Cherry Burl Bowl Named Chip

[Rich Aldrich]

I was turning this bowl out of a cherry burl and this chip flew out. I was able to successfully turn the bowl, but is the chip character or does it make the bowl junk? Does anyone know a good way to save it if the chip makes it junk?

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that chip looks like a mistake more than it looks like character. I am too much of neophyte to give you advice on how to fix, but there are enough masters here that I'm sure you'll get some good advice.

Other than that, I do think the bowl looks nice -- good form and wood.

Best of luck.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Rich, by using tape to make a "dam", you can fill the chip with shavings from making the bowl, and dust from sanding, then saturate with med/thin CA glue. Because the patch will be made from cherry, it won't be glaringly obvious.

[David E Keller]

You could certainly do some carving on it to make it more of an 'intended feature' rather than an unintended reason for using profanity(my typical reaction). It's really pretty wood, so I'd probably play around with it a bit.

FWIW, those cracks seem to radiate from the pith which may lead to further cracking problems. It's a shame because you have a nice looking bowl there.

[Cathy Schaewe]

IMHO, fill it with something neat and colorful - contrasting - so it looks intentional. Shavings and dust will look like you're trying to fix a mistake, whereas something (azurite maybe?) will look intentional and decorative. That opinion is worth what you paid for it, of course.

[tom martin]

Rich,
If you found the "chip", you could CA it back(I would also CA the cracks around it). If you can't find the chip, I would turn the rim down (after stabilizing the other cracks) and make a shallow bowl. I have never been satisfied "patching" a chip that large especially considering the area where it is. I do patch smaller cracks. If your handy with a dremel or rotary tool, you could jump on this design opportunity and create a cut out were the chip is or notch both sides and set handles in the notch.

[Michael James]

That looks like a nice chunk of wood. Personally, I'd lower the rim lower and turn "it" out.
just my .02
mj

[Bernie Weishapl]

Rich you could fill in the chip with epoxy and sanding dust with some tape to hold it in the crack. If it were me I would turn the rim down about 1" to get rid of it. It looks like some CA is in order for the other cracks. The crack and lost chip is due to the pith left in the wood. I always make sure I have the pith turned out and then always go about a additional 1/2" to make sure it is gone.

[Rich Aldrich]

Thanks for all the help. This piece of burl was given to me by one of my neighbors and is basically dry. I am finishing a bowl and platter from the first half and will post pictures probably tomorrow. This half had a lot of checking, so I didnt expect a lot of success, but had to try it. Natural edge probably would have been more successfull because the checks didnt go far enough into the wood to affect what would have been the bottom.

I like the idea of filling with something other than wood, but it will still look like a cover up of a mistake. I think I will stablize the cracks and turn it shorter. Hopefully it will stay in one piece. I'll update the post if it is a success. Otherwise, I'll throw it in my outdoor wood boiler.

[John Keeton]

That looks like a nice chunk of wood. Personally, I'd lower the rim lower and turn "it" out.
just my .02
mjI am with MJ on this one! Too much pith there, and this is a very nice piece of wood. You have plenty of depth to take the rim down some and avoid the issue altogether. I fear that pith will come back to haunt another day.

[charlie knighton]

design opportunity

[Don Alexander]

might want to consider soaking as much thin CA into the whole thing as it will soak up my limited experience with Cherry Burl suggests that it will want to crack and chip out at the slightest provocation and the CA helps that at least it has for me so far soaking the whole thing avoids potential stains that are impossible to sand out as well

this is also worth exactly what you paid for it :D

[Rich Aldrich]

I lowered the height of the bowl after applying CA glue to the cracks. I didn have enough thickness to repeat the rim design, so I put a taper on it like Bill Grimbine shows in his DVD. There is still one crack, but I'll apply a little CA and sand it out.

Thanks for the advice. It was all definitely worth more than I paid for.

[Dan Cannon]

Great save...it didn't hurt the form at all in my opinion, I like this bowl a lot.

[Jim Burr]

Nice to meet ya Chip! I'd like to introduce you to my friends Split and Crack!

[Matt Newton]

For what its worth (<$.02) I like the results better than the original.

[Mike Peace]

I agree with Matt that the revised design is an improvement. I generally do not like real deep bowls.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice save Rich! Gonna be a real pretty bowl once finished!