It has been a long time since I posted pictures of my recent work. In fact, it has been so long that a lot of it really isn't recent anymore, but I'm putting it up anyway for those who might care to take a look.
This is a piece of butternut that was given to me by a tree guy. He didn't actually give it to me as much as throw it at my feet while he reviled me for not giving him any money. But here is the rest of the story. I approached this person while he was cutting down a maple tree covered in burl, and asked if I might have some. He agreed, but ended up removing the entire tree without saving me any wood. He then told me that he had some for me, and all I needed to do was pick it up. I went up to his place (quite a few miles from me) and got a scab for my trouble. Still trying to salvage the relationship, I bought some lumber from him. But then it turned into a fatal attraction kind of thing. He started calling me trying to get me to buy burls from him when in fact they were all scabs. I finally told him to leave me alone, that I was not interested in doing business with him.
This final episode came a day or two before Christmas. He called me on the phone and wanted to sell me some "burls". I told him I was not interested, and that he should not come to my house. He hung up the phone, and about an hour later he was standing on my front step, obviously drunk. I asked him to leave several times, finally telling him in a firm voice to get lost. For his part he became increasingly agitated, almost to the point of violence. At last he threw his pile of scabs on the porch, all the while spewing vile and profane language, and staggered off to get in his truck. I tried to give him his wood back, but he would not take it. The whole pile was scabs except for this very nice piece of butternut burl. How he got his hands on it, I have no idea.
Here is an aerial view of the same piece. The overall size is approximately 7" x 3". Finish is Watco Danish oil and buffed on a Beall wheel, something I usually do not do with burls - the buffer that is. It often leaves a lot of lint to be picked out by hand.
This is our very own family salad bowl. It is unfinished Norway maple from a tree which stood in front of our church until it had to come down to make way for an addition. This tree yielded many beautiful pieces of very curly wood. This particulr bowl is approximately 14" in diameter and 5" high. The finish is nothing.
Here is a shot looking down. You can see that there is some spalting going on in it. While I am not going to say that anyone can eat anything out of any spalted bowl, we have been eating out of this bowl (at this writing) for three years now, with no ill effects.
This is a small elm burl bowl that I turned for a fund raiser for our local arts council (it also bought some advertising for a show in which I was participating).
Believe it or not, this thing is round! It just doesn't look that way. This bowl is approximately 6" in diameter and 3" high.
This is a curly maple wedding goblet I did for some friends who were getting married. For all the figure this wood turned very nicely indeed. Overall size is approximately 6" or so by 2 1/2" in diameter.
