First attempt at Carved Rim

very nice, i applaud your courage with the nip

Very nice!

Great! Love what you did to the rim

Thank for all the compliments.

POD 08-02-07
AAW Home Page Photo Of the Day
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Ken Grunke,
AAW Forums Co-Moderator
Thurs. 9:41 am

Now THAT is cool!!!

Thanks Ken

Hey, you posted this on my birthday! Thanks! What "courage" is involved with NIP? I'm set to bid on a piece and could use any pointers.

This piece is stunning!

Born on July 29, 2007 and already on the internet. Kids today are amazing.

Thanks for the compliment on the piece.

NIP is very easy to turn if you get a piece that is in good shape. Spalting will introduce a lot of color to the piece, but it also inibits the translucence that a lot of turners try to achieve. I use the most spalted pieces for hollow forms where tranlucence wouldn't be that big a factor anyway. Vases and bowls I tend to go with lightly spalted to get a nice mix of colors and translucence. Heavily spalted pieces can be very black when finished. Fresh cut wood is blond and pretty featureless but it can be turned very thin and translucent. The more spalted the wood, the more likely you are to encounter tearout problems, but it can usually be dealt with. NIP is also a great wood for carving. Very easy and forgiving.

For finishing I soak the pieces in BLO for a day or two. Let them dry (during which time most of the great color will appear to vanish) for a couple days and then finish them with wipe-on poly (which restores the full color). I almost always turn NIP end grain. I tend to turn my pieces thin and to finish them in one turning session. Thick pieces can start to develop cracks if left to dry. If cracks start, you can use thin CA to stop the cracks. In a nicely spalted piece the filled cracks won't be noticed and add a little extra character.

Good luck if you give it a try. If you are bidding on ebay, be careful. I've seen some nice looking pieces and some real junk being offered.

Ed

OMG!!! Lovin' it.