A few from me today;

[kwgeorge]

Well I got to spend the whole day at the lathe so I came up with a few things. All the wood came from Woodcraft quite some time ago and it some of it was not labeled as to what it is so I have no idea since I don’t recognize any of it.

The first piece is a long stem goblet. The wood had a considerable amount of spalting in the stem area. The spalting you see left here I had to stabilize with CA glue to be able to turn it. The wood was very dense but turned pretty well.



This next piece is a box made from a desert wood. That’s about all I can read on the label as the person who makes the labels for this wood has far worse handwriting than any doctor. I used many subtle curves in this design and then varied with a defined bead on the bottom. This wood was very dense and it would not surprise me if it was in the Ironwood family.



The last piece is a hollow form vase for the wife. The wood is VERY soft and hard to work. No tool would cut very well without tearing. I did best with my 3/8 gouge with very light cuts. I put a piece of canary wood on the top and the hole is about the size of a quarter. The wood was very white when I started with pink and black streaks. The finish made it more creamy looking. I got to try some different hollowing techniques and got down to about an 8th wall thickness before I decided it was good. I left about 3/4” mass in the very bottom as this wood is so light I was afraid putting a flower in it would tip it over.



Thanks for looking and comments and critiques are always welcome.

[bmyers]

Really nice Ken. I like the mini-vase, you could be onto something there.

Keep up the good work.

Bill

[Ken Massingale]

Pretty stuff, Kenneth.
ken

[leehljp]

All of them look great! I admire the work on the spalted long stem goblet. That took some delicate turning, I bet! The reddish pink streaks on the bottom vase really add accent to it. Stands out!

[jdoolitt]

As always - beautiful work. The goblet in particular is gorgeous. You are an inspiration. Thanks for posting!

[kwgeorge]

Thanks for the nice comments guys.

Hank; Yeah I was a bit worried with that goblet for sure. The piece showed signs of spalting on the exterior but I never thought it was going to be so deep! I kept expecting to turn it away at any moment. It was very punky and very soft so even though I was turning with the tailstock inside the goblet bowl I was expecting to get hit in the mouth with this one at any moment. As I turned the steam thinner and thinner it started to flex pretty bad to I had to change how I presented the tool. I also raised the tool rest and worked very high up on the stem to keep the tool from catching and climbing. This is one of those that will really start making you nervous for sure.

Bill; you will see more and more hollowing from me as some of the wood I have prepared dries. I would have liked to go thinner on the base of this piece so it would have had more skew but the wood was so soft and light that I did not think it would stand up very well. I am starting to get a good feel for where my tool tip is so I am getting braver.

[Whaler]

Beautiful work Ken, I like them all.

[gerti]

Nice work, Ken! I think that wood on the third photo is Box Elder. I just turned a bowl from a branch that broke of a tree in our yard. Turns pretty nice, just where the grain runs into the tool tear out was pretty much unavoidable. Same pink and gray colors, and even a bit of red near the pit. Also went from very light to more cream color when I added some oil as finish.

Gerd