Spalted Maple Bowl #2

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This bowl is from the same piece of wood as the last spalted Maple bowl I posted here. This one is roughly 3 inches high and 5 inches wide. This wood is in a little better shape than the last piece. Not as much tear-out. I got the walls a little thinner on this one. I very happy with the way it came out.

Wooden Trefoil Knot ver. 2.0

Here is a better version of the Trefoil Knot made of unfinished (bare) Western Cedar wood. The wood is milled to 1/2 inch stock. That makes this version about 4 inches high when in the position shown in the above photo. The previous version of this style of the Trefoil Knot was made with the subtractive process, cutting this shape from a cube of wood. This version was made with the additive process, by building it instead of carving it.
My original version of this shape was made with curves, as in a real knot. This knot is made with only right angles. The next version of this knot will be made the same way but with 1 inch stock. I'm working my way up to the full scale version which I designed to be made with 4x4 lumber.

Questions and comments are always welcome. See more of my art on my web site: www.tesserak.net

Spalted Applewood cup.

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This is a really small bowl, which I'm calling a cup. It's about 3.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall. This is wood from an Apple tree in my backyard. The wood is "spalted" which is a coloration of the wood caused by fungal growth inside the dead wood. It is the early stages of wood rotting. The spalted portion of the wood is usually softer than the surrounding wood, and that causes tear-out when turning wood. Not a desired outcome. Unfortunately there's not much one can do about it. Anyway, in this case I thought I would take advantage of this undesirable condition in the wood and do something creative with it. I thought I'd accentuate those cracks and tear-out voids with acrylic paint, because there is a pattern to it. I used a copper metallic acrylic paint. It looks rather good I think. Here's a shot of the other side of the cup.

Questions and feedback are always welcome. See more of my art at my web site: tesserak.net

Wooden Trefoil Knot

Here is the wooden version of the Trefoil Knot. This one would fit in a 3 in. cube. The wood is about 3/8" wide/thick. I got the template for this from "Pocket83"'s YouTube channel. The above version is a bit on the rough side. It is made via the subtractive process: start with a cube and cut away everything that is not the Trefoil Knot. I shot this photo before I sanded and filed. I used Douglas Fir for the wood; not a good choice because of the hard growth rings in the wood. Next to the soft wood, the hard rings make the cutting tools go off course. Some degree of precision is required to make this shape at this size. I'm OK with what I ended up with here. This was mainly a test, and to make a model for me to make larger versions of this using the additive process: building it instead of carving it. So, stay tuned, there will be more.

Accidental Sculpture

This photo shows a certain stage in the process of making a Trefoil Knot out of a cube of wood. I stopped here and took a photo because I think this makes an interesting piece of sculpture. This would be a rough version, of course. In the photo, the pencil shading shows the part of the wood that I will NOT cut away to make the Trefoil Knot.

Spalted Maple Bowl

This is the largest bowl I've turned so far at 6.5 in. diam. and 5 in. high. (click on the above image to see a larger version) That was one ugly piece of wood in the wild; a rotting Maple log from a big tree we had to cut down years ago. Just look at that wood. Beautiful. The grain of this wood is really nice but the spalting is what really makes it interesting. "Spalting" is what they call the black lines and other darker coloration in the wood. It is the beginning stages of decay. This part of the log was more decayed than another section I still have to turn. So, there were some soft spots in this log. This bowl nearly split in half but I glued it and continued to complete the turning. The bowl is finished with hand rubbed shellac.
I think the remaining spalted Apple wood I have is a lost cause. Firewood. I have hopes for the remaining piece if this spalted Maple. I'm hoping it is not as soft as the above bowl was in places.

Spalted Apple Wood Bowls

These bowls are from an old piece of Apple wood I had saved many years ago and recently rediscovered. (click on the above image to see a larger version) I turned a small bowl from this wood in an earlier post. Here are two more. The darker wood is pretty hard wood and the lighter wood is very soft. This was not fun to turn and even worse to sand and finish. Still, these didn't come out too bad. They almost look like they're made of stone, with that rough texture in the tear-out in the lighter wood. To my eye they are things of simple beauty.

Mahogany bowl

This bowls was turned from a couple of scraps of Mahogany wood glued together to make a thicker blank. This is a pretty small bowl, about 2" high and 2" diameter. Three coats of hand rubbed shellac. This wood is a dream to turn. (click on the above image to see a larger version)

Two more bowls turned.

 

This bowl is from a piece of split fire wood from my neighbors wood pile. (click on the above image to see a larger version) I think it is a Pine of some sort but it's not as soft as one would expect from a Pine. This piece of wood has a bit of spalting, barely, adding some odd coloration. This bowl is roughly 6 inches in diameter and about 2.5 inches high. Finished with several coats of hand rubbed shellac and wax.

This little bowl is Cedar wood, about 1 inch high and about 2.5 inches diameter. This wood turned very well and polished up nicely. Finished with hand rubbed shellac and wax.
Living in California gives me access to so many kinds of woods. All kinds of stuff grows here and has been planted here from all parts of the globe. I want to try turning some Sycamore, and Eucalyptus, some of the California Oaks, and Manzanitas and Madrone woods. So many more...

Redwood bowls

I'm still new to wood turning but I'm beginning to get a little more confidence. I've had a couple of attempts at bowls not turn out due to hidden faults in the wood. They had to be abandoned. I've had some real success too, even with "iffy" wood. Where I live, in Northern California, Redwood is abundant. I saved some pieces of kiln-dried clear heartwood Redwood 2x6 cut-offs, I rescued from the trash bin years ago. I recently rediscovered them and thought they might turn well. Well, the wood turns nicely but it is a brittle, soft wood. Mainly, use sharp tools and a very light touch at the sanding stage. (click on the above image to see a larger version)
The first bowl, above, is made from two 6-inch square pieces of Redwood 2x6 glued together to make a thicker block of wood. I turned it into a 5.5" diameter bowl about 3" deep. This one has a natural, oiled finish. The bowl has thicker walls than I'd like but with this wood it's best to leave it a little on the thick side.

 

The two bowls shown above are also Redwood. The one on the left (1.25" tall, 2.5" diam.) was from a 2x4, and the one on the right (1.5" tall, 3.5" diam.) is from the Redwood heart wood board. It barely shows in the photo above but the bowl on the left has a smaller base. These are finished with hand rubbed shellac and wax.

 Above is another 5.5" diam. bowl, about 1.5 inches high. This too is from the 2x6 clear heart Redwood board. This wood was so dry that it turned to powder. A respirator is mandatory, working with this wood.