How To Turn Two-By-Fours - An Introduction

This article is the first in a series of articles showing how to turn many useful and attractive items out of the lowly construction two-by-four.

Ten-inch by ten-inch lidded pedestal box turned entirely from

 construction cutoffs scavenged from a worksite.

The same turned box opened.

My Start in Woodturning

I turned my first bowl in middle school before I even went to high school. I still have it. Later, I got to turn the legs for four toddler-sized chairs on my older brother's lathe. That was pretty much it until after I got married and managed to save up enough money for my own lathe. The only problem is that I had the lathe but no materials for turning anything. All I had were two-by-four cutoffs left over from building some outbuildings. While not the ideal wood for the job, I persisted in creating things on my lathe, and this article is a distillation of the knowledge gained.

What You Need to Know Before You Start

Most construction-grade two by fours in Canada and the United States are made from either Yellow Pine, Douglas Fir, or Spruce. Spruce is divided into three native species: Red Spruce, White Spruce, and Black Spruce. In addition, Norway Spruce has been introduced and harvested within the lumber industry. I live in Eastern Canada, and virtually all construction-grade two by fours I have access to are made from Spruce. I have turned at least two of the four different species, and I find there is no qualitative difference between them when it comes to turning them on a wood lathe. They are all prone to chipping and tearing out. I cannot speak directly to Douglas Fir or Yellow Pine, but I have heard they have similar problems. Hopefully, someday I can get my hands on some samples and assess them directly. Spruce is my focus here, and I want to address the most important question: Can you turn a piece of Spruce on your lathe in spite of its drawbacks and create something useful and/or beautiful? My answer is an emphatic yes. Check out the slideshow of my past work to get an idea of what I mean.

Keys To Success

You're only going to get good results from any material if you work within its strengths and weaknesses. I think Spruce two-by-fours are a great material to learn woodturning with because it's not very forgiving. If your tools are dull, your technique is bad, and your designs ask too much, you're going to be making firewood.

Spruce tears out and chips easily. Don't fight it. You'll lose.

Keep Your Tools Sharp

You don't have to make sure the cutting angles on your tools are perfect, so you don't have to be a master tool sharpener before you begin. You do need to be able to put a keen edge on them, though. The better you are at sharpening, the better work you'll be able to do.

I would suggest starting out with a cheap but adequate set of lathe chisels. They can bear the brunt of your learning. Take the time to learn from an expert. There are plenty of them online on YouTube. Watching these videos has helped me improve immensely.

Turning Spruce is hard on your cutting edges. I don't know why entirely. I've read some sources that blame silica in the wood or chemical reactions between the resins and the steel in the tools. I just know that when I turn Spruce, I spend additional time sharpening tools compared to when I work with some of the more common woods I have access to. To help, I always cut the corners off my turning blanks before I even mount them on the lathe.

Work On Your Technique

All the instruction I got at the beginning was watching a shop teacher turn a small bowl with a round nose scraper. I started out using all my tools as scrapers. That kind of technique will only take you so far. I continue trying to improve my technique, but I would not consider myself even close to being an expert. I can recommend several YouTube turners that have been very helpful to me. Any of these people can make you better: Brian Havens, Mike Peace, Ashley Harwood, and the guy on the channel wortheffort. There are probably quite a few more that I haven't mentioned, but I don't have the time to listen to everybody.

If it's any comfort, you will improve with practice.

Design

Trying to cut fine details into Spruce is a mistake. I find that no matter how sharp my tools are and how carefully I approach my cuts, there are details that chip or tear out. I don't mind a chip here and there. That often adds character to one of my pieces. When most of a fine bead chips away, it's time to reconsider what you are trying to do.

My recommendation is to simplify your designs and try to avoid details that are likely to fail. Simple, elegant designs can be just as effective as finely crafted details.

If you take the time to take these three points into consideration, you are well on your way to making beautiful things with two-by-fours.

Big Upside For Two By Fours

Two-by-four material is one of the most economical sources of wood out there. Companies and people will often give away cut-offs for the asking. Even if you have to buy full two-by-fours, they are about the most inexpensive woods going. The advantages don't stop there, though.

I don't own a jointer or a planer yet, but laminating two-by-fours into turning blocks is no problem. They are cut to dimensions, and they are planed. As long as they are clean, there is no preparation needed; just glue and clamp them together.

I glue them into simple blocks for turning bowls, and also glue two face-to-face to make large spindles. That is only the beginning of what you can actually do. If two-by-fours are the only material you can get, there is no reason to give up on turning.

Hidden Cost

Turning two-by-fours instead of prime material does have two hidden costs that you should be aware of before you begin. Because you have to sharpen your tools more often, they will wear out and need to be replaced sooner. The other hidden cost is sandpaper. This material does not cut as cleanly as top-notch turning woods and will require more sanding before applying finishes. While these two costs are not huge over time, they do become significant.

How To Make Inexpensive Rustic Hairsticks

 

Seven-inch chokecherry carved hair sticks

Hair sticks are one of the oldest fashion accessories known to humankind. They have been used to secure long hair in virtually every culture on Earth over the millennia. They are not difficult to use, and better yet, they are easy to make. This article will show you how to transform a couple of small sticks into a pair of elegant, practical hair sticks.

Equipment

• Loppers, hand pruners or a small saw

• Whittling or carving knife

• Sandpaper

• Finish

Before You Begin

Hair sticks vary in length, anywhere from about ten inches down to about four. The most common length that I've encountered is about seven inches, and that is roughly how long I make mine. What is best for you will depend less on how long your hair is than on how thick it is. Decide on the length before you begin.

Two dead twigs pruned from a tree close to my home

Selecting Your Material

I live in a thick forest and just go for a walk with loppers or pruners in hand. I look for sticks that are about as big around as my wife's index finger or my pinkie finger. If you have stonemason's hands, your material will be too thick. You can make hair sticks from a thicker material, but you're making more work for yourself. Whittling them down to size will take longer.

• Try to find two sticks of the same species of wood. Otherwise, they are not going to match when you're finished.
• Using moderate pressure, try to break the stick in two. If it breaks easily, it isn't strong enough. Just move on to another stick.
• I cut my sticks to nine inches, which is about two inches longer than my finished product. Once I have the sticks I want, I take them home.

The terms hardwood and softwood are ambiguous terms. They don't tell you how hard the wood actually is. For the purpose of carving hair sticks, you will know how hard the wood is when you start whittling. The harder a wood is, the harder it will be to carve. I carve them anyway because the wood is often beautiful. Many softwoods contain a lot of sap and/or resin. To use them, the wood has to be very dry, and a finish should be applied to avoid getting sticky resin in the user's hair.

Dry deadwood is also harder to carve than green wood with the sap in it. For some species of wood, I only cut deadwood because I don't want to remove any living growth. For other species, it doesn't really matter.

Cutting away from myself

Step One

Remove the bark. I use a knife and can whittle the bark off my hair stick blank within a matter of minutes. Remember to keep the hand holding your work behind the cutting edge and the direction of cut. Always cut away from your body.

Whittling away the bark

Step Two

Continue whittling until you have your hair stick-shaped and sized the way you want it. To be practical, it does need to come to a blunt point on one end. That will make it easy to insert into the hair when it is being used.

If you like the hair sticks the way they are, you can happily stop right here and use them (My daughter and I call this the anti-vampire stake stage). Just make sure there is nothing to snag the user's hair, and you're good to go. Most people prefer to sand them at this point and apply a finish of some kind.

Anti-vampire stakes. I've left extra material on because 

I will be machine sanding to bring them to their final shape.

Step Three

Sanding allows you to refine the shape and make everything nice and smooth. If you watch my video, you will see that I flip my belt sander upside down and work on it like it's a bench sander. You don't have to do that. Hand sanding takes more time but offers greater control. Beautiful results are easily attainable either way.

Sanded and ready for finishing

Step Four

Adding embellishments is something I feel compelled to do. I don't feel like my hair sticks are complete until I've carved some kind of knob or pattern into one end. I use simple carving tools and find that my options here are only limited by my imagination and skill. At the end of this step, fine sand your work if needed.

Various treatments on the ends of the hair sticks

Step Five

Raw wooden hair sticks will absorb oils from the hair of the user; however, I would recommend putting a finish on your work on purpose. Finishes like walnut oil or linseed oil will bring out the natural beauty of the grain. Stains can give your work a rich colour. Lacquer, varnish, or shellac can enhance and protect the wood as well as make it even smoother to the touch. The choices are up to you.

Oiled and ready for use

All Finished

Your hair sticks are all ready. They're beautiful, and you made them yourself. If you're at a loss as to how to use them, here is a video that will show you how. YouTube, of course, will suggest several other similar videos when you're done looking at this one.

Watch the Author Make a Hair Stick

I think with this article alone, it would be easy to make a hair stick. Sometimes it helps to see someone in action. In this video, I carve a hair stick out of Speckled Alder sticks. The wood is soft and green, and the process goes very quickly. Even with stops to discuss shooting with my videographer and reshoots, I was able to complete and oil this set of hair sticks within thirty minutes.

Carve a Better Hair Stick

Since I started carving hair sticks, I've learned a lot. Carving a triangular profile on your rustic hair stick will make a big difference in the performance. If you have "difficult to hold" hair, this profile will keep your bun in place significantly longer.