Over the last 18 months I've got into woodturning, and been very lucky in getting pally with a couple of people with a workshop, lathe, tools etc who are happy to show me the ropes and use their gear. In return, I'm now at a stage where people will pay to buy my bowls/wooden fruit/christmas trees etc, and all proceeds go into the pot for our little woodturning club to buy more sandpaper, chisels, etc.
But when you spend 3 hours making something, and only sell it for £6, you can see that it doesn't help if you've had to pay £4 to buy the wood as well!!! So.......... if any of you are in the Manchester/Cheshire area and would like to see the lumps of wood you create turned into little works of art, we'd be very happy to take some off your hands, ideally for free.
What's surprising is how long you generally have to let the wood dry out - some people reckon 3 years for a 3" diameter branch!!! Or you can turn a rough bowl shape out of larger stock, then dry it for about a year, then turn it to the finished shape.
Timbers of particular interest because of their grain are laburnum, monkey puzzle, apple, pear, yew to name but a few.
Thanks for looking
Mal
