Sugar Maple bowls

[Prashun Patel]

I turned 4 of these bowls green a couple weeks ago. They're 3.5" dia x varying heights. On 3 of the bowls, the beautiful white turned brown in parts after a week. I had enough movement that turning away the staining became hard.

The first 3 pics are of the bowl that came out 'best'. The blotch (while unfortunate) seems normal to me. The 4th shows one of the others that got it worse. Any idea why this happened?

All 4 are from the same quartered log...

I'm in the middle of applying tung oil as the finish.

Oh yeah, critiques welcome.

[Sean Hughto]

I love the shape. Nice work.

I don't understand your post though. You rough turned them, they stained, and you didn't have enough material to remove all the "stain" when you re-turned? And I don't see anythingn in the pictures that looks unatural or problematic. Wood has charcter marks. Sometimes it has spalt (fungus). Chemical changes occur with exposure to light and air - many will continue to change (especially darken) for years.

[steven carter]

No idea, but I really like the bowls, reminds me of a pot for the gold of a leprechaun.

Steve

[Prashun Patel]

I don't understand your post...You rough turned them...and you didn't have enough material to remove all the "stain" when you re-turned?

Sean- I FINISH turned them from the green blank. I've gotten some spalting with other blanks from the same tree, but that was usually black - not brown, which almost looks like oxidation. I didn't realize that happened in maple - and so unevenly too.

Is it blotch? Why would the wood blotch even b4 the finish is applied?

[Sean Hughto]

Well then I don't get what "movement" you are referring to. At the end of the day, no matter, I don't see any faults, stains or other unusual stuff in that maple. Here's a sugar maple mallet I turned. It's got streaks and dots and stuff in it too.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2799/4294677960_5736058f60_z.jpg

[John Keeton]

Prashun, I think what you are seeing is just the natural grain of the wood that becomes noticeable (and darker) when an oil is applied. A clear lacquer finish may not have shown it - or, as much. Either way, looks fine to me! It is wood, so nature happens!

Sean, "It's got streaks and dots and stuff in it too." - along with a few dents!!!:D The very gall of striking something with a hand turned mallet!!!:rolleyes:

[Prashun Patel]

My pics don't show it properly. I'll try to do it under the sun. The stains are there BEFORE the finish. They almost look like burn marks, but they are not burn marks because they only appeared during drying.

By movement, again the pix don't show this, but the bowls warped (intentionally). If I try to re-turn them, I risk removing too much material just bringing them back into round. I wasn't able to sand away the marks effectively.

[Jeff Nicol]

Prashun, With most all woods, the color changes the minute it is exposed to light and air. What you see freshly cut or turned on wet wood will never stay that way. Also depending on when the wood was cut and how much sap was still up in the tree will make things change at different rates. So when you turn something green from start to finish with the warping and movement a desired affect you get what you get what you get, you could change the colors faster by sitting them in the sun or buy keeping them in the dark until they dry. But if you want a nice white/creamy color on most maple it will have to be turned with enough thickness to re-turn it after it is dry or buy a kiln dried blank as the moisture is what will dictate the changes in the color.

Like many others said they look very nice the way the color has turned out,

Jeff

[Jim Burr]

Hey Prashun! It took a while for the shape to grow on me, but you did a great job of maintaining the flow from top to bottom. Maybe a shorter foot would bring more attention to the shape that really is very well done. Let the wood do it's thing! It will change color, shape, size and maybe even species;) while it dries. Every piece we turn can never be duplicated so let it shine!!:D

[Don Alexander]

pretty much if you want a nice even coloration paint it otherwise wood is going to change color when exposed to light and also often when it dries out it will change color different areas of the grain will change differently so it will never be "even" to me this is what makes it beautiful

also contrary to a widely held misconception maple is not always light colored especially after exposure to the elements so to speak

[Jim Burr]

And to pick up on Don's reply, look at Purple heart...it's brown when you start. Let it oxidize in the sun a bit and bang!!! Purple:eek::eek:. Paduk does a similar transformation as well. Knowing some of these characteristics can help determine what wood to use and what finish to apply and maybe even whether to use a species in a particular piece.

[Gary Conklin]

And to pick up on Don's reply, look at Purple heart...it's brown when you start. Let it oxidize in the sun a bit and bang!!! Purple:eek::eek:. .

And over time back to a dark brown almost black color.

[Barry Elder]

I think you may be seeing the "old" wood and the "new" wood, which in an older tree would be called the "growth" rings.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Prashun those are some nice looking bowls. I don't really see a problem and warping intentionally is ok. I agree with most that if you want white out of maple you need to turn it and leave at least 10% thickness. On most bowls including smaller bowls I always leave them at 3/4" thick and then put back on the lathe and finish turning. Maple always comes out pretty nice white color which of course will darken when using a oil finish. Lacquer will keep it as close to white as it can get.

[Baxter Smith]

Very pretty curves Prashun! I have looked at them a couple of times trying to figure out what makes them so appealing to me.:) Maybe they remind me of a flower and/or its the slope of the rim. Or both. Anyway, very graceful!

[Don Alexander]

i neglected to mention that i really like those bowls you have done well