Several years ago I rough turned a beautiful 13 by 6 inch bowl from a green or wet piece of ash. I promptly waxed the rough bowl, put it in a paper bag, and placed it on a shelf to dry. I intended to leave it for about a year. More than the allotted time […]
Read More...This woodturning project is a natural edge mushroom in apricot. A viewer questioned how I oriented the turning axis on the last video. Since I didn’t have a defined answer, I decided to do an experiment. With three apricot branches, I will orient the turning axis differently in each one: one straight thru the pith; one diagonally […]
Read More...This woodturning project is a small natural edge mushroom in apricot. I saw Walt Weis at the Oregon State Fair making his version of mushrooms. The mushroom is 3″ tall, and a little over 2″ across the cap and finished with mineral oil and beeswax. The wood is green or wet apricot harvested about 9 […]
Read More...This woodturning project, a small bowl turned from apricot, was a nice short fun project. The wood came from urban forestry, meaning, I helped a neighbor cut down the apricot tree he didn’t want in his yard anymore. I was glad to help in return for the wood. At the beginning of the bowl turning, […]
Read More...Sometimes, we need a reminder of the risks involved in woodturning projects, particularly when turning a bowl harvested from random sources, sometimes called urban forestry. I harvest wood where ever I can hoping for a big turning blank and fantastic grain and figure. This apricot wood blank was from the main trunk, one of the biggest pieces […]
Read More...This woodturning project picks up from a green turning disaster a couple of months ago. At that time, I turned a green piece of maple. I wanted the finish turning without waiting for the wood to dry. However, in the final moments, my gouge caught the bottom of the bowl and it exploded. Maybe I […]
Read More...Now it’s time to finish this bowl — years in the making because I was distracted by work and family. But it’s also scary to finish turn a large bowl like this one. A large blank like this one is rare, very hard to come by. I rough turned it years ago and waited for […]
Read More...For this lathe woodturning project, I rough turned a piece of maple about three weeks ago. The maple was green which is very easy to turn. I wanted a natural edge bowl. At the time, I considered finishing it in just the one mounting. However, wet wood clogs sandpaper very quickly. So, I thought I’d […]
Read More...It’s long past time to finish this woodturning project. This piece of plum came originally from a tree in my back yard. Several years ago, I rough turned it, painted it with a wax emulsion, placed it in a brown paper bag and left it on my shelf. During the drying process, it shrunk radically […]
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