Box Elder Commissioned Bowl

[Steve Schlumpf]

Back in September I was contacted by a lady who had 2 large Box Elder trees taken down and wanted to know if I could make her a bowl to remember the trees by.

I went over to her house the next day to find out the trees had been cut down a week or so earlier, cut into basically firewood size (18” lengths) and piled up on the side of the yard so a friend of hers could come pick it up for use as firewood. She told me to go grab a piece and one for me if I wanted…. Well, let’s take a look at the wood first.

The trees had about a 36” to 40” diameter base, so they had to have been good sized but the bulk of the wood was rotted or had wind shake. Seriously, it was a good thing she had the trees taken down or they would have fallen on her house in the very near future!

Rummaged around through the pile of wood and came away with 4 chunks that I could – maybe – turn something out of. She was made aware that there were no guarantees because you never knew what the wood was going to be like once you start turning it. We discussed bowl forms, finishes, natural, functional and display types and came away with an idea of what she wanted – which was a large bowl, for use as a centerpiece, with lots of natural character and a gloss finish.

Once home, I sealed the other 3 pieces and chainsawed the corners off the one chunk that showed the most promise and mounted it to the lathe.

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[Steve Schlumpf]

I turned the outside of the bowl and created a tenon to fit the #3 jaws on my Talon chuck.

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[Steve Schlumpf]

I reversed the bowl and mounted it in the chuck and smoothed off the face of the bowl.

Check out the burl! This was the very first time I WISH I had a coring system! Made me sick to turn all that away – but……..it sure is going to make a great looking bowl!

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[Steve Schlumpf]

Here are a couple of snapshots of the bowl once the roughing out was finished.

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Took these 2 snapshots as soon as the bowl came out of the DNA. I had let it soak for about a week and was amazed at all the chatoyance! Also wish the rich color had remained!

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[Steve Schlumpf]

The finished Box Elder bowl is 12 ¼” in diameter x 6 ¼” in height x 11/16” thick at the rim. It was sanded to 320 grit and has at least a dozen coats of gloss wipe-on poly. I will wait another week or so and then buff and apply a thin coat of Renaissance wax.

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As always – your opinions, comments and/or critiques are welcome!

Thanks for looking and Merry Christmas!

[dan carter]

Nice looking bowl, I am sure she will be happy. The wood sure has some character.

[Paul Williams]

Great bowl! What a difference in color right out of the DNA. That shot is great. Too bad it didn't stay that color.

[John Keeton]

Steve, this one was worth the effort, and I am betting she will be super pleased. That initial color out of the DNA was nice, but the end result is not too shabby either! Beautiful bowl, of some beautiful wood!

Sure would have made a nice HF!!;):D:D Such a shame she wanted a bowl!!

[Bob Bergstrom]

Great story. That's what makes finding wood so much fun. You never know what Mother Nature has hidden under that bark. Thanks for taking the time to make the pictorial. Made my day!!

[Mark Hubl]

Wonderful piece Steve. I am sure she will like it. Looks great!

[Ron Stadler]

Just love that Box elder, and you got some with burl, very nice.:) Well if she don't want it, I'll take it.:D

[David E Keller]

Gorgeous wood... I can't believe that someone was going to burn that! I'll bet she loves the bowl... I do.

[Ted Calver]

Steve..It's a beauty!! Thanks for sharing ....and all the great photos.

[Doug W Swanson]

Pretty bowl. I like the color just as it sits. I'm sure she will be very pleased!

[Harry Robinette]

Steve
Really nice piece can't figure out the drastic color change from wet with DNA to finish,usually coat of anything is very close to a coat of anything else.
But beautiful any way you look at it.Nice work.
Harry

[Jim Burr]

Sure would have made a nice HF!!;):D:D Such a shame she wanted a bowl!!

I was thinking the same thing!! Great job Steve! Good thing you were able to hang on to some of it! It'll be a great heirloom.

[Nate Davey]

Great job Steve. You may need to go re-enforce here floor and build a stronger table to display it lest it end up in her basement once the floor gives way. :)

[Mark Eisen]

Beautiful piece Steve, she will love it. Looks great.

[Roger Chandler]

Great pics of the WIP.......thank you for those, Steve. I think it is very special grain in that wood. A great piece from a master turner!

[Roland Martin]

I hope the peices you have left are near as nice as this one! Beautiful character and a great turning. Thanks for the progress pics, very nice to see it from start to finish. It sure would have been nice to have a coring system on this one, for sure.
Merry Christmas, Steve.

[Baxter Smith]

Thanks for the progress pictures Steve. It was almost like being there!:)
A pretty bowl but I have to admit the color coming out of the DNA was pretty nice. I wonder if any type of finish could replicate that to some extent.

[Cathy Schaewe]

Stunning! If you weren't way up there, I'd loan you my coring system!

[Jeff Nicol]

Steve, I am in the same group with Cathy, sure would have been nice to core it out and save that beautiful burled wood! I love the fact that most all of the Box Elder I turn has beautiful figure hidden in it and I like the clear wood that does not have so much red in it like this one. My Dad cut down 5 big trees so I have a ton of it to go through and get cut into blanks, so there will be some to share when I get it all home. It is buried under 20 some inches of snow right now so it may have to wait until spring!

Great piece and your customer will be very pleased,

Merry Christmas,

Jeff

[Rick Markham]

Spectacular Steve! That's the kind of wood that gets my blood flowing. I think I would be investing in a coring system for the future... ya never know what is going to come across the bench! I've got a nice hefty chunk of box elder burl, I am saving for a future hollow form. You should take some progress photos of her expression when she sees it... it will be just like that bowl... Priceless!

[Rich Aldrich]

Steve - Really nice bowl and cool wood too. I didn't know we had box elder up here. I really like the pictures in progress.

[Tom Winship]

Steve, really nice looking work and beautiful wood. Without knowing it, you answered some questions that I had about had you take a chunk of wood like that and make a bowl. Your going through the whole process pictorially really helped me out.
Thanks

[Michael James]

Steve that's a great bowl! Beautiful box elder and a nice finish. That should fit the bill, and maybe get another chuck of the box elder as a tip! It was nice of you to take the time to document the process. Thank you, and Happy Holidays!
Michael

[charlie knighton]

very nice, thanks for sharing

[Tim Thiebaut]

What a great series of pictures showing the process, thanks for shareing this with us.

[joel nucifore]

thank you for shareing think it would of made a great HOLLOW FORM one of your south west pieces. thanks for the pics...

[bob svoboda]

Thanks for sharing, Steve. Very nice form and finish to that bowl-it will make a spectacular center piece. Also thanks for the progressive pic's--always nice to see someone elses procedures. I agree it would have been nice to maintain the color that showed after the bath.

[Curt Fuller]

What a beautiful bowl! I love the "hefty" look and the simple form and there is so much going on in the wood.

[David DeCristoforo]

I really like this bowl, Steve! It's masterful in it's understated simplicity. On the surface, the wood "does the talking" but on a deeper level the skill and restraint needed to produce such a seemingly simple form is most impressive.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really a beautiful bowl Steve. I am sure it will be appreciated.

[George Guadiane]

NICE BOWL and excellent sequence shots, thank you for posting them.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Wondeful bowlSteve. Just love that box elder. Is that your first commision?

Keep up the great work.

Quinn

[Steve Schlumpf]

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone! I do appreciate it!

Quinn - was my first commission for this particular customer but not my first commission in turning.

[allen thunem]

stands and applauds the work and the artist

[Paul Girouard]

Here are a couple of snapshots of the bowl once the roughing out was finished.

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Took these 2 snapshots as soon as the bowl came out of the DNA. I had let it soak for about a week and was amazed at all the chatoyance! Also wish the rich color had remained!

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Nice job Steve. Thanks for the process photo's that's very helpful to see what other guys do.

Couple of questions , what is DNA , DeNatured Alcohol? Other acronym?

Is the soak you mentioned a full immersion?

And what is the soak for? Check prevention?

Again nice job.

TIA for the answers.

[Pete Jordan]

Love it Buddy! Great pics!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Paul - DNA stands for Denatured Alcohol and is used to help speed the drying process when turning green wood. There is a lot of info available here if you do a search or you can go straight to the source:
http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=turning&file=articles_473.shtml
http://alcoholsoaking.blogspot.com/
http://alcoholsoaking.blogspot.com/2006/11/determining-alcohol-percentage.html

[Jon Lanier]

Very nice work. I'm surprised at the thickness... but I like it. Great history with your piece.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Steve,
She chose the right person for the job. Very nice results. May I ask how long after you removed the bowl from the DNA you second turned it?
faust

[Steve Schlumpf]

Faust - according to the info on the photos - the bowls were pulled from the DNA on Sept 23 and I started finish turning them on Dec 15. Probably could have started sooner but with the wood being so thick - decided to just wait until I was finished with some other projects.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Thanks Steve,
I soaked some bowls in DNA a couple months ago and wondered how long they needed. I will finish turn a couple and see how they hold up.
faust

[Harvey Ghesser]

Hi Steve,

A most beautiful bowl! And it was really nice to see how you removed the bowl from the excess wood!
Thanks for sharing!

Harv

[Bill Bolen]

Dang Steve, that is a seriously pretty bowl. Grain is just outstanding and your form fits the wood perfectly...Bill...

[Aaron Wingert]

So Steve, when will the coring system be arriving? :-)

Beautiful piece turned from beautiful "firewood". Love the series of pictures as well, very cool to watch the piece progress.

[Dale Bright]

I reversed the bowl and mounted it in the chuck and smoothed off the face of the bowl.

Check out the burl! This was the very first time I WISH I had a coring system! Made me sick to turn all that away – but……..it sure is going to make a great looking bowl!

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Steve,

Your bowl is very nice, as are all of your pieces. I really like the form you chose in order to show off the wonderful color and grain. Thanks for sharing the pics of the progression, very good photography.

I agree about the coring system. I have the Mcnaughton and the Oneway systems and you can drive over to use one anytime you like. I am only 950 miles away.

Dale

[Carol Kinney]

Very nice story and design - the wood looks great natural. I love the small piece out of the lip of the bowl, takes the finished art piece up yet another notch.

Love it, thanks for sharing all the information.

[Kurt Barker]

I had the pleasure of viewing this bowl in person yesterday, and my first thought was "This is going to be an heirloom that many generations are going to treasure". One could spend an hour marveling at the figure, the beauty, and the flawless execution on that piece!

Thanks, Steve, for posting the process photos and for the shop visit yesterday!