Small spalted maple bowl

[mr]

A couple weeks ago I finally got up the nerve to ask one of my neighbors if I could take some of the fallen, cut up maple tree in their backyard to use for firewood. They said yes, and I carried a few chunks over to my yard and split them up to burn next year. As I was doing so, I found a few pieces that were nicely spalted, but unfortunately I had already split them into firewood-sized pieces. Here's a small bowl that I managed to get from one of the split pieces. It's 2 1/4" tall by 3 1/2" in diameter, finished with Deft spray lacquer.







There's a bunch more wood there, so I'm going to try to grab some pieces and split them into larger bowl-sized pieces with a chainsaw instead of an axe and hopefully get some nice blanks out of them.

Thanks for looking!

[admin]

I like it!

What sorta foot did you do? Simple recess for the chuck jaws? That's pretty common for my own work. I'll eventually find a more elegant method.

[mr]

Thanks!

Yep, just a simple recess. I also sometimes do a tenon and then reverse the bowl and turn the tenon off at the end, but leaving the natural (though barkless) edge on this one would've made that tough to do since it wouldn't sit flat on the Cole jaws when reversed.

[sachbvn]

I like that. LOT, hope you get some more!! I can see right now that I'm going to have to start looking for downed trees for bowl blanks!


Nice work!

Zac

[Doug B]

I love that wood MR and I'm a big fan of natural edge turnings too. Great job - it looks great.

I can't help but wonder how many pens could be made from that chunk of wood though ;D

[Joe Lyddon]

Nice lil bowl...

COOL!

[mr]

Zac - Thanks! I just finished carrying over 4 more chunks, which I'll hopefully get a chance to process sometime soon. If anything good comes out of it, I'll send some blanks your way.

Doug - Thanks! If you look close there's a chunk out of the edge that is a result of my haphazard axe-splitting. I could've turned the edge flat and gotten rid of the chip, but I liked the look of the rest of the natural edge, so I left it. Ditto for you - if I get anything that looks pen-worthy out of what I process, I'll send some your way.

Joe - Thanks! Little is right...I'm thinking that whoever I give it to will have to use it for change or earrings or something, as it's too small for much else.

[Mark]

Cool results Mike. The spalting is especially good, so hope it's similar in the larger pieces. For turning the foot on a natural edged bowl - try a plug, with one flat side to rest on your cole chuck face, and the other side and circumference sized/shaped to just snugly fit in the bowl. It's easier than it might seem.

Thanks for showing,
Mark

[Doug B]

I completely missed the size of it MR...it looks like a much bigger bowl! Now go rescue some more firewood ;D

[maverick31]

that is a neat little bowl. spalting is awesome. I hope you get some more and post pics when you make some more stuff. I never get tired of seeing spalted stuff

[mapleman]

Apr 6, 2010 9:44:35 GMT -6 mr said:

Thanks!

Yep, just a simple recess. I also sometimes do a tenon and then reverse the bowl and turn the tenon off at the end, but leaving the natural (though barkless) edge on this one would've made that tough to do since it wouldn't sit flat on the Cole jaws when reversed.

time for a jamb chuck. i use a discarded bowl blank that i can grip with the chuck jaws, put the open part of the finished bowl over the blank (with paper towel, foam or something in between), bring up the tailstock, then turn the foot away with a nat. edge.

when i am very lazy, i will reverse and jamb even typical bowls b/c changing the jaws is time consuming....

john

[sdb777]

Great find and outstanding 'save' on the firewood!

Question(s): Is the finish you used dry during this photo? Looks wet and sort of 'bubbled'....or is that just that way the photo makes it look?
Did it require any CA(or anything) due to the intense spalting?




Side note:
I find myself on the way to where ever, looking at the side of the road for trees that have been downed, for whatever reason, and wondering what they would like as a pen blank.
Wife says I nuts if I'm going to go filling the garage with wood for future projects.....




Scott (she should've known I was nuts a long time ago) B

[mr]

John - I have been thinking about trying a jamb chuck for a while now. Is the discarded blank you use pretty small so it can fit into whatever size bowl you're reversing, or do you have several of different sizes?

Scott - Thanks! The finish is dry, and the bowl is nice and smooth-feeling. I didn't use any CA, but on some others that have been really dry and rotten I've used some or even some epoxy to fill voids. I look for downed wood everywhere, too...free firewood on Craigslist has yielded some good hauls.