Small Pear Bowl

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The wood used to turn this bowl is a Pear. I don't know the exact variety but it is a non-bearing fruit tree, in this case planted in a shopping mall parking lot. One day I was driving past it and they'd cut all these trees down. All the branches had been chipped and hauled away and all these 2 foot long logs stack in piles all around this parking lot. I loaded up as many as I could get into my small car. I went back the next day and there was even more and this time the tree cutters were there and I asked if I could have some of this wood. They said I could have as much as I wanted, so I loaded up my car again. It took me three days to cut all that up, prep and seal it, stacked to slow-dry. This is a plain grain but beautiful wood, a nice creamy to amber color. It's hard as heck too when dried. I had this little piece drying for a while and decided to go ahead and try to turn it. I couldn't resist seeing how this wood turned. It turns like a dream! You can get a finish so smooth you barely need to sand it for finishing. This bowl is about 2.75 inches across and about an inch and a half high, with a foot ring around the bottom. Unfortunately, I should have let this dry a little longer because the bowl cracked down the side by the day after I turned this bowl. It's still usable though. I can't wait to get into a bigger bowl blank of this wood. But I'll have to wait a couple of years, I guess, before it's dry enough.