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I thank my daughter for the wood for this video. She cut down a Russian olive tree from her yard. It was smelly and poorly located. It was not bowl size-I decided to try for a hollow form from the entire log section. That is. I did not rip it in half as is typical. This, however, risks cracks radiating from the pith as it dries.

To offset this significant risk, I decided to drill out the entire pith to at least 1.5 inches. Usually some wood is left in the bottom of the hollow form. This area in this blank contains the pith but now would be a hole.

After shaping, hollowing, and weighing, I wrapped the wood with plastic wrap and put it away to dry.

Now to remount and finish turning the wood. Well, it was mostly normal. The exception is the need to plug the hole in the bottom. Fortunately, I had saved some Russian olive that was also now dry.

This vase is 4 inches diameter, 6 inches tall, and finished with walnut oil and buffed to a nice sheen. In life the tree was stinky. In rough turning, the wood was stinky. As a dry vase, it is pretty, not stinky.

Enjoy.