Clouds across the Moon/Silver Maple Sphere

[Baxter Smith]

Or something like that.:rolleyes:

A post by Rob Cunningham a little over a month ago on turning a sphere gave me the impetus to try this piece. When I stopped by to see Robs homemade hollowing rig in October, we briefly talked about the David Ellsworth book that both of us had recently read. One of the topics was turning HF’s green to final thickness . When I left, Rob graciously gave me a piece of silver maple. It sat for a few weeks till I came up with something relevant to my visit to try with it.

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I turned away a lot of beautiful silver/gray spalting swirls trying to get away from the checking that came in from the ends at the pith. Finally gave up after turning away most of the best color and still having cracks on the end.
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I was going to take pictures along the way but the fear of expanding cracks and my slowness in hollowing made me forget about it. I ended up using CA on a couple of end cracks that began to grow while hollowing. Figured I would deal with the finishing consequences of that later.
I liked the whiteness of the wood in contrast to the gray but ended up using an oil so the CA stripes wouldn’t stand out as much.
I never arrived at anything close to a perfect sphere due to trying to rid the ends of cracks and not lose all the spalting on the sides. Don’t think I could have anyway even without those problems. I thought about cutting out a template to use that would have matched the diameter I was going to end up with but didn’t want to stop and take the time.
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Finished with 4 coats of AO so far. 6.25 x 6.75 depending on direction. Opening is 1 1/8 after I mangled it, with a 3/16 wall or less. After measuring one spot at about 1/16 I got scared:D and left the bottom where the chuck was a little thicker. Ended up at 3/8. It has some flat spots but was fun to try. Thanks Rob for the pretty wood. Still thinking about building that hollowing rig!:)
Comments and suggestions are welcome!

[David E Keller]

I think it looks pretty cool, Baxter... If you fashioned some kind of base for it, you might get the appearance of a continuous curve through the bottom.

Continuous curves are hard enough... Continuous curves with a constant radius are really tough. I think you did a pretty good job.

[Ray Bell]

Nice job Baxter. Can I ask what you are using on the spindle end while doing the initial roughing?

[charlie knighton]

let the wood tell you what to do, very nice Baxter

only suggestions is i start out between centers, see which end is up after rounding out blank, make tendon, and here is suggestion, i leave sometimes 1 inch or more from tendon to where the bottom of hf probable is, i like tendon to be at least 2 1/2 inches, i just turn away till i get the shape of the bottom i like, about 1 inch is nice, i am getting where the bottom is somewhere in the tendon

[bob svoboda]

Baxter..very nice piece of wood and a great job of creating a sphere. Also very aptly named.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice piece Baxter. The wood is awesome and I agree that a stand would really set that piece off.

[John Keeton]

Baxter, every since I saw the beautiful sphere that Jack Mincey did a while back, I have been fascinated by these. This one looks nice, and aptly titled, as well!!

[dan carter]

It turned off well. For sure when you find 1/16 thickness, you have second thoughts. You might consider adding a nice tall finial as well if you decide to add a base. To me, your bowl doesn't need a base. I like it as it is now.

[Rob Cunningham]

It looks good Baxter. Starting out with that whole chunk of wood spinning must have been a bit intimidating.:eek: Glad it worked out for you.

[Ken Hill]

Base or not, could look good either way!

Do a Keeton style finial and you will be one of them artisian types:D

[Baxter Smith]

I think it looks pretty cool, Baxter... If you fashioned some kind of base for it, you might get the appearance of a continuous curve through the bottom.
Continuous curves are hard enough... Continuous curves with a constant radius are really tough. I think you did a pretty good job.

Thanks David, I hadn't thought about doing a base for it. I could have made a small one out of the tenon I was holding it with if I had thought of it. Would have helped with the lift a bit. I ended up taking a little more off the bottom than I wanted because there were some CA streaks where I had had to firm up the tenon to get a solid enough grip to hollow it.

Nice job Baxter. Can I ask what you are using on the spindle end while doing the initial roughing?
Thanks Ray. I was just using a spur drive initially and then again after I rotated it 90 degrees.

let the wood tell you what to do, very nice Baxter

only suggestions is i start out between centers, see which end is up after rounding out blank, make tendon, and here is suggestion, i leave sometimes 1 inch or more from tendon to where the bottom of hf probable is, i like tendon to be at least 2 1/2 inches, i just turn away till i get the shape of the bottom i like, about 1 inch is nice, i am getting where the bottom is somewhere in the tendon
Thanks Charlie. I understand what you mean about having the bottom left in the tenon. Next time!:)


It turned off well. For sure when you find 1/16 thickness, you have second thoughts. You might consider adding a nice tall finial as well if you decide to add a base. To me, your bowl doesn't need a base. I like it as it is now.
Thanks Dan. The 1/16 is kind of a wakeup call!

Base or not, could look good either way!

Do a Keeton style finial and you will be one of them artisian types:D
Thanks Ken. I seem to try a finial once every couple of months. Don't want to get too artsy! Green wood and finials don't mix especially well. I have more than a few HF's roughed out so next year may be different.

Baxter..very nice piece of wood and a great job of creating a sphere. Also very aptly named.
Thanks Bob. The name was even more appropriate before I added the oil. Oh well.:)

Really nice piece Baxter. The wood is awesome and I agree that a stand would really set that piece off.
Thanks Bernie. The wood really was a whole lot nicer about an inch further out but I was trying to escape the checks on the end. Made me sick to turn it away. I may give the stand a try. Wasn't the look I was going for initially but the natural look dissappeared once I added the oil. Did hide the CA though.:rolleyes:

Baxter, every since I saw the beautiful sphere that Jack Mincey did a while back, I have been fascinated by these. This one looks nice, and aptly titled, as well!!
Thanks John. I remember those sphere's Jack did. Much more refined than this one.

It looks good Baxter. Starting out with that whole chunk of wood spinning must have been a bit intimidating.:eek: Glad it worked out for you.
Thanks Rob and thanks for the wood. I wish I could have ended up with it bigger in diameter before I turned it 90 degrees. The swirls just under the bark were awesome!

[Doug W Swanson]

Considering what you went through to get to this point, I think it turned out great. If you just have to get rid of it, I'll email you my address and you can send it to me!:D

[Steve Schlumpf]

Sure is some pretty wood! You did a nice job on the form!