I live in the Virginia woods with 4 acres of hardwoods that backs up to a much larger forest. My neighbors don’t mind me wandering around and has given me permission to salvage some wood.
About a month ago I was hiking through the woods and came upon a large diseased maple tree. I think it is maple due to some of the dead leaves around and I’ve compared some of the grain to pictures I’ve seen. The tree was hollow and in serious distress, and it was covered in burls. I also had to remove a dead oak tree from my back yard that provided many hours of learning opportunity.
I’ve left the burl wood alone hoping my skill/confidence level will catch up to the maple burl potential. I’ve spent about 30 hours in my shop over the past few days taking myself to school to make bowls. I roughed out 4 oak bowls ranging from 12 inches to 8. One of them was from a crotch and I made a little bowl inside the center of a big bowl. It had some cool feather type pattern that just continued to make me smile.
The only thing that flew off my lathe was shavings so my head was swelled with confidence. I set my sights on one of the maple burls (about 9 inches in diameter). It has a lot of punky wood, deep bark inclusions, and I though as long as I was learning I might as well use a piece that had a lot of rotten stuff so I would feel bad if I messed it up. As the patterns began to reveal themselves, (and it was my hands revealing them), my excitement began to grow. Bit by bit it started to look like a little piece of art (and I’m not an artist). I must have turned my lathes off 100 times to check the thickness to make sure the walls were 10% of the diameter so I could dry it according to the rules I’ve read, and held my breath as I made each successive pass anticipating a catch that never came.
The piece is soaking in denatured alcohol as I am typing this message because I’m hoping to dry and finish it before my Mother visits in 6 weeks. While it is drying, I’m hoping the minds of this forum can help guide my inexperienced next steps.
There are several punky areas in the lid an on the side that penetrate the sides. There is also a deep bark inclusion that will penetrate the side when the walls are about a half an inch. My thoughts were to remove the punky areas up to the good wood to leave the natural borders of these areas (carve them out?), and to trim the walls thin enough to let the bark inclusions open up.
I’ve attached a few pictures, and any design, pit fall, finishing, cautions, or other advice, that you can provide will be much appreciated. I can’t believe the grain on this thing, and that my hands are bringing it to life (I am so hooked on this). There are many colors (pink, purple, brown, black, yellow) that are exploding everywhere, and I’m nervous my experience could derail my current progress.
Thanks for your time,
James
About a month ago I was hiking through the woods and came upon a large diseased maple tree. I think it is maple due to some of the dead leaves around and I’ve compared some of the grain to pictures I’ve seen. The tree was hollow and in serious distress, and it was covered in burls. I also had to remove a dead oak tree from my back yard that provided many hours of learning opportunity.
I’ve left the burl wood alone hoping my skill/confidence level will catch up to the maple burl potential. I’ve spent about 30 hours in my shop over the past few days taking myself to school to make bowls. I roughed out 4 oak bowls ranging from 12 inches to 8. One of them was from a crotch and I made a little bowl inside the center of a big bowl. It had some cool feather type pattern that just continued to make me smile.
The only thing that flew off my lathe was shavings so my head was swelled with confidence. I set my sights on one of the maple burls (about 9 inches in diameter). It has a lot of punky wood, deep bark inclusions, and I though as long as I was learning I might as well use a piece that had a lot of rotten stuff so I would feel bad if I messed it up. As the patterns began to reveal themselves, (and it was my hands revealing them), my excitement began to grow. Bit by bit it started to look like a little piece of art (and I’m not an artist). I must have turned my lathes off 100 times to check the thickness to make sure the walls were 10% of the diameter so I could dry it according to the rules I’ve read, and held my breath as I made each successive pass anticipating a catch that never came.
The piece is soaking in denatured alcohol as I am typing this message because I’m hoping to dry and finish it before my Mother visits in 6 weeks. While it is drying, I’m hoping the minds of this forum can help guide my inexperienced next steps.
There are several punky areas in the lid an on the side that penetrate the sides. There is also a deep bark inclusion that will penetrate the side when the walls are about a half an inch. My thoughts were to remove the punky areas up to the good wood to leave the natural borders of these areas (carve them out?), and to trim the walls thin enough to let the bark inclusions open up.
I’ve attached a few pictures, and any design, pit fall, finishing, cautions, or other advice, that you can provide will be much appreciated. I can’t believe the grain on this thing, and that my hands are bringing it to life (I am so hooked on this). There are many colors (pink, purple, brown, black, yellow) that are exploding everywhere, and I’m nervous my experience could derail my current progress.
Thanks for your time,
James
