Last night I spent some time turning a square blank into a round blank in order to make a paper towel holder. The wood in use was maple with dimensions around 5.5 inches square. I was turning at a relatively slow speed using a 1″ roughing gouge. My problem was the persistent tearing out along one of the sides. Other sides behaved just fine so I am guessing that I ran into a grain issue.
I am going to spend time tonight looking at the blank and attempting to diagnose the issue. Was it the way I held the chisel, the wrong chisel, a bad piece of wood? I will post some pictures later this evening and continue on with this dilemma. I am sure searching the web will also enlighten me.
BTW: I turned a poplar blank of a smaller dimension without an issue.
Update: I spoke with my father and he suggested that I use a round nose scrape just kissing the wood. It worked like a charm.
A picture of the original problem
