Every hour!? I sharpen more often than that on oak, elm sweet gum, maple....etc.Hickory is like Turning, Keawe(Mesquite type tree) and Ohia.
Dee is right ! you learn to sharpen every hour or sooner ....
All are beautiful woods.
I recently turned a red oak blank that was laminated about fifty years ago. It was about as hard as any wood that I have ever worked with. Unlike a lot of woods where I could rough out the shape with less than perfectly sharp tools, I was going back to the grinder every fifteen minutes, on the finish cuts, about every seven minutes or so. On the hardness scale, red oak is 1290 and hickory is 1820. When you get above hickory in hardness, you are dealing with a lot of exotic timbers.I've never turned Hickory. A neighbor has Hickory cabinets and I love the figuring. How does it turn?
Its gonna be great!Thanks folks! Good info from all! I'll post a pic.... maybe.
That had to be some kind of fun cutting in those bowties on the side.An example for encouragement. This is pecan but you won't know the difference when turning. The bowl rim is 13.5" peak-to-peak. The foot is 7.5" diameter. Wall thickness is ~3/8". Turned this about 3 years ago.
No finish applied, yet. Sometimes I think why apply a finish.
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Cutting the bowties wasn't too bad. Kept the piece chucked on the lathe - before making the finish passes with the gouge. Lock the spindle with location at or near TDC. Hot glue a template firmly and securely to the bowl at the location where the bowtie goes. Be generous with the hot glue. Route out the mortise. Remove the template and cut the bowtie from the wood of choice. Clean up the mortise with a chisel being careful to keep everything 'square'. Slap some epoxy into the recess and place the bowtie. Clean up the squeeze out. If you use a contrasting color epoxy it sets off the bowtie. If you put painters tape around the mortise before gluing in the mortise, it makes the clean-up a bit easier, OBTW. Grind/sand down the bowtie flush with the bowl surface and finish turning the bowl. Light passes across the bowties.That had to be some kind of fun cutting in those bowties on the side.
Awesome! Thanks for the detail!Cutting the bowties wasn't too bad. Kept the piece chucked on the lathe - before making the finish passes with the gouge. Lock the spindle with location at or near TDC. Hot glue a template firmly and securely to the bowl at the location where the bowtie goes. Be generous with the hot glue. Route out the mortise. Remove the template and cut the bowtie from the wood of choice. Clean up the mortise with a chisel being careful to keep everything 'square'. Slap some epoxy into the recess and place the bowtie. Clean up the squeeze out. If you use a contrasting color epoxy it sets off the bowtie. If you put painters tape around the mortise before gluing in the mortise, it makes the clean-up a bit easier, OBTW. Grind/sand down the bowtie flush with the bowl surface and finish turning the bowl. Light passes across the bowties.
Let me emphasize the template muse be attached securely to bowl - again, lots of hot glue. I recommend a professional grade hot glue gun also.
Very nice! Thanks.An example for encouragement. This is pecan but you won't know the difference when turning. The bowl rim is 13.5" peak-to-peak. The foot is 7.5" diameter. Wall thickness is ~3/8". Turned this about 3 years ago.
No finish applied, yet. Sometimes I think why apply a finish.
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