Oral history interview with M. Clyde and Alice J. Walker

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Interviewer: Russel E. Bachort, Jr.
Interviewee: H. Clyde Walker
Date: 19 July 2004 •
Place: 217 E. 1864 S. Orem, Utah
RB: We're in the home of Clyde Walker. Today is July the 19 t h , a Monday, and we're here to
record his particular interests in wood- turning and use of woods found in Utah Valley.'.'
Mr. Walker, if you would introduce yourself, tell us where you were born, where you're
living now, and a little bit about your family.
CW: There's been a little community called Grant, Idaho, a farming community, lived there
just a short while, and then we moved a little distance from. there on a farm.' That's where
we spent about 15 years, and then we moved to another town called Roberts, Idaho, and
my parents operated a restaurant/ hotel in that community. From there, they moved to the
town of Rigby, where we spent most of our lives until we moved down here about 27
years ago. . • . : . ' •"
RB: And where do you live now?
CW: We live in Orem, Utah. I spent four years in the Navy during the Vietnam War. The . .
Korean War, I'm sorry. They had been involved in food service- restaurant, food service
throughout my entire life, that's been my background.
RB: ' And explain your interest in wood- working and the beautiful bowls that you have in front
of you. . :
CW: It seems like I have always been interested in working with wood, even since I was a kid
in high school, I made, a few little items. And of course, got sidetracked doing other work,
andbringing in the income and so forth, and so here I retired about five, six years' ago,
* and I had a shop smith saw setup that has a lathe, and I decided to play around with the
lathe a little bit, and I had some wood here so Ijust kind of played around with it. I knew
a little bit about it, but not a lot. Then I became real interested and decided to invest in a
wood lathe, which I did here about two years ago. And just kept practicing, looking at
videos that professionals have made. Going to the BYU symposium, taking classes there,
which they do once a year. And watching a neighbor who's a professional wood- turner,
. picking up ideas from him. And just, they say, " Just keep practicing, and eventually you'll
learn how." [ Laughs]
RB: Explain the story behind the bowls that you have in front of you..
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CW: Well, it was last Fall- •
RB: If you'd be kind enough to hold some of those up [-] everyone.
CW: Oh, sure. Last Fall, I had a neighbor that lived just across the street, who had two big
cherry trees. And they decided that they, were just not very good anymore, and they started
coming down,- and- they heeded- 1 did some of the turning. And so, they asked me if I
would like to have the stumps, and they were a good size, so I told them- I would, and they
, said they would like the bowls turned out of the cherry trees so they can give them to their
kids for a keepsake from the. cherry trees that they grew from the time they were little kids
' til they were all grown and married.
RB: And who are those neighbors, and where are they located in relationship to where we aire
right now? - - ,
CW: They live just across the street. Their name is Thomas. Ella and Dave Thomas. They have
eight children, so they heeded plenty of bowls, and we were eventually able to get enough
, out of ' em. I told them it'd take a while for them to get cured, because if you turn ' em
while they're still green- in fact, we turn the wood while it's green and leave it about an
inch to an inch and a half thick, we coat it with the sealer, and then stir it underneath
wood tables and so forth and. it'll take anywhere from four to six months for that to dry
out, and then you remount it and then turn the finished bowl. If you don't do it that way,
and you turn it from the green wood to a finished bowl, then too often you can end up
with a bowl that is a little bit odd- shaped. It isn't entirely round, so a few of these were
turned while they were just a little bit green, and therefore the [-] is warped, there's
nothing you can do with it, unless you let ' em dry and so I told him it would be. some time
before I'd get to ' em, and so it's been almost six months from the time we got the trees
until I finished up on all the bowls here just last week.
RB: How many bowls were you able to turn and how did they respond to your wonderful
work? .
CW: . Of the large bowls, probably have about ten large bowls, and then from each of the large
bowls, with a special tool, you can take bowls from the inside and sometimes you can get
like three bowls out of and not waste all the wood. I showed them the first one that we
did. They were very happy with it, and I finished up a big share of ' em here, probably
about three weeks ago. They came over and loved all of ' em and took them, and I still had
some more to do, and I finished them up last week, and they said the kids love them, and
they're just tickled to death to have ' em, arid they're very happy with the quality of the
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work, and they're just thrilled about getting them. ' - ..
RB: Have you used any other fruit woods that would have come from Utah Valley? And what
products were you able to make from those? •• • . • • .
CW: Eruit wood is hard to get because many trees are not large enough in the- the stump of the .
tree isn't big enough to make bowls out of ' em. They're small or they've been- people cut
them down, they're cracked, they're- trees. have got bugs in them, you know, and most of
' em are not that good to use for wood- turning. I have turned cherry wood before, and it
was pretty good, so that's why I went ahead with this one. Apricot wood is a beautiful
wood if you can get it big enough that you can make a bowl out of it. Most people think
that you take a stump of a tree and you make a bowl out of that stump, but that's not
really the way you do it. You take a stump of a tree andrun the tree down the
lengthways, and you cut it in half, so now you got two halves, and out of that little half,
you'll cut a circle out of it: So now you'vegot a circle for a bowl. And you mo. unt that,
and so your grain is running lengthways. And that's how you make your bowl. If you
were to do it with the grain running up and down, you've always got the, center of your
bowl right in that- or, the center of the tree in the center of the bowl. And it will all split
on you and crack. And so it's through experience you find out that you don't do it that
way, because that'll crack on you. And so you do it the other method.
RB: You talked about apricot wood, you talked about cherry wood, how about some of the
other woods that are found in the valley that you would like to use or have used?
CW: Box Elder is a very pretty wood. It's light in color, but it's a. beautiful wood; It's blond,
and has a nice grain to it, especially if you can get a [-], which is a defigured wood,- and I
mean, you can make anything out of them, any direction, because there's no grain, it ? s
just a bunch of eyes, and Box Elder is a good wood. It's easy to work with.
RB: How about other fruit woods?
CW: The which?
RB: Other fruits.
CW: Plum. I've heard people use plum, but it's still, you'd end up with a small piece because
the trees don't get that big. Apple, I don't hear people making bowls from apple. The
other way the could, is they get that tree that's still green and nice,' and get a nice stump-out
of it so then they could cut it in half. You see a lot of silver- or, Silver Walnut. That's
a fruit type that has nuts on it. I turned that, and that's a very pretty wood. It has your
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dark, which is your center, or the core, and the outer part of it is the sackload, which is
light in color, almost white. And so if you were to do abowl, your bowl would be dark
through here and white on the outside. And it's a very beautiful wood to work with. It
doesn't seem to me like that people use the fruit wood as much as they do the other types.
Silver Maple, Box Elder, and those, because those trees get bigger. Even your big old '
Cottonwoods that you see all over, they say those are great because they are so huge that
• they can take slices out of that stump and so they don't use much of the fruit wood
because the trees just don't get that large.
RB: And I would be interested, if you would share with us, because we have a large -
friendship, and people who are interested in woodworking like you are, of any other use
of fruit woods that you're aware of in terms of handicrafts. How about whittlers? Tables,
furniture- makers? *
CW: They'll use cherry wood for furniture and that type of thing, if again, if they can get that .
. tree large enough to where they can send it to a saw mill and have it sliced and then they
have to put it in their [-] dryers, and dry it, and try to keep it from cracking, which is the
biggest problem that you have. If you dry it too fast, then it just cracks on you, and so you
plan on months of drying that wood. People do use some oak, but not as much for wood-,
turning as beautiful for cabinet work because of the grain, but the wood- turning, it
doesn't seem to be as appealing, and then we're not in a real- in an area where there's a
lot of oak, big oak trees, around here. There's not that much-
RB: . [-] trees or any other. functional objects that would be made from fruit wood?
CW: Kitchen utensils that you can make-
RB: Spoons?
CW: . Spatulas, spoons, people who use Dutch ovens love to have wooden spatulas to serve the
Dutch oven because they don't scratch the black seasoning out of the Dutch ovens, and-
RB: Have you made any of those?
CW: Yes. We've made some of those spatulas for people with Dutch ovens. In. fact, I've used
them, and made a few and gave them to some of my neighbor friends who also have
Dutch ovens. -
RB: What woods did you use? - -
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CW: At that time, I used oak, because I had that on hand.
RB: But you could use the fruit woods.
CW: You could use cherry, apple, anything that you can get a straight grain piece out of.
RB: I have a friend who is a wood- turner, and I know that he keeps a close eye out on the
community for wood, just like your neighbor. Do you do that in this community, with the
orchards being depleted, try to gather up wood and store it and dry it?
CW: I haven't. I probably should. But it seems like, one cherry orchard that was just down the
street from us here, when they cut it down, and wood was piled up, and I went over to see . .
if I could find a piece to turn. But most all of it had cracked because as soon as it starts
drying, it just cracks something terrible,- and so your- worthless to you. It's a good fire
wood, holds the heat for a long time when [-] made out of apple wood or cherry wood.
RB: Smoking is a wonderful thing to do, as a way of preserving fruit or just adding flavor to
foods. Do you ever use the fruit woods for other uses, other than howls, things, in .
cooking?
CW: I haven't. You could- a number of things you could make out of them that- I'm trying to -
think of a word that'll-.[-] that you sit hot dishes on, you could make those out of any of
your fruit woods. You could make picture frames that would really be nice if you get your
straight grain and you could make picture frames out of'em. And they would be nice.
And shelves, if they're not too large, if your wood is dried, and you got a nice piece of it.
You could use [-] cherry wood at a lot of the wood stores who are speciality stores. And
they will sell a variety of different kinds of wood.
RB: And I would be interested knowing, as we bring this to a close, if you could share with us
why you enjoy woodworking, and why you love living in Utah Valley.
CW: Well, let's see. I guess I enjoy woodworking. It's kind of been in my blood since I was a
kid. I made a lamp out of a piece of cedar when I was in high school, and I don't know
exactly whatever happened to it. It had been kept around for a long time. But I've just .
always liked to play with wood and see what I could do. And it's a good pastime. It's
kind of expensive, because you've got to buy your lathe, and then it's time- consuming
because all these bowls after they're turned, and. you have to buy your tools, you've gof to
sand them down smooth so they're glass- smooth, and that takes quite a bit of time. And
so it takes quite a bit of time, but it's an enjoyable hobby, and there's usually outlet stores
and places who will sell, them for you as long as you're not overly priced, and so mine
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aren't nearly as expensive as if I were a professional wood- turner. But then you pay more
for their product because they know how to put their professional touch on it. Utah
County area, this particular area, is very strong for wood- turners. There's a lot of them-the
BYU symposium, you have a place called Craft Supply who puts out a catalog for
wood- turners that's sent all over the country. So it's a very popular, and probably more so
for men who are retired who decide to buy a lathe and experiment with it, and you come
up with a bowl and it don't look too bad. [ Laughs]
RB: How about musical instruments?
CW: Pardon?
RB: Musical instruments.
CW: You could use it for, I'm sure, guitars and violins, if you can get it sliced thing enough .
where you can laminate it or bend it and move it around. But cherry wood, I think, is one
that I've seen advertised. It's for violins.
RB: And I'm so impressed with your bowls. I was wondering, if you'd just hold one up and
show it to me again, and explain why- pick out one bowl that you like in particular and
share with me why that's your favorite.
CW: Let's take this one. This one has a little different color on it, and this is where the
sapwood was, from the outside of the tree. The trunk is running this way, and this is part
of that sapwood. And why it's black, it could be because the tree had been dead for a
while, disease, or whatever could cause it. But if you have some of the sapwood on a
bowl, it really adds to the color and the decoration, that you see on that one. This one has
some of the. little dark spots on it from- probably from the eye on the tree that run-because
it's always darker in the eye.
RB: I want to thank you. This has been a wonderful interview with Clyde Walker, and today is
Monday, July 19 t h . We've enjoyed visiting in his home and learning about his wonderful
handicraft of wood- turning, using native woods. Thank you very much.
CW: You're welcome.
UN: I want to see if this little diagram you've done.[-] is anything nearly like what I [-].
[ End of interview]
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