8 Inch Spalted Maple Bowl

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Here's another 8 inch heavily spalted Maple wood bowl. It measures 8 inches in diameter and 2.75 inches high. There are some small knots and a little bit of figuring in the grain, though difficult to see through the spalted areas. This was wet sanded with mineral oil up to 400 grit, then burnished with it's own shavings to give it a satin finish.

Spalted Maple Bowl

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 Here is yet another spalted Maple wood bowl. This is from a tree that was in my backyard. I've several more bowl blanks of this wood, so you'll be seeing more of these bowls in the coming year. This one measures 2.5 inches high and 8 inches in diameter. It was wet sanded with mineral oil up to 400 grit sandpaper. The bowl was then burnished with its own shavings to polish it. This one has a knot in the bottom of the bowl, with some nice figuring in the grain around the dense knot wood. More photos below.

Small Footed Walnut Box

 

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Here's a Walnut wood box measuring 2 inches in diameter and 3.5 inches high. The knob is a amber glass sphere on the loose fitting lid. It has a 3-footed base. The wood was wet-sanded with mineral oil. 

Small Walnut Wood Canister

 

This is a Walnut wood canister with a glass knob on the lid. It measures 2.25 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. It was wet sanded with mineral oil and finished with the same oil. Unfortunately I've some marks left by the jaws of the lathe chuck on the edge of the lid and near the top of the canister. This was due to my inexperience and mistake in the sequencing of the wood turning process. They're too deep to sand out. Lesson learned. Move on. Still, a nice little walnut box. Thanks Ned Lycett for the wood. I've more from him so there will be more items made from this wood.

6.5 Inch Spalted Maple Bowl

 

Here's a spalted Maple wood bowl. It measures 6.5 inches in diameter and 2.25 inches tall. There's an 1/8 inch high foot on the bottom of the bowl. This was wet sanded with mineral oil up to 400 grit, then burnished with its own shavings. Lovely Maple grain "under" the spalting. All this wood you've been seeing here is from my own back yard in Northern California. Sometimes I get something from one of my neighbors. I couldn't buy this kind of wood in any store.

End Grain Sycamore Bowl

 

This is an end grain Sycamore wood bowl. The bowl measures 4.25 inches in diameter by 3 inches high. The was a knot on the inside of the bowl that didn't show on the outside. The hard part of the knot fell out leaving a brown-lined cavity with interesting grain surrounding it. The grain on this wood looks like skin or maybe crepe' paper. The line near the rim of the bowl was made by holding a guitar string tightly against the very fast-spinning bowl. The heat of the friction charred a line into the grain. That was done after the mineral oil wet sanding up to 400 grit.

8.5 Inch Spalted Maple Bowl

 

This is a heavily spalted Maple bowl. It measures 8.5 inches in diameter and 2.75 inches high. Some nice natural figuring in the grain is still visible "under" the spalting. This bowl was wet sanded up to 400 grit with mineral oil. Then it was burnished with its own wood shavings (a handful of shavings is pressed against the very fast-spinning bowl). No other finish was added. 

5 Inch Maple bowl

 

Here's a 5 inch diameter Maple bowl. It's is 4 inches high. It was wet sanded with mineral oil up to a grit of 400. Beautiful grain on this one. No spalting. 

7.5" Spalted Maple Bowl

 Another spalted Maple bowl. It measures 7.5 inches in diameter by 2 inches high. Wet sanded with mineral oil up to a grit of 400. Feels like satin to the touch. 

Spalted Maple Canister

 

This is a spalted Maple canister, measuring 3.5 inches in diameter and 5.5 inches tall. It was wet sanded up to 400 grit with mineral oil. 

7.5" Spalted Maple Bowl

 

Here's a heavily spalted Maple bowl. This has been wet sanded with mineral oil, then given a coat of boiled linseed oil. 

9 Inch Segmented Bowl

 

This is a 9 inch segmented ring bowl made with Maple and Mahogany woods. The base is solid Mahogany and the sides are stacked 12 segment rings of Teak and Maple. Maple is the lighter wood. This was wet sanded with mineral oil and finished with boiled linseed oil. This will be a surprise birthday gift for one of my friends. 

Update: Made Lid For Segmented Canister

 

 I made a lid for the canister shown in the last post. The lid is Mahogany with a silvered blue marble knob. 

A Small Segmented Canister

 

Here's a small segmented ring canister measuring 3 inches high and 1.75 inches in diameter. Woods  used are (top to bottom) Walnut, Maple, Teak, Pine, Teak, Maple, Walnut, Mahogany. Each layer is a 6 segment ring. Finished with linseed oil and high speed wax. 

Mahogany Gift Box

 

Here's a small box I made for my sister's birthday. It about 5 inches square and almost 2 inches tall. Made from two kinds of Mahogany. Finger joint corners. Green flocking on inside bottom.  No hardware. Boiled linseed oil finish. 

A Maple Pot

Here's a Maple pot, 5 inches in diameter and 4 inches high turned from a nice piece of clear Silver Maple which has a bit of "fiddle-back" ripples in it. I made one similar to this one a little while back. This was wet sanded with mineral oil up to 600 grit. It feels like satin to touch.

9 Inch Segmented Bowl

Here's a nine inch diameter, 3.5 inch high segmented bowl. The base is a solid 3/4 inch thick slab of Mahogany on top of which is (from bottom to top) Teak, Maple and Mahogany. Teak is extremely hard wood. Not fun to turn. Mahogany and Maple are nicer to work with. The rings that make up the sides of the bowl are 12 segments each. This was wet sanded, as usual, with mineral oil. I've been using the mineral oil in the sanding stage for some time now. Sandpaper makes fine dust, and fine sandpaper makes super fine dust. Even if you wear the best respiratory gear, your shop becomes covered in this super fine dust and you'll be breathing it for years. The mineral oil eliminates the dust problem, - and without the loud vacuum dust collection system. The oil is not a problem as long as I'm not using a water based finish over it. I'm not really pleased with the color combination here. It's just not good looking. Not ugly, just boring.

Heavily Spalted Maple Bowl.

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Here I've turned this heavily spalted block of Maple into this amazing looking bowl. In this photo you can see the very center of the log and the concentric growth rings. For newbies, "spalting" is the beginning stage of wood rot, as fungi stake out claims inside the dead wood. The black lines are the perimeter of their colonies. The fungi also color the wood and can produce fade resistant colors in many shades. This wood was from a big Silver Maple we had cut down. I saved a section of that tree for 6 or 7 years before cutting into it. I got to it just in time because it was starting to get soft. I've gotten many nice pieces of wood from that chunk of tree.
This bowl measures 5.5 inches in diameter and 3.5 inches high. It was wet sanded with mineral oil then a coat of boiled linseed oil was applied.

Eucalyptus Wood Bowl #2

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Here's another red bark (Iron Wood) Eucalyptus wood bowl I turned. This one measures 5 inches in diameter and 2.5 inches high. This one had wood boring beetle holes in it which I filled with epoxy mixed with gold pearl powder, which you can see in the small yellow spots in the side of the bowl. When held up to the light, it shines through the gold fills. Kinda cool looking.  This is very hard wood but turns nicely. This was wet sanded with mineral oil up to about 400 grit and burnished with its own wood shavings to a semi-gloss luster. Nice looking bowl.