Cherry Burl HF - in progress

[Steve Schlumpf]

Seeing as how it has been such a slow news day - thought I would share today's project.

This is a Cherry burl that absolutely refused to be roughed out about a year ago. No matter what I did - the wood cracked, heavy tearout in the end grain and I had bark flying all over the place. So, after staring at it for a year, decided it had character and figured I would give it one more chance - before becoming bottle stoppers!!!

I only took 2 photos (new camera stealth gloat) but there are a lot more cracks - DEEP - cracks throughout the piece so I am taking it slow and easy with the hollowing process.

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As it sits on the lathe - 9" in diameter x 5" deep.

As always - critiques, comments and opinions are welcome!

Thanks for looking!

[Joe Little]

Looks great. More beautiful with the cracks

[steven carter]

Steve

Steady as she goes! Might want to creep up on this one. Can't wait to see the end result.

Steve

[Mark Hubl]

Looks great Steve. That should be a real beauty. Good luck!

[Chris Stolicky]

Its looking good. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one with cracking problems in cherry....

I wonder if it would be beneficial to wrap it in shrink wrap (or similar) just to persuade it to stay together as you hollow it? I guess it depends on how deep the cracks are, and how brave you are feeling today. :)

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Looks like there isn't much bottle stopper wood left Steve ;)
Maybe a good idea to wrap some saran or packing wrap around the wood now, it would give it some additional strength, even if you open a hole or two to get the shavings out :).
Looking forward to see it finished, rather than in shards :rolleyes:

[Bill Bolen]

That piece has a lot of promise Steve. Looking good to this point. Just think, when those voids get thinned and are nothing but air you won't have to dig out the shavings for the remainder! Good luck with a very interesting piece...Bill...

[Bernie Weishapl]

Steve that is going to be a great looking piece. I would tend to the checks and like Leo I would wrap it with some saran wrap for added strength. Going to be good Steve.

[John Keeton]

Can you say PUCKER!!!!
Steve, I think it is going to end up a great piece!! When finished, could one take a dremel, and work the cracks out to look rugged more in keeping with the voids, tint the inside edges dark brown, with a little black? Kind of bring all of the open areas together and keep them from looking like....well, cracks:rolleyes:

[Allen Neighbors]

Steve, you can tell that it's way too beautiful a piece of wood to turn into little pieces. I think you'll be glad you saved it from the bottle stopper fate.
New camera should have held more than two pics :p. What kind of camera did you get? I'm in the market for one, myself, but I want one that's not quite as smart as the one I got now.... it takes the picture about 3 seconds after I aim it, and by then, I've lost the action and expression I intended to photograph.:(
It appears that you're going to really have to dig deep/wide under that shoulder; will you be using a laser, or just measuring as you go?
I always use a lot of tape when I have one with all these cracks... hoping it will keep it together for me.
Looking good, so far, Steve... don't forget to use that new camera again when it's finished...:)

[Steve Schlumpf]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! Will keep my fingers crossed this makes it off the lathe - in one piece!

Allen - I will use the laser to keep me informed where I am at inside the form. Don't know if it would be very accurate if I had the blank wrapped in plastic!

The camera I picked up is a Canon EOS T1i - a fairly simple (or so I have read) DSLR camera that will give me control over the photos of my turnings. I do know what you mean about the delay some of the cameras have and can't begin to count the number of shots I've missed because of it. With the new camera - there is no delay and it takes photos just as fast as I can snap the shot!

[Curt Fuller]

Break out the CA, epoxy, and coffee grounds old buddy! This one is gonna be a keeper for sure.

[Tony De Masi]

Looking good Steve. Looking forward to the finished product. You aren't going to dye this one are you;)

Tony

[Richard Madison]

As the man who fell off the 20 story building was heard to say on the way down, "so far, so good". I understand he had a miraculous soft landing and was not injured.

[David E Keller]

That's really an interesting piece of wood, and I hope it holds together for the finish line. Always look forward to seeing your turnings.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Steve, I can't wait to see that finished, very cool looking. I think you're too far beyond me for my advise. But I will say your new camera looks very sharp; I can even see the tiny scratches on your chuck. And the focus looks perfect. I hope you are wearing face protection just in case things go South. But I know it won't. Alan

[Steve Schlumpf]

Alan - I wear my Trend and make sure to stand out of the line of fire as much as possible! So far the blank seems pretty solid and I am not to worried. It's still about 3" thick and have already opened a few ports to throw shavings all over the room! My only concern will be when I get it down fairly thin. I am hoping for 1/8" but more than likely it will be closer to 1/4".

Camera has been fun so far. Still have to figure out the best way to control depth of field when taking studio photos.

[Richard Madison]

To increase depth of field, back the camera away and zoom in with the lens. The opposite of this tends to distort the shape as well as reducing dof.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Thanks Richard! Haven't put in enough time with it yet to find the correct distance. Old camera I used was 12"to 18" away from turning. New camera has a much more powerful lense - so probably have to back up a few feet to have enough DOF to have entire turning in focus.

[Harvey Ghesser]

Hi Steve,

Just wanted to echo what others here have said. This one's gonna be awsome!

Harv

(sure do envy your talent!)

[Richard Madison]

Steve, I usually zoom the lens in all the way and then back away until I have a full frame picture of the work plus a little extra to crop. This is always about the same place, so now I just set the tripod there to start. You can also use a smaller lens opening (larger f number) with a longer exposure time to increase depth of field. Beyond that, Neal Addy has an excellent photography tutorial on his site.

[gary Zimmel]

That chunk of cherry burl is in very capable hands....

I'm looking forward to the finished piece.

[alex carey]

looks like it'll be worth the effort if it ends up staying together.

[Roger Bullock]

When I grow up I want to be able to turn half as good as you. Can't wait to see the finish. Nice form and good job.

[Harlan Coverdale]

Looks nice so far Steve. Looking forward to seeing the finished piece.


Allen - I will use the laser to keep me informed where I am at inside the form. Don't know if it would be very accurate if I had the blank wrapped in plastic!


IME, a single or double layer of stretch wrap won't affect the laser any more than the inherent vibration that you see on the red dot. It won't throw off the accuracy enough to worry about.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Didn't think about you using the lacer Steve, but thinking about that, you don't need to wrap the whole piece though, just the largest circumference of the piece to give it some extra strength and keep it from expanding and opening up by the centrifugal forces.
Whatever you decide to do, keep safe, and I hope you will be successful in finishing it, just take your sweet old time ;-)))

[Rob Cunningham]

Very interesting looking piece of wood Steve. I hope it holds together for you, it should be beautiful when finished.