This page has some of my most recent work - i.e. stuff turned in the last six months, or for those of you who like dates, spring through late summer of 2004
This is a piece of maple burl that was bone dry when I turned it. That seems to happen to me a lot, because when I get a burl, I will put it aside until I decide what I am going to do with it, and I spend a lot of time thinking about it. I didn't use to do that, and in my early turning years, a lot of burls went to the woodstove as I worked on tool technique. This particular piece turned fairly well, although I did manage to rip it out of the chuck while coring out the center. In the end, I was able to repair the tenon and proceed to finish it off with no more adverse affects. Size is about 8 1/4" high and 8" in diameter. Finish is Watco Danish oil and buffed.
This piece of wood was given to me by a guest to one of our woodworking picnics. It sat around for almost a year before I decided what to do with it. It had a very high concentration of "eyes" in it, and I wanted to keep the natural edge, even though it was a fairly thin slab. This is what I came up with. I could have used about 10 of these pieces, as it sold immediately, but was not picked up. Subsequent customers tried to get me to sell it to them, some even offereing me more money that what I had already been paid! That told me two things. First, I need to raise my prices, and second, I need to hide sold pieces!
Here is a shot looking down into the piece. It is approximately 11" in diameter at its widest point, and 2" high. Wall thickness is 1/4" throughout, and again, finished with Watco and buffed.
This piece of cherry had to be sitting around for at least 10 years. In fact, I had forgotten about it, and discovered it (again) while looking for something else in the woodpile. It had been split down the middle of the branch when I first got it, and a winged bowl once again called out to me.
Looking down. This was an exciting piece to turn. I whacked my knuckles a few times during the sanding process, and of course there was a lot of off the lathe sanding to be done. This piece probably has the record for being in my possession the shortest time. I finished it on a Thursday and sold it two days later at a show. Overall size is 12" long, 7" across at the narrow point, and about 3" high. Watco and buffed.
Taking a break from burls for a moment, here is a piece of cherry from a board that was given to me at the same picnic I received the maple burl above. Wide boards always say plate to me, and this one was no exception. I still have some of this stuff waiting around for some more plates. This piece is approximately 11" in diameter and 3/4" high. You can probably guess the finish by now.
Still at the picnic and the receiving of wood, a friend of mine walked in with this ugly dirty board and handed it to me. At first I thought it was walnut it was so black, but it was just dirty from sitting around a long time, and it was way too heavy to boot. After making me guess for a while, he finally told me what it was - olive. This is the first of two plates, the second not being turned yet. I also have some reserved for some smaller pieces. Size is approximately 10" x 2" and the usual finish.
This piece here cried out to be a winged bowl. It is a black locust burl cap given to me by a local tree guy. Turning it was an adventure, but not so much as picking out all the bark from the hundreds of tiny points on the natural edge.
This bowl has a spectacular rim of sapwood all around the heartwood, as well as sapwood mixed into the heartwood throughout. Overall size is 11 1/2" in diameter, and 2 3/4" high. It is finished with Watco only. I am loathe to buff it for fear of spending hours picking lint out of the points and bark inclusions. This piece will probably be buffed and waxed by hand.
One last shot of this one. This is one of the ways I like to finish off the bottom of pieces like this. It gives it a nice rounded look and ties the bottom in with the rim on this particular design.
Finally, for this page, I submit this piece of ash. This came from a tree full of waney edged rounds. This particular piece was not as blessed as some of the others, but it still has a fair amount of interest with its bark inclusion, ripples in the grain, and bug holes. The challenge for me when it comes to ash is keeping it white. I really dislike the urine yellow that ash turns, so as an experiment, I departed from my usual finishing regimen, and sprayed this with Fuhr 355 waterborne varnish. So far the wood has stayed nice and white, although so far hasn't been all that long yet. We shall see how things develop...
