Turning Highly Figured Wood

Mark Palma turns a piece to accentuate its natural beauty

Round wooden bowl with rich grain pattern

I am always troubled when I hear turners use the term ‘round and brown’ to describe any turned work. Sadly, they are using it to be derogatory to any turning that isn’t coloured, burned, pierced, deconstructed, or embellished in some way. I think they are wonderful techniques that have their place in turning.

However, wood can display natural beauty that shouldn’t be so negatively dismissed. In our journey of woodturning sometimes we are blessed to find an extraordinary piece of wood displaying such incredible figure that our focus should be on not messing up what we are presented with, not trying to obliterate nature’s accomplishment. Unfortunately, by its very nature, highly figured wood may exhibit grain that is twisted and multi-directional, it may have areas of decay, bark inclusions, voids, and myriad other abnormalities that make the process of harvesting a piece from this wood more difficult.

In this article we will explore just a few techniques that may help you when you experience an uncooperative piece of beautiful wood that fights you during the turning process.

Close-up of rustic live-edge wooden slab.
This tree crotch exhibits a variety of grain patterns. Sadly, the crotch of a tree can often become infected or defective as seen here, so when you find one with great structure, take the time to harvest it carefully

What causes wood to be highly figured?

Despite all the advances in science there are some grain patterns in certain species of wood that defy explanation. Wood that displays ‘curl’ (described by many terms, such as wavy, quilted, fiddleback, tiger, flamed, rippled being just a few) has the ability to refract light differently and appears to shimmer or move when the work is viewed from various angles. Trees that grow under severe stress can sometimes exhibit unusual and incredible grain pattern. The crotch of a tree can exhibit a unique grain that I equate to snowflakes – no two are exactly alike. Sometimes the two halves mirror each other, some crotches look like a collision of two trees where the fibres appear smashed and woven into one and other. Sometimes there is no relationship between the two halves, with one side more dominate in size and figure. Other figure is created by insects, fungus, or physical damage that has occurred to a tree during or after its life.

With straight-grained wood the fibres are all running in a single direction. When turning spindles you are slicing through side grain throughout the project. When wood is in a face-grain orientation (such as typically seen on plates, platters and bowls), you have side grain on much of the work and end grain in two opposing areas. With highly figured wood you may experience twisted and atypically oriented grain seemingly randomly distributed throughout the blank. Also, you may experience very hard grain next to relatively soft grain. This may make the tool seem to bounce and make sanding difficult as the density differences cause the abrasive to dig into the soft fibre areas and bounce off the hard areas, leaving an irregular surface.

Assorted pieces of olive wood blocks.
Sometimes with highly figured wood you need to be a bit of a diamond cutter. Here is a pile of offcuts that had to be removed to find sound wood. Accept you will have waste when you work with this type of wood. The areas next to the worst defects often yield the most fabulous figure
Two round wooden blocks on grey surface
Why doesn’t it turn the same? The figured maple on the left and the ash on the right show the contrast between straight grain and figure. Both are oriented the same way as they would have been on the tree but it is difficult to see which way the figure is actually running on the maple

How to conquer highly figured grain

We as turners have a tendency to come up with a technique that works for us and use it for every situation. That consistency is a benefit if our material is consistent, but may cause problems with highly figured wood. The best advice I can provide is to use the waste areas of your turning blank to experiment and see if your technique will create the intended result with highly figured wood. There are areas of a blank that are always turned away, so those areas are perfect for this experimentation. Here are some ideas to consider in adjusting your technique to the wood:

Uphill or downhill turning. We are taught to always turn ‘uphill’ with the fibres behind the area supporting the fibres we are trying to cut. That is an excellent practice. Sometimes on certain areas of highly figured wood, cutting uphill yields a better result. Just check to see what may be better on this blank. A cut in each direction in the waste area will let you know when you stop the lathe and look at the resulting cut.

Close-up of wooden spool on metal spindle.
The wood was turned from each edge. You can see the wood turned left to right seems to cut more cleanly, even though this isn’t the usual approach by most turners

Tool sharpness. Sharp tools always cut more cleanly. Turners can become complacent (read lazy) and think they can get by for another few cuts without returning to the grinder. Highly figured wood may not allow that latitude. It is better to sharpen than rip out fibres when you are reaching final wall thickness and cannot make further cuts.

Lathe rpms and feed rate. Some turners like to turn at lower rpms, some a little faster. Highly figured wood usually wants as much speed as you can safely provide. The speed allows for the tools to slice cleanly and not follow grain or irregularities in the wood. However, this may tax your personal comfort level, so do not compromise your personal safety for the sake of lathe speed. You have complete control over how fast you advance your tool across the work (feed rate). Most of the time we feed our tool across the work at a subconscious rate of speed, not a purposeful one. With highly figured wood consider feed rate. Slowing down the tool advancement will allow more time for the tool to slice fibres. This is particularly important as you move towards the centre of the work and the surface speed per minute of the wood crossing under the tool is dramatically slowing.

Close-up of textured stone sink surface
Here you can see what happens when you aggressively feed a bowl gouge across figured grain. The wood fibres tear away in chunks and leave deep tear-out that can ruin the turning

Tool size, grind and type. Turners are creatures of habit and some turners grab the same 1⁄2in-diameter bowl gouge no matter what they are turning. Well, it may work well or, heaven forbid, a smaller diameter gouge may take smaller slices and result in a better surface. I usually find a 3⁄8 in diameter bowl gouge works better for me in most situations. Many turners find that the steep angle of a ‘bottom gouge’ (frequently with around a 55-60° angle grind) does far better than the 40-45° swept-back bowl gouge grind used for most work. This makes sense as woodworkers have used 55° angles on planes for highly figured wood, rather than the 25-30° they use on straight grain. It’s the same principle applied to a different situation. When shear scraping I find that going up a size (such as from 3⁄8 in to 1⁄2in) creates less bounce on the irregular fibre structure of figured wood. The additional heft seems to add stability and result in a smoother surface. Another consideration is that in many situations the lowly scraper will yield a better surface than a gouge. With a fresh burr and the right angle of attack, the scraper may remove transparent ribbons of wood. Again, practise on the waste area and see what is working well.

Stabilise wood fibres if needed. Some turners find misting water on the wood allows the fibres to cut more cleanly. Other turners find a coat of dewaxed shellac (either spray or brush-on) or sanding sealer helpful to stabilise fibres. This works well, but you must let the wood dry for five minutes or so to allow the sanding sealer or shellac to set up fully before the cut.

Wood finish and sealer products on display

Sand with care and use the right approach. As mentioned, highly figured wood may have areas of varying density. This can cause soft areas to be abraded away by aggressive sanding and result in unwanted high and low areas that ruin the piece. Instead, I like to sometimes use an extra-slow lathe speed, a firmer disc and interface pad, and one grit coarser initial sanding grit to knock off the high spots faster. Then I shut off the lathe and hand sand to allow sanding by following the grain pattern itself, not the rotation direction of the lathe. Then I go up grit by grit and repeat the power sanding and hand sanding sequence. Of course, you are using a fresh disc for each grit and not one that is worn. Depending on your intended finish, the final sanding grit matters. As I favour oil finishes for all highly figured woods (reasons below), you can sand through very high grits. My final grit for ‘appearance grade’ pieces made from highly figured wood is 4000, and even daily use plates are sanded to 1000 grit.

Choose a finish that highlights your work. People seem to want to touch well-turned pieces made from highly figured wood to see if they are ‘real’. It seems a shame to deny them the opportunity to touch the wood by hiding it under a coat of polyurethane or other surface finish. So, I gravitate towards oil finishes that also seem to cause the grain patterns to pop. Now, here comes a controversial view – I don’t think a person can tell which oil you have applied if you have properly prepared the surface and applied the oil with the appropriate procedure. Yes, some governmental agencies deem one oil ‘safer’ than others for food applications (or for people who suffer from nut allergies, and those situations should be observed), but they can be made to look the same after they dry. Sometimes I use wax (either as an ingredient in the oil or as a standalone top coat) to provide an additional layer of protection.

Let’s make a project

Round wooden board and spray bottle displayed.
1. Here is a plank of figured maple; it has been sprayed with some water to give you an idea of the grain pattern. A sprayer with some water is a great help in evaluating figure in rough wood
Person using wood lathe in workshop.
2. Usinga3⁄8indiameterbowlgouge,theblank is made round. Once it is round and in balance the speed of the lathe can be increased to your comfortable operating range
Close-up of textured wooden bowl surface
3. This close-up shows how easily grain can tear out on figured wood. If you look closely you can see that the tear-out isn’t uniform and in one of the elements of the figure it does not tear out
Woodturner crafting wooden bowl on lathe machine
4. After establishing the roughed-out rim diameter, the bottom of the blank is squared up to give a sense of the amount of usable size. Note that the 3⁄8 in bowl gouge is throwing chips very efficiently
Wood shavings on industrial conveyor system.
5. A tip many turners should consider is to look closely at the shavings coming off the tool. If you are cleanly cutting wood your shavings should be longer and not short sections. You will note that there are three distinct patterns of shavings in the picture – long, wide, wispy shavings from a scraper, shavings from a clean cut from the bowl gouge push cut, and thin, spiral shavings from a shear scrape. Your shavings should look like this, not dust, if you are using sharp tools and cutting efficiently with your lathe speed and tool feed
Wood lathe shaping wooden bowl with tool.
6. Here we have developed a tenon to fit well in the chuck. Note how clean the bottom ultimately cut using the tips in this article
Wood lathe in action with wood shavings.
7. Using a pencil, the area that will be removed from the bottom of the piece is marked. This area can be used for experimenting with various tools and cutting techniques to determine how the highly figured wood you are using likes to be removed while avoiding tear-out. Don’t waste this opportunity if you are unfamiliar with species and grain pattern you will be using
Person woodturning on a lathe machine
8. Here a pull cut is being used. It removes wood quickly as you can see from the chips that are coming off the tool. It is an aggressive cut and will not result in good results on this type of figure
Wood lathe with sawdust and control panel
9. Unfortunately, the surface left from an aggressive pull cut is unacceptable. You can see the deep tear-out. Lesson learned, not the right cut for this project
Wood lathe machine used for shaping wood.
10. Using the wing of the bowl gouge and the tool handle dropped low, we are shear scraping the outside profile. This cut is leaving a clean surface and allowing the profile to be refined to the desired contour
11. The shavings on the left are from a push cut, those on the right from shear scraping. If you are cutting efficiently this is what you should see coming off a sharp tool. With figured wood, plan on sharpening more than you would expect to get a great-looking surface
Person sanding woodwork on lathe machine.
12. You need to just accept that you need to sand highly figured wood well to achieve an acceptable end result. Power sanding, hand sanding and some sanding with the lathe off will probably be the needed sanding pattern. Don’t skip grits or steps – it will show in the end project
Wooden bowl on lathe being turned
13. This is what you want to see when you finish the outside – no tear-out, even sanding of the undulating grain and a smooth end result
Wood lathe carving with tool and shavings.
14. With the blank inserted into the chuck we start on the inside. I like to cut in only 1⁄2in or so to establish the top of the rim area. By only cutting a small area your eye will focus better on the outer rim edge and you will ensure that you have cut deep enough to remove any defects and know how much wood you will have to work with. I find that avoiding the temptation to start hollowing out the inside until I confirm this critical area makes a better end result
Woodturning on a lathe, chips flying off.
15. With tailstock support, which I like to use whenever possible (especially when we have a very shallow tenon), we are removing much of the interior waste wood. You can often remove 60- 80% of interior waste wood with tailstock support and turn safer with the work between centres
Woodturning on lathe with shavings and tool
16. Here we have switched to a traditionally ground French curve scraper to refine the inside near the rim. Note the wispy shavings that are coming off the tool. Sometimes a scraper will yield an incredible surface. Just burnish the burr frequently to keep it performing well
Two piles of tangled fibres on metal surface.
17. Some turners discount what you can achieve with a well-sharpened and applied scraper. Here is the type of shavings that came off the highly figured maple. The shavings are almost transparent and uniform in length and width. Looking at your shavings will help you be a better turner by seeing if your stance, lathe speed, tool feed rate and sharpening is in sync
Man applying finish to a wooden bowl in workshop.
18. Here is my typical finishing approach with oil finishes. Craft paper protects the bench, and a clean area is maintained to prevent contaminating the project. A little oil is poured into a recycled yogurt cup and applied with a chip brush. Then a small, clean cotton cloth is used to work the oil into the work. Note that I am wearing eye protection and gloves. Then the work is placed on the wood scraps to allow air circulation when drying. In a few hours I will wipe it down again as highly figured wood seems to bleed back some oil as it sits. In three days or so I will inspect the piece and possibly add another coat as figure does not absorb oil uniformly
Round wooden plate with natural grain pattern.

19. The finished piece

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK PALMA

Further reading

Turning Green Wood

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