This started out as a gray waffeled chunk of wood I picked up from a "tree graveyard" in my area... It would have been firewood.
It was soaking wet and ALMOST punky, so I half turned it and let it sit for a week, put in the microwave for a few 30 second turns. After the last one, I rubbed it with olive oil, while it was hot, till it wouldn't take any more.
I finish turned it (pretty thin) and sanded the outside. With the oil, it was like dermabrasion, the sandpaper "clogged up," but kept right on cutting.
Remember I said that the wood was nearly punky??? At the last 1/4 inch of turning the spiggot off, the vase popped off into my hand, leaving a little hole in the bottom.
I hope that I saved it by turning an inset of cherry burl and inserting it as a prosthetic foot.
With all of the oil, shellac and bee's wax was pretty much my only option.
4 inches high by 4 1/2 inches in diameter.
