At least 10 years ago, I saw a bowl that had been turned out of something called parallam. It had THE coolest patterns in the wood that I had ever seen. This included burls, crotch figures, and all of the exotics. I had never heard of it before, so I took to the internet to find out what this stuff was. It took awhile, because the stuff was relatively new. Turns out, this is a product used in construction beams. As I looked, it was pretty clear this was the next evolution in beams. First, beams were made by 2×12’s, sometimes nailed together. They were good, but they were replaced Glulam, which is really thick pieces of plywood, laminated together, that were stronger and less prone to warping. Parallam, was make like Glulam, but instead of using sheets of thin wood, it’s made with individual strands of wood, glued together under extreme pressure. According to the glossy brochure, these were especially good for projects that required heavy loads over long spans. Boring, I know, but I figured I could buy one of the beams and have a BUNCH of turning projects. I searched for dealers but there was literally no one even close to Blo/No carried them, and the few places I could find just said “call for price”.
Years went by and I forgot about this product. It wasn’t until about 4 years ago that I started a phase of making things out of high grade birch plywood that it seeped back into my consciousness. I looked again and found a place near Chicago, St. Louis, and Champaign that said they carried them and had prices listed. Two things became instantly clear: A) the stuff was priced by the foot, and B) I would have had to sell both kidney’s to buy a 10’x3″ beam.
On a whim, about a month ago, I went looking again and found a place just outside Arthur, Illinois, that claimed to sell them, along with trusses and traditional beams. I called them, left a message, and waited, but they never called back. At the same time, I was contacted via Facebook from a guy who was interested in joining our local turning club (Dan), who just happened to live outside of Arthur. Go figure! After messaging with Dan, he stopped by the business and worked a deal with them where they gave him two “cut offs” that were about 18″ long and 5″ thick. He gave them to me, in exchange for some lessons on using a bowl gouge and “dibs” on something made from them. DEAL!
It took me awhile to start, but this weekend I completed the first project. This stiff is HORRIBLE to turn! It doesn’t really cut, it just kind of splinters and disintegrates into sawdust. This must not be made with the highest quality wood, so there were gaps throughout the blanks that needed to be patched. I patched them with CA glue and sawdust, but that look didn’t match the rest of the blank, so I turned them away and just left the gaps and places where chunks of the blank had splintered off. Sanding was next to impossible, since there were “fuzzies” left next to each of the voids. Each grit had to be sanded in both forward and revers to get rid of them. Splintered parts had to be glued down to keep them from completely tearing out, dust collection was a must, and although it smelled kinda like pine, it was more like pine that had been soaked in some combination of old finish, glue, and wet dog hair.
Still, after looking at the final product, I’ll be continuing to work through the rest of the blanks. I’ve got several ideas on what could be done with this stuff, but in all honesty, even though the finished project looks really cool, I won’t be looking forward to it!
The finial/knob is a piece of walnut, died black, and the finish is Danish Oil.
