Art Kelly
12-16-2010, 9:56 PM
I scored a tote full of pine galls--probably caused by fusiform fungus--in North Georgia in September. Now that the Christmas-ornament orgy is over, I've started back on the galls.
They are interesting objects. When the fungus attacks the limb, it apparently causes real sappy wood to grow where the fungus has breached the bark. Because of the sap, sanding is almost impossible, so I've smoothed these as smooth as I can with a scraper. After that I started with #2 steel wool, mostly with the lathe off, and just worked out the remaining tool marks. The stuff is pretty soft so it goes fast. I don't have a lot of different grades of S/W, so I went from #2 to 0 to 0000.
In the photos, the little vase on the right is just about finished on the outside. I did a few minutes with 0000 S/W and Danish Oil (natural). There are a few little tool marks still to be worked out, but I thought I'd let the oil cure for a few days to see if I like it.
In the piece on the left, you can see where the limb runs at about 20 degrees from horizontal. The gall was about 7 inches in diameter on the limb. In the piece on the right, the limb runs straight upward through the gall, which was about 3-1/2 inches in diameter. The main limb looks like regular pine, but the gall surrounding the limb is like the "fatwood" found in the stumps of old trees. The pieces are about 5 inches tall.
News at 11.
Art
174082 174081
They are interesting objects. When the fungus attacks the limb, it apparently causes real sappy wood to grow where the fungus has breached the bark. Because of the sap, sanding is almost impossible, so I've smoothed these as smooth as I can with a scraper. After that I started with #2 steel wool, mostly with the lathe off, and just worked out the remaining tool marks. The stuff is pretty soft so it goes fast. I don't have a lot of different grades of S/W, so I went from #2 to 0 to 0000.
In the photos, the little vase on the right is just about finished on the outside. I did a few minutes with 0000 S/W and Danish Oil (natural). There are a few little tool marks still to be worked out, but I thought I'd let the oil cure for a few days to see if I like it.
In the piece on the left, you can see where the limb runs at about 20 degrees from horizontal. The gall was about 7 inches in diameter on the limb. In the piece on the right, the limb runs straight upward through the gall, which was about 3-1/2 inches in diameter. The main limb looks like regular pine, but the gall surrounding the limb is like the "fatwood" found in the stumps of old trees. The pieces are about 5 inches tall.
News at 11.
Art
174082 174081