First Piece From A Portable
Bandsaw Yields [14] FREE 12″
Cherry Bowl Blanks

This article is kind of an add on to a previous post I did on collecting free bowl blanks by interacting with a variety of sawmilling people and businesses. If this post interests you please check out Free Source of Wood Blanks From Slabs.

We picked up some oak, hickory and cherry logs. A homeowner basically clear cut his yard to build a new home. I might mention that they were millennial’s from the city and they didn’t like trees. They wanted to move to the country and get out of the cement city. But they did not want trees for some reason. On one hand its sad to see some old growth forests taken down but on the other hand, it is either firewood, building timbers or free wood bowl blanks for me!

It was actually kind of tragic since whatever wasn’t to be used by us would get burned up in one big pile. And they did not want any trees in their yard….. so 200 year oak trees along with many other trees were clear cut so they could have a lawn!

Harvesting Logs for Woodturning
From New Construction Site!

I’m not a tree hugger, but I hate to see a forest, that is a 200+ year forest removed because some yuppie wants to build a house. I’m thankful that we were able to collect and use some of the wood for firewood and some of the trees were milled into lumber and some will be used for wood bowl blanks.

I have 2 interests when it comes to trees, logging and making things out of the wood you get from harvesting a tree ….my main excitement comes from the wood I harvest for turning bowls. I have been learning the best way to harvest this wood and the best way to dry it so I can share it with other wood turners.

What you see in this video is the first cut that comes off the log as it is on the bandsaw mill. The sawyer tries to cut a “cant” which is basically a piece of wood that is square or longitudinal. Once the cant is shaped he will cut it down to dimensional lumber or whatever you want. So the very first cut is the “slab” which is semi-circular on the bark side and flat on the cut side. You can usually get the “slab” for free or next to nothing and they make excellent bowl blanks!

Collecting Slab Cuts for Woodturning Bowl Blanks

Since I am kind of new at this I was interested in that first piece that is cut off of each side. Years ago I would go to the local sawmill and pick up these slab pieces for free and use them in my wood stove to heat my house.

Now I see another use for these “slabs” or first cuts. They are the perfect shape for bowl blanks!

If you can talk the “sawyer” into adding an inch or two to the first cut you will end up with some pretty awesome bowl blanks, you can do some pretty nice live edge work and even if they might not be as thick as you want they can easy make platters or shallow dishes. Of course if you hired him to cut a log then you can tell him how thick you want those pieces. Or better yet if you really start to get into making and collecting your own free wood bowl blanks you can get a small gasoline bandsaw mill for under $2000 and you’ll have enough bowl blanks for a lifetime. In fact, I plan on cutting up a few logs and harvesting these free bowl blanks and selling them at some point in time. There are lots of folks in my woodturning facebook group that are always looking for wood to turn …..so the market is there and I would be helping my fellow turners.

Up to Now We’ve Been Following The Bandsaw Around and Helping
Him For Some Free Bowl Blanks

Up to this point I have been talking about following the “sawyer” around and snagging the stuff nobody wants. It is a very good source of turning materials. Make sure you give the guy a couple of your nicest bowls 🙂

There is another option. And I’ve mentioned if briefly.

#1 Hire Out The Services of A
Local Sawyer and His Bandsaw Mill

You can find someone with a portable bandsaw mill that will come to your property and literally cut up a log into any size pieces you might want.

Let’s say a storm comes in and blows down a hickory tree. You can try to cut it up into wood-turning blanks with a chainsaw ….and that’s cool. You will end up with a lot of stock.

Or

You can have a portable sawmill come in and slice up every trunk, branch or whatever is available into the thickness you need for your turning projects. At this point you can dry the pieces for yourself or you might even consider selling some. Or perhaps share the cost with another woodturner or woodturning club.

Lets say you have a 12′ log on the band-saw mill. You can have the sawyer cut a couple of slabs that might be bowl blanks ….remember to tell him to make them bigger than normal ….tell him why and he will began to understand what you want. That log will give you 4 slabs at least 12″ wide and 4 inches deep. Then you can cut the middle of the log into lumber that could be used for spindles ….so 2 or 3″ thick and then you could cut some bigger bowl blanks 6+ inches thick. You would be amazed at how many blanks you will end up with. Just remember to treat them properly for drying so you don’t get checks and cracks.

Make sure you tell him how you want to handle the pith. You do not want that pith in the middle of your thick blanks.

Then tell him what size you want the tree to be cut up into. For instance, lets say you want some big bowls so you tell him to cut 6″ or 8″ thick slices. Once you get your slices you will need to quickly cut them into blanks sizes ….say 14″ and seal the ends. Then you need to dry them, either in shavings or a dehumidifier of some sort or commercial drying company.

One big tree could get you all the wood you every wanted for your  woodturning needs. Or it might even set you off on another adventure where you collect, process and treat bowls blanks for others to use.

My FREE Woodturning Bowl Blanks

This slab yielded me about 12 free cherry bowl blanks that were about to be cut down to 12″, each had a unique shape.

The slab had been sitting outside for a year so it was getting dry. The bowls I made from that piece where further dried in the microwave …..60 second blasts, maybe 4 or 5 times a day.

It was beautiful wood. I did some with live edges and the bark stuck hard, some of the bowls/platters were traditional and only took about 4 times in the microwave …..which I’m guessing would have been 4 months in a bag of shavings.

This picture was from one of the small cherry bowl blanks. It was a 12″ blank I cut on my bandsaw and about 4 inches thick. One thing you don’t want to do when turning these small and thin platters/bowls is to use a recess to mount your cut. That will eliminate the amount of wood that can be gouged out of the bowl. You should use a tenon, to turn the bowl and obviously cut the tenon off at the end of the project.

My whole purpose of this post and video was to show you that there are many sources of wood that you can find and use to turn your creations. And, further processing can be expanded from buried in shavings to using a microwave to hurry the process so you can finish it and put it on the market.

This was on of my first microwave dries. I put it in the microwave about 6 times and varied between 60 and 90 seconds. If the bowl gets too hot to touch then you need to reduce the time. So far so good, I keep the microwave procedure going until my scale showed that weight loss had stopped. That means there was no more water to evaporate. I was please, no cracks or checks and I will getting a dedicated microwave for the shop! Thanks to Al Auth from the facebook group who encouraged me to give this procedure a try.

You will need a scale, I like this one …can actually weigh up to 90 pounds but I use it in the kitchen when I get the urge to whip up a gourmet dinner for my favorite wife 🙂 

And its nice to have a moisture meter, this one works fine for me

I plan on doing a lot more on my woodturning blog, however,  if you haven’t please check out my facebook woodturning group. https://facebook.com/groups/woodturningbasics you’ll find a great group of people there. Some are clueless as to how to start and what to use but then there are the guys that have been turning for 30 or 40 years and can answer any question you might want …..all very good people.  I keep the facebook group clean. If you need to swear or make lude and crude jokes or just make fun of someone …..you will be deleted. I want this group to be a family affair. Some of my favorites are Guilherme Eduardo, Al Furtado and I see Capn’ Eddie just signed up…..I think Capn’ Eddie videos were some of the first I started to learn on….. great guy, great wood turner and he served our country, he lived enough life to throw some golden nuggets our way….wish he were my neighbor!

All 3 of those woodturners have excellent woodturning channels on youtube and if you get stuck, you might want to check them out:

Guil ……. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChVVt0WnzTJ81S1V7itCEqA/videos

Al………………………. https://www.youtube.com/user/Alfurtado1/videos

Capn’ Eddie………….. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgEbScotUCk64Mnw1jU9jFw/videos

I think this is a second channel Capn’ Eddie started, there is another one with a ton of videos on when he was feeling well and a little younger 🙂
You might want to visit his site to support him, he sells turning tools, equipment and has free tool plans and project plans ….you will learn a lot and he is someone who deserves the “pass it on” mentality http://eddiecastelin.com/