of money if i`d known before!!! Marc. Any chance of a piccy of the tools you made, i`m intrigued ???? Baz.
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Now we are growing a field Maple in the garden, but it will be a while before i get my hands on that one !!! Still no harm thinking about it.
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We have a huge silver birch growing in the back garden, twice the height of the house. I`ve sugested pruning it but have run in to a brick wall, with the words " you prune that tree & i`ll prune you" . Think i`ll just buy some timber from the nice man at the saw mill & wait for the birch to fall over. baz
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Baz I grew a euckaliptus (i know that's not how its spelt, but you know what i mean) Kept it for 5 years and cut it down, had great fun turning it wet, when i planted the next one the better half kept nipping out the top to grow it "as more of a bush" absolutelly no good to turn. I make no suggestions in public any more !!! Ralph
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Ralph. Eucalyptus grows so fast, i remember my dad planting one & in no time it was 25' high. Thing was it grew so fast it was unstable & blew over. The growth rings must be quite a way apart. Baz.
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What about Lalandi to turn.........that grows and grows fast-er........ Baz I'll take a few piccies tomorrow.......Haven't used them yet so I don't know what there be like..........and I only tried to copy a small picture in a mag so no doubt I've got it totally wrong  We had a Sycamore tree in our garden. I planted it for my wife as a tribute to her late mother..........5 years later she wanted it down as it was slightly high for our garden and luckily enough I had just got me lathe, My first candle sticks came from that!
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Its a wierd timber altogether Baz When it dries too quickly it splits from the centre out, it splits to form pod shaped holes radiating out from the centre, and apparentlly it has a turnable growth which sometimes forms on the root. Wish i knew that one before i moved, dont think they would be happy if i went back and dug up the roots now ? Ralph
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Its great learning on this site and from people like you..........I wouldn't of know that. What I do know is that those Parquetry tiles I've got were Tasmanian Oak.......a form of Eucalyptus
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Marc If you have some Parquetry tiles, stick them together to form some sort of pattern (theres a site www.wizardryinwood.com, click on Carlyn Lindsay and see what can be achieved) Then turn the glued up block, Make sure you sand off all the varnish, keep tight joints and use some decent glue. Its another way to turn and its amazing what you can do with offcuts and scrap pieces, sadly i no longer have a sander so i can't do this at the moment, but it is fun.
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Theres some smashing pieces there Marc. Its amazing the effect you get just by changing the direction of grain. I will have to look for a cheap Belt sander and have another go myself
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Thanks Ralph. The belt sanders OK for smoothing the block but the little tiles can give you a few soar finger tips Still have at least another 300 tiles to use yet.........I've been making a few boxes by gluing 3 and 4 tiles on their side to make the box walls, base & lids.....dovetailing as well as mitring the edges, they do look nice but very fiddly..... Right Bed calling, good night and thanks again my friend Marc
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WAKEY WAKEY Sparky. You`ll never make an impact on the day lying in bed  . Ralph. Thanks for the wizardryinwood link that looks like a great exhibition, just wish they would do something like that more central, Birmingham etc, give everyone a chance to see such fabulous work. Cheers Baz.
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I agree Its a shame when the country has so many excelent exhibition centres in so many accessable places why do people opt for the same ones. Maybe this site or the Magazines it is organised by could make pictures of the Exhibition and work available to a wider audience.? Ralph
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