|
Mystery BowlI gave this bowl to my Mother-in-Law for her birthday. I have no idea what type of wood it is. If you think you know, send me an email - I'd love to know. (More photos and description below...)UPDATE: Mystery solved! Rebecca, arborist and owner of Majestic Tree Care, has identified this species as boxelder (Acer negundo). Thanks Rebecca! |
|||||||||||||||
 |
| The
wood for this bowl came from a tree that was felled near Breck's Mill,
on the Brandywine River, just across from the DuPont Experimental
Station.
I'm not sure why the tree was taken down, but it was left
there in cut-up
sections. There's a small Post Office in the Mill, and I
often
stop in
there on my way to or from work to send packages. One day I
asked the
Post Lady about it, and she said I
should take as much of the wood as I wanted. So I loaded
three log sections into the back of my Jeep... |
 |
 |
The
logs have a pronounced red pattern running through the center, as you can
see in this one that I've just cut in half
with a chainsaw. (For
more info on cutting logs up into turning blanks, see my previous photo
essay, titled "Chainsaw
Madness".) |
| This
is the bowl blank after cutting it out on the bandsaw. As you
can see, the red pattern is quite striking on the end-grain. |
 |
 |
And here's the
blank
mounted on the lathe. |
| This
shows the rough-turned exterior of the bowel. Next you reverse the bowl, using a TeknaTool Nova 
(or similar)
4-jaw chuck to
grip the tenon on the bottom of the bowl, and then proceed to hollow
the interior of the bowl. |
 |
Drying the Rough-Turned BowlBowls turned from green wood have a high moisture content. If allowed to dry naturally, they will warp and sometimes crack. Therefore turners typically "rough turn" bowls, leaving the walls 3/4 to 1" thick, then allow them to dry slowly over several months. When dry, the bowls are re-mounted on the lathe and finished. So if a bowl warps slightly to an oval shape during drying, the extra wall thickness allows it to be re-turned back to round.After rough turning the bowl to a wall thickness of approximately 3/4", I decided to try the boiling technique advocated by Steve Russell. Although it may sound counter-intuitive, this is a method for removing the water from the wood. Proponents claim that boiling can reduce overall drying time by up to 50%. With the boiling method, the rough turned bowl is boiled (in water) in a large pot for one hour. After allowing excess moisture to dry for a day or two, the bowl is then wrapped in two or three brown paper bags and left to dry for 1-3 months. The paper bags hold moisture in somewhat and allow the wood to dry slowly, which hopefully will prevent cracking. When the bags no longer feel damp, the bowl is dry. Note of Advice: If you are going to try this, (1) use a pot you no longer wish to use for cooking, and (2) do it outside on a camp stove or the side burner of your propane grill. (I used the latter.) Overall, this method worked fairly well for me. After boiling and letting it sit out overnight, I let the bowl dry in paper bags for about six weeks before finish turning it. This is probably about half the time it would have taken to dry without boiling. I'll definitely try this technique again. Another Note of Advice: take the bowl out of the bag every week or so and check for mold. Wipe with alcohol to remove/kill any you find. Change the bags as needed... |
 |
This
close-up of the grain may help in identifying the species. Email me
if you think you know what it is. Another possible clue:
during the wet/rough turning, the wood had a very unpleasant
smell. UPDATE: Rebecca, arborist and owner of Majestic Tree Care, has identified this species as boxelder (Acer negundo). Thanks Rebecca! |
 |
| Turned Bowl, species unknown Boxelder - August 2007 |
