Acer Negundo Goblet

[steven carter]

This is a small goblet I made from the box elder tree from the golf course where my son was superintendent. The tree was full of carpenter ants, and this piece was the first to come out of my deep freeze. I'm going to have to get on the ball as LOML wants the freezer space. Didn't see any evidence of the little critters while frozen, but maybe they just weren't in this piece of wood. First time turning acer negundo, and first goblet, had some nice curl. The goblet turned out to be a little over 6" tall, and the goblet part 3.5". Finished in home brew oil, buffed and ren wax.

C&C welcome, thanks for looking.

Steve

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Stephen, I really like that you chose Box Elder for this project and the flame up the side is very neat. Good Job.:)

[Van Huskey]

Very neat goblet and perfect use of the wood

[Michael James]

I haven't dared to try anything like that yet, still playing with the parts of the sum. Very nice job and very beautiful. Stucturally, it looks stronger than many I've seen. I like that.... although, it's probably my aversion to finials and really thin turnings...:cool:
mj

[John Keeton]

Great choice of wood, Steven! Suits the style of this piece very well. I like it!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Good looking wood Steve, well done Goblet :D

Steven if the deep freeze was to get rid of the Ants, than you bet on the wrong horse.

I have experience with this, and I can tell you that the carpenter ants will freeze readily and be none the worse for it.

I always though these ants would migrate underground or find some other way to survive the extreme colds, but found out that is just not the case.

Close to my son's place there was Rock Elm that looked bad and I thought it would die pretty soon and get cut down, so I told my son to make sure he got some of that wood, as I have not seen any around here, though they are able to grow here.

Anyway I hauled several pieces home after Christmas time as we spend time over at their place, I had to cut the pieces in the cold smaller as they where way to big to handle, I saw then and later when we got home and unloaded the wood lots of frozen ants,I assumed they were dead, anyway the wood got placed in the shop with plastic bags over it, found ants scrambling back into the wood some days later when I lifted the plastic up to have a look at the wood, they were all very alive.

Now this tree grew at a place where the wintertime temps fall down to 40 below and freezing temperatures stay down for weeks on end, and these things are none the worse for it.

Though without the queen they all will die out eventually if any are around.

I had quite a time getting rid of mine as there were several colonies in the wood, Ill show a picture of what it looked like.

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[John Hart]

Yeah...Leo's right. Carpenter Ants are impervious to cold. Now, fire is another story!! 'Course then...the wood kinda suffers too.:rolleyes:

Nice job on the goblet, Steven. It's a whole new world eh? :)

[Mark Hubl]

Nice job. I really like box elder, love the red and it is nice to turn.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great job. I really like that flame.

[Paul Douglass]

Really nice. I love that wood. Looks good as a goblet.

I bet if you soaked the wood in alcohol the ants would die, or at least be drunk and stumble back where they came from.