Stewardship of the materials is important for all woodturners, but occassionally, we're given a special piece of wood to work with. This bowl is my first piece from a piece of black locust that I acquired through the Water Gap Woodturners and one of our members relationship with Grey Towers and the US Forest Service.
http://www.fs.fed.us/na/gt/
Grey Towers is the ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the US Forest Service and twice Governor of Pennsylvania. Today Grey Towers serves as a conservation education and leadership center, with programs that interpret the lives of the Pinchot family.
The bowl will be given back to the Grey Towers to be auctioned off at a future event. It was turned, charred, wire-brushed, and then buffed to a tactile sheen. The burning removed some of the softer wood and created a ridged surface that begs to be touched.
