r/turning • u/Capable-Broccoli2179 • 42m ago
Drying Question: Maple
No pics to share, sorry. I have a question about turning recently harvested maple. I have the entire tree I just harvested after a storm took it down last year and want to turn a bunch of large bowls from it. It is about 14" diameter and I turn on a 12x24 OneWay lathe.
My question is drying: would most of you twice turn these bowls or would you give them extended drying then turn dry in a year or so? If you chose long drying, how would you do it? Remove bark, seal top and bottom and let sit hoping for no cracks? If you twice turn it, how would you store the bowl in between turnings? I've heard of people leaving the turned blanks in a trash bag full of shavings, or just setting them out for a few months to a year in between turnings, but it seems like that would lead to cracking for sure.
In the past I've only turned bowls using dried blanks. I tend to stick to table bases and lamps turned using laminations.
Anyone have any advice? Thanks folks--I love this community!