Burned And Left For Dead In Hawaii

[George Guadiane]

The wood for this little hollow form was the first piece of found wood that I ever collected. It came from a spent fire on the north shore of Oahu, five or six years ago. I figured I could take the burned wood and turn something out of it. When I got it home, I found that I had not yet acquired the skills to do anything of consequence with it, so two failed attempts later I put it away till I learned how to turn it.
It popped up again today so I slapped it on the lathe.
I smelled like barbecue once I started turning it, sure smells like dinner!
This is what I came up with:
3 inches high by 3 1/4 inches in diameter.
Sanded with Kukui nut oil to 800 and burnished with microcrystaline wax
As Always, All Questions, Comments and Critique welcome.

[Ray Bell]

Very nice George, neat history, and great save. If you hadn't picked that up it probably would have been dust by now instead of this very nice HF.

[David E Keller]

That's cool. I've seen people torch stuff after they turned it, but this is the first piece I've seen that was burned prior to turning. Now I'll be checking out ever fire pit and camp site that I walk past.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great save on a wonderful looking piece George.

[Baxter Smith]

Interesting story and neat little piece.
A turners souvenir!:)

[Jeff Willard]

I have always had an inner urge to commit arson.

But I knew it was wrong.

Now I can rationalize it :eek:.

[Thomas Canfield]

George - Good looking save on the firewood. Have you identified the wood? It has the color of Koa, but the grain looks too big for a small limb or trunk section. Sure makes a nice story in any case. Now to go back and get more now that you have the skill to use it.

[George Guadiane]

Thanks everyone!
The wood is kiawe. It's called mesquite on the mainland.
I saved some of the shavings so that I can use them in the grill.

[Allen Neighbors]

George, that's great! What a piece! I suggest you put all that info into writing, and slip it inside the form... for posterity?... or something...

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Certainly is different George, nice form, and pretty wood on the one side, I'm not to sure about the burned side of it, still thanks for showing something out of the ordinary :cool: :D

[Steve Schlumpf]

George - I like it! Talk about character! Beautiful wood - great story!

[George Guadiane]

George, that's great! What a piece! I suggest you put all that info into writing, and slip it inside the form... for posterity?... or something...
I'll do that, thanks for the suggestion.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to look and respond.
The wood turned me black in places. I don't think it was the charcoal part, because that "dirt" usually washes off. There are probably tannins in the wood that colored me.

When I found this piece, I was a very NEW turner, but in reading about and listening to the "artists," I knew that unusual was important. It's not unusual to see partially burned camp/cook firewood lying on the ground, but it did seem like it would be unusual to use that wood to create a finished piece of art.
I knew so little about wood that I didn't think about the structural integrity of the burned part, how far it went into the piece I had and/or whether it could be hollowed or not.
The funny thing is, I'm fairly certain that if I saw the same piece of wood on the same beach today, I would probably still pick it up.
I STILL don't know if it would have turned to finish on it's own, I used a fair amount of CA glue to keep the thing from flaking. That probably made it stronger too. Parts of the tenon were flying off as I got near the end of removing it.

Anyway, thanks for the comments

[Michelle Rich]

a good find & waiting to improve your skills was a smart process.. very nice

[Tim Rinehart]

Good call on waiting to do something with it till you had skills to not waste it.

Very nice, and I like the finish and amount of char left on it...begs people to ask for 'the story'.