A notebook on greenwood carving
I came across this wonderful poster at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA the other day, and wanted to share. It captures a lot of what I am thinking about these days. Market season is nearly upon us, and I find myself anticipating the conversations I will have with and questions I will field from prospective customers. Why should we invest in craft?
I recently spent a delightful day working with Peter Lamb @gerrishisland at his lovely home in Kittery, Maine. He wanted to get himself set up to turn bowls on an electric lathe, so we spent the day tinkering and turning. For those of you who don’t know Peter, he is both a wonderful person and a fount of woodworking knowledge. I think I first met him in 2015 at a course with Jögge Sundqvist up at Lie Neilsen Toolworks. Peter was friends with Bill Coperthwaite, and after Bill passed he became a trustee for Dickinson’s Reach. Peter has been connected to the greenwoodworking movement in the US for decades, and I always learn something when talking with him.
Not long after my visit, Peter sent along a series of photos that really got my attention. These are shots that he took of Wille Sundqvist‘s turning workshop (included here with permission from his son Jögge). What especially arrested me were the tools—massive hooks like those used on a pole lathe.
Bowls like these take a lot of time, when all is considered. First I have to fell the tree, chop it into 4' lengths, end-over-end the lengths out of the forest, chop the lengths into rounds, split the rounds in half, and then shape the split halves into bowl blanks. Let's say that fist step of processing the material takes 20 minutes pr. bowl blank. Then I have to turn the blanks into finished bowls. That takes 40-60 minutes, if all goes well, but not every blank wants to become a bowl! I lose about 25% of the blanks to knots, bark inclusions, etc..., so we should add at least 15 minutes to each successful bowl. Once the bowl dries, I can then do the carving, which adds another 90 minutes. Finally paint and oil, which adds maybe 25 minutes and includes material costs. That adds up to at a minimum three hours of labor, but probably more like three-and-a-half or four.
So what can I charge for bowls like the ones above and below (once completed)? Can I get $100 for them? Or even $80? Depending on what I can sell them for, it is pretty obvious to me that I might make $20/hour on them, but probably more like $15/hr. Honestly, if I could sell them reliably, I would say GREAT! I would take that salary! But I am not sure I can. We will see. These bowls are sort of a test run.
I had a good question on Instagram the other day regarding turning green wood and how to avoid the “fuzzy bits.” I gave a long answer for Instagram, but the subject deserves more space. So here are my thoughts on this topic, to date:
There are a lot of wonderful aspects to turning green as opposed to dry wood: the workability, the reduction in dust, the way the wood moves as it dries, etc…. It is definitely my preferred medium. But it does come with challenges: cracking, excessive warping, and oxidation to name a few. One major challenge, for turners of both wet and dry wood, is producing a smooth finish right from the gouge or hook.
When turning side-grain oriented bowl blanks, twice every revolution your tool is cutting against the grain, or is cutting wood that is unsupported by the fibers behind the cut. In these quadrants the tool is lifting fibers before cutting them off, leaving sort of a “buzz cut” effect in the wood. Once you pas this uphill section and get into side and cross grain again, the wood fibers are supported and you can cut them cleanly. My commenter on Instagram was wondering how I reduce the roughness of the “fuzzy bits.”
First, this is a problem with which both green and dry wood turners struggle. For those turning dead dry wood, it is less of an issue: dryer wood cuts a bit more cleanly than green wood, so the final surface is definitely smoother. Dry wood also sands reasonably well, and if that is your thing you can sand away those rough patches. Green wood does not sand nearly as well as dry, so you really don’t have that option, though I do lightly sand my work with 180 grit.
Thus, one part of your solution to avoiding those rough patches when turning green wood is not to turn completely fresh wood. Let is rest for a bit. How long depends on the species. Some old-time turners often talked about felling beech logs and only turning them once the bark had started to separate from the wood. If you are going to let your wood rest before turning, watch out for a few issues. If you leave the wood on the ground in a damp place, watch out for spalting; it can be beautiful, but it can also undermine the wood integrity. And the fungus in spalted wood is nothing something you want to inhale a lot of. Rapid drying and checking should also be avoided. Some people paint the ends of their logs to slow moisture loss, but I find simply elevating the log off the ground and keeping it in the shade and out of wind works best. And be careful with birch; the bark is nearly waterproof, which traps moisture in the wood and accelerates rotting. If you want to let birch mellow, consider peeling the logs first.
The second consideration is the wood species. Some species are more prone to fuzzing than others. For example, fresh birch can definitely get furry, but fresh beech turns reasonably well, usually. I say “usually” because each tree is different. If a tree grew in stressful situations, say on a hillside or buffeted with lots of wind, the fibers can interlock, tension can build in the wood, and the surface can be quite rough. Also, where in the tree matters. The first three feet of a trunk, while marvelously large in diameter, is under tremendous stress. Think of how much a whole tree weighs, and consider how much strain it’s base bears after years of blowing in the wind…. This wood warps a lot when drying, and can be very fibrous. For these reasons I am carful with how I use those first few feet.
Another aspect to consider are your tools and the way you present them to the wood. Generally, sharper tools moving more slowly over wood that is spinning faster produce a finer finish, so if you are struggling to create a smooth surface sharpen your tools, slow down your cut, and crank up your speed. The type of cut you make also creates very different surfaces. For example, on an electric lathe a pull cut moves wood pretty quickly can leave a “plucked” surface. Same with a scraping cut. Push cuts, on the other hand, leave behind a lovely, smooth surface. Same with a sheering cut. And in general, lighter cuts produce a finer surface than heavier cuts. Finally, often the quality of the cut can be changed by altering the angle of the tool’s attack on the wood. Try dropping the handle, angling the tool up more than you might normally, and see what it does to the finished surface. Of course, all of these cuts change a bit depending on whether you are working the inside or the outside of the bowl. For example, I would avoid a scraping or sheering cut on the inside of the bowl!
Hope this helps.
Finally, in preparation for these two fairs, I have had to temporarily closed my Square Shop. I can't have stuff selling online that I need for craft fairs! I will reopen this once I have built up sufficient stock.
Be well.
E
Hi all,
A few bowls finished drying this week, and are now all painted and oiled and pretty. So, check out the shop page for new work. Got my hands on some lovely figured maple, crisp cherry and spalted beech. And would you look at this box elder!
I agonize over pricing.
Like the roots of the word (οδύνη, agōnia, relating to "struggle" or "contest"), whenever I price a bowl, two sides of my brain duke it out. Did I overcharge, embarrassing myself by assuming my work is worth THAT MUCH! Or did I charge too little, devaluing my efforts (and myself?) and basically announcing to the world that my work is crap. Back and forth I go, until exhaustion sets in and I settle on some arbitrary price to get the transaction over with.
Honestly, pricing craft reminds me of grading papers when I was new to teaching. When I was a rookie, I would study a student's submission until a grade popped into my head. "This feels like a B+," I would think. "Not quite in the A-range, but close." But then I would look at other B+ papers and see how different they all were. "This one is thoughtful, but mechanically poor, but this other one is well organized and lengthy, though its argument is not particularly advanced..." Arg. What is the relative weight of each grading category in determining the final grade?
Of course, the answer for a new teacher is a rubric, one that assigns relative weight to each quality you are looking for in a piece of writing. This takes some, though not all, of the guessing out of the process, and allows you to see each quality separately. At the end of the day you still have to assign a grade, but now you have a clearer justification for that grade and so you spend less time agonizing.
Maybe I need "pricing rubric?"
There are lots of craft-pricing calculators available online and many books about pricing craft. I have certainly not looked at them all, but the ones I have seen stick to a standard line: first, add the cost of materials to the hourly wage to make the thing; then add in 10-15% for overhead; finally, double that, and you have your wholesale price.
But these calculators do not get at the quality of the work; they assume a piece is only an expression of time. But how much is a bowl intrinsically worth, given its various qualities: size, grain pattern, shape, adornment, etc...? How do I fairly gauge the value of the product in terms other than time? This is important for me, because once I have a clear sense of a product's actual worth, then I can work ways to streamline production and make it profitable.
To help me think through this question, I use Google Sheets to create a sort of pricing algorithm that estimates the price of a bowl. I am also using this for inventory, accounting, and customer information, though Square and Etsy provide some similar services so I may switch. But this is free and works for me, and maybe it will help you.
Here is the (geeky) thinking behind the sheet. Thanks to Richard Raffan's book Turned Bowl Design for some of these ideas. If you prefer a video explanation, skip to the end of this post.
First, multiply the diameter by the height to determine the bowl's size. Then you multiply that number by some sort of factor (let's start with a factor of 3 for argument's sake). So, if we had a 6" x 2.5" bowl, its base price would be $45. (6*2.5)(3)=45. Of course, you could adjust your factor if that base price seems off.Does the formula work with larger bowls?
How much should you add to the price of a bowl if it is painted? You could just create a checkbox to add a set amount to the base price, but larger bowls take more paint and more time to paint. The solution is again to add value exponentially, as we did with size.
I also like having a column for what I call "awesomeness." If you have a piece that really stands out, use this column to bump the price even higher. If it sells, you will feel you definitely got what it was worth. If it does not, you have it as inspiration for the next production run.
Here is a video to walk you through making your own pricing calculator/inventory list/customer database.
Update Aug 26, 2022.
Some have asked for a copy of the spreadsheet. Here you go.
