A Save Or A Waste ? ? ?

[William Young]

I turned this ash bowl several months ago. It had several voids of a walnut colored soft wood pointing downward from the rim. They are not cracks.
I asked questions about it and got everything from thow it in the fire, to turn it down to a small bowl below the voids , to scrape out the soft wood and fill it with epoxy to every thing in between.
I deceided to scrape out any soft wood and fill the voids with epoxy and some glitter. That worked good and it all turned and sanded down nicely so I forgot about it for a few months because I was still not sure which way to go with it .
So last night , I dug it out from under a bunch of wood and stuff at the end of my bench and decided to cut six pieces of walnut and form a segmented top rim for it. I glued it on and first thing this morning before breakfast I was out there tuning it down and finishing it off.
I know it is not pretty and about the best I can say for it is that it is a coversation piece. But I didn't want to burn it so this is what I wound up doing with it. The piece of ash wood came (free) from a good friend in USA and the shipping charges actually cost more than what the piece of wood was worth so that is why I finally decided to try to make the best of it.

I have a 14 year old grandaughter coming to visit this weekend and if she likes it . . it's hers.
If she doesn't like it, then someone else will no doubt pick it up for a conversation piece.
I wont be sad to see it go. 😱
W.Y.

 

[john lucas]

William
If you enjoyed doing it then that's all that counts. Sure it's nice to have a really nice piece but look how much you learned while doing this piece. That pays off later. I still like the piece.

 

[Matt Meadows]

Looks fine to me. Maybe won't make it to the Smithsonian one day, then again...

I have plenty of lil oddball pieces around-- I tend to make one "test piece" the first time I turn any type of green wood. Comes in handy in the cabinet shop, I use them for all sorts of things. I even turned a funnel to use to pour lacquer thinner into our quart bottles, the plastic ones tended to get gummy. Wood works great!

 

[rbagley]

Hey it's a great shape. If you don't like the look of the natural wood - paint it.

Bob

http://www.bagendstudio.com

 

[dkulze]

Hi Will,

Is that the piece I sent you? If so, want more? Just cut a bunch of highly figured maple and am always happy to put another box together.

Personally, I think it looks great. Almost all the pieces I turn have at least a little bit of "character" like that. Some of them, in fact, are more "character" than sound wood. Your approach to the piece maximizes it's grain and variations (cracks) and the walnut rim gives a nice closure to the overall piece. Also, proportions look good. Does it have a nice, balanced and solid feel to it when you pick it up?

Well done.

Dietrich

 

[William Young]

Hi Dietrich;
Yep.. . you bet. That is one of the pieces you sent me in that big box of different kinds of wood.
Thanks for the offer for more but it seems that once a person starts turning for about a year there is suddenly wood available free from friends and relatives that watch out for it for us. I also have a dangerous tree removal firm calling me when they are cutting down trees and asking if I would like to come and pick some up.
I now have turning wood ahead of me to last quite a while.

This is very different than in my other hobby of making high end fretwork clocks where I have to pay big bucks for dimensional lumber and resaw and mill it all down from into 1/4" panels before I ever start actually cutting out the pieces of the clocks.

There were no signs of cracking whatsoever on that piece of ash. It sat at the back of my bench for months with the tenon still on it until I decided what I was going to do with it. I have no idea what those dark areas were near the rim but I removed anything that wasn't sound with a dremel tool before filling it with epoxy.

Yes, it does have a nice balanced feel . I sanded it down to 4000 with Abralon Pads and put a couple coats of Watco oil on it. It is as smooth as silk.
I have four 12" and 13" silver birch bowls with beautiful grain that I will be finish turning in the next week or so. They have now stopped loosing weight after using the alcohol system. They were all rough turned a few l weeks ago.
W.Y..

 

[dkulze]

Next time you end up with voids and cruddy patches, consider hardening them slightly with CA (don't spray accellerant on it or it will foam and ruin the look) then leaving them as voids/inclusions. I personally find this adds great character to the piece, though you have to deal with the "why is this broken/damaged?" faction of buyers/viewers. I solve this by turning pieces with LARGE voids and inclusions, kinda ruling out the possibility that it was a mistake.

As to your new found wood supplies, sounds like you are moving along nicely. I had thought that there must be some free wood and hardwoods up in your neck of the woods and it looks like you've accessed it nicely. Still and all, am happy to to swaps by mail every once in awhile so let me know.

And, again, nice piece. Lovely creamy look to the ash.

Dietrich