Gambel Oak Rootball HF

[Curt Fuller]

This is turned from an old dry scrub (gambel) oak root ball. The top of the HF is actually the bottom of the root ball, the tree grew out of the bottom of the HF. So what I'm saying is it's oriented upside down. It's 7.5" tall, 8" diameter, 3/8" thick sides, a little thicker in the bottom. The wood was hard as a rock but the bark and voids held together pretty good. Just Danish Oil on it so far. The last pic shows kind of an interesting spiral cracking pattern on the bottom where the tree grew out of the root ball.

[Dewey Torres]

Curt and all,
Please forgive me for a stupid question but when you guy turn the natural edges and HFs with voids how do you keep the chisel from catching the holes / edges?

[Dewey Torres]

Oh ... and VERY NICE!

[alex carey]

very beautiful. great piece

[Jeff Nicol]

Reply to Dewey: When the blank is spinning and your put the tool to the wood you have to keep the forward motion to a minimum or it will catch. Once it is roughed out and the weight more equalized the lathe can be sped up so the voids are moving so fast that you don' have much time to get a catch. You still can try and take to big a cut and that will cause trouble. So it boils down to light cuts and proper speed to maintain good contact with the wood. Cutting air is fun!

You must have a huge binder full of notes and techniques my now! It will take you years do do one of each thing!!

Have fun!

Curt, That is a grat piece! You are a man after my own heart, I love turning the goofy stuff!

Jeff

[Steve Schlumpf]

Curt - Love it! Excellent job on form and keeping all that bark! I like the danish oil for the finish. As rough as all the inclusions are, a gloss finish would seem out of place. But then again, it would make for a great contrast! This piece should make for a great entry into an Art show!

So, where did you get the wood? Just happen to have a shovel with you while out walking around in the woods one day?

Seriously, great looking hollow form! Already saved it to my favorites! Thanks for sharing!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Curt that is a beautiful piece. I love the spiral cracking on the bottom. The finish really sets it off. I probably wouldn't do much more as I think shiney would detract from it. Just my opinion.

[TYLER WOOD]

Beautiful piece there. Love the voids in it. Wood loks vaguely familiar. I actually spent yesterday cutting up an enormous red oak root ball. Has a lot of the same graining as yours. I love the really fine burling from the hair roots. BEAUTIFUL JOB!!!

[Bill Bolen]

That is just plain beautul. And it comes with built in depth gauges for wall thickness. No calipers needed here!...Bill...

[Bob Hallowell]

Curt, that is stunning as always!

Bob

[Peter Lamb]

Very well executed! Your design has caused the piece to speak loudly. It should fly out of any gallery.

[Joe Chritz]

Very impressive. I have some catching up to do.

Joe

[Brian Brown]

As usual Curt, a really beautiful piece from a unique piece of wood. Being that this one came from underground, did you have a problem with dirt and rocks? How do you handle it? I haven't had the guts to try a turning from an undergrounder yet. I have enough trouble keeping my tools sharp.

[George Conklin]

Very impressive, Curt. Out of the ordinary. I like it!

[Dewey Torres]

Reply to Dewey: When the blank is spinning and your put the tool to the wood you have to keep the forward motion to a minimum or it will catch. Once it is roughed out and the weight more equalized the lathe can be sped up so the voids are moving so fast that you don' have much time to get a catch. You still can try and take to big a cut and that will cause trouble. So it boils down to light cuts and proper speed to maintain good contact with the wood. Cutting air is fun!

You must have a huge binder full of notes and techniques my now! It will take you years do do one of each thing!!

Have fun!

Curt, That is a grat piece! You are a man after my own heart, I love turning the goofy stuff!

Jeff

Jeff Thanks for reply... Curt, no thread stealing intended just trying to get smart r'

[Curt Fuller]

Thanks everyone.




So, where did you get the wood? Just happen to have a shovel with you while out walking around in the woods one day?



Steve, this came from a housing subdivision that is being developed not far from my house. There are big piles of this scrub oak pushed up from cutting the roads. Gambel Oak is almost like a weed around here. It doesn't grow big enough for good shade and is very prone to brush fires in the summer. But people seem to like to live where it grows so there are a lot of homes built on the foothills in the scrub oak which makes plenty of it available for turning.

[Dave Halter]

Amazing! For those of you that turn these extraordinary pieces I would love to see before and after photos.

If I understand the description correctly the void/bark areas would have been underground or partially exposed at the surface. How did you clean it prior to turning?

Dave

[Curt Fuller]

Dave, all of this would have been underground when it was still a tree. To clean it I just use the garden hose. There's still some dirt and a few small rocks in the voids sometimes, but if you use a pressure washer it takes the bark off. So I just wash them with a hose and resharpen the tools a lot.

[Art Kelly]

Great work! Once you turn roots, "regular" wood is a let down.

It's hard to reconcile the symmetry of the tree above the ground with the chaos that's under the surface.

[Alan Huey]

Curt, really nice. This is a very unique piece.