Afternoon Calabash

[John Keeton]

I sneaked out of the office early today, took care of a few things and headed to the shop. I am working on another sketch, but it just isn't right yet. Decided to cut the piece of wood that I intend to use - and cut it 1/2" too narrow!!:mad: The only piece of spalted holly I had left!!!

Apparently, it was not the day to do anything serious! I have had enough of those days to recognize them - and now, being long in the tooth as I am, I have learned to back off and just play.

Jack Mincey had turned some redwood he got from Mike Smith - beautiful stuff, and I had ordered some after seeing his. I will save it for a special piece.

I had never turned redwood before and Jack mentioned some difficulty with getting a good finish. Somewhere in all my wood purchases, I ended up with several small pieces of redwood burl. Thought it might be good to try a piece of that before taking on the good stuff. So, I chucked one of them and turned a quick little calabash bowl - a little over 4.5" wide and a little less than 1/8" thick. Kinda cute, but not deserving of the photo tent. This is similar to the little oak bowl I did a couple weeks ago.

I don't have anything else to show for the couple of wasted hours, so I thought I would share. Couple coats of shellac, rubbed out with steel wool and buffed. Probably will throw on some satin WOP.

Decided to stay out of the shop tonite - no use pushing my luck!! Hope the rest of you accomplished more!

[Tony De Masi]

Hmmmmmm..... measure twice cut once? I like the shape of this one John. Tough to tell about he finish because of the flash imprint. Maybe you should put it in the tent so we can see more of that grain that is peeking out.

[John Keeton]

Yeah, Tony, I seem to remember something about that from those years building furniture!!!:rolleyes:

We have a grandson that is fighting MRSA for the second time, and my mind was a thousand miles away.

I am to lazy to go out and set up the tent, but I shot another pic without the flash. There isn't much finish on this one at this point. The shellac has been rubbed all the way back. I will touch up the little indent detail with some steel wool and slap on a couple coats of the WOP and call it done, I suspect.

[Bernie Weishapl]

John that is a nice looking bowl. Oh and isn't it measure 3 times, cut and still to short?:eek::D

[Ron Stadler]

Looks good John, nice form. Where do you get all your dry wood though, seems like you got solid blocks of it just sitting around or have you been collecting it that long.:confused: Its hard to find kiln dried wood anywhere and when you do there's usually not much of a selection or its sky rocket prices.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Thats pretty dang good for just playing around there John, very nice.

[Jack Mincey]

Looks great John, I hopefully put the last coat of finish on the larger redwood bowl tonight. It sands up very easy and I have had good look using Deft spray on it. Hope your curly piece has as much curl as the one I got from Mike.
Happy Turning,
Jack

[Lee Koepke]

looks nice! I like the color of that.

I myself killed some time by roughing out a NE bowl from that mystery honeylocustashchesnut wood from my neighbor. I wanted to turn it all the way done, but it was way too wet, so it gets a DNA bath tonite !!!

[John Keeton]

Thanks, guys! Sounds like most of you got some shop time in. I hope to get started on my next project tomorrow afternoon, but only if it goes better than today!!

Where do you get all your dry wood though, seems like you got solid blocks of it just sitting around or have you been collecting it that long.:confused:Ron, back when I was doing furniture, I bought green wood, stickered it in the barn, and let it dry. I probably have close to 3,000 bd. ft. of walnut, QSWO, curly maple, cherry, etc. However, when I started turning in late 2009, I didn't have any dry wood, and quickly determined that unlike most turners, I don't really enjoy turning wet wood projects. It isn't the wet wood that bothers me - it is the type of turnings I drifted into. So, I started looking for sources of dry wood. Much of what I have has come from Mike Smith, and a lot from Jeff Nicol, here on the creek. I have purchased from other sources from time to time, and a local cabinet shop saves cutoffs for me, too. Most of it is not large enough for a single turning, but it does come in handy.

The short answer is - yes, I have accumulated quite a bit of dry wood - and, some wet wood, as well, that I have obtained locally.

Hope your curly piece has as much curl as the one I got from Mike.
Happy Turning,
JackJack, I ended up with two chunks of the curly redwood. Both look good, and one of them looks like it came from the same piece as yours. Beautiful stuff. I look forward to seeing yours after it is finished!

[Russell Eaton]

Another great looking piece John. I have had to work some crazy hours this week but I will try to turn this weekend. I like the shape of this a lot. Did you use the hollowing rig or conventional tools?

[Wally Dickerman]

That's a classic form well done. Redwood isn't one of my favorite woods to turn.

Question John...Do you get in more office time or shop time? You're putting out a lot of very nice work here. I'm going to assume that you're just a very fast turner....

[David E Keller]

Pretty cool. I love the look of redwood burl, and I'm excited to see the curly stuff that you and Jack are sitting on.

[John Keeton]

Did you use the hollowing rig or conventional tools?Russell, I used the Monster rig to get the sides - the middle I did with a bowl gouge all the way to the bottom. The redwood cuts very easily.


That's a classic form well done. Redwood isn't one of my favorite woods to turn.

Question John...Do you get in more office time or shop time? You're putting out a lot of very nice work here. I'm going to assume that you're just a very fast turner....Thanks, Wally! I am self-employed, and share office space with a younger attorney. Typically, I work 4 days a week, but if things are slow, or I am caught up, I head home. I am OCD at work, so I don't let anything pile up. We live about 5 minutes from my office, so if need be, I can make another trip back in pretty quickly. I do turn quick - this piece took me two hours from picking up the wood blank to walking out of the shop. Sanding and shellacking was a third of that time, easily! The redwood turns easily, but getting a good finish is tricky. Very sharp tools, clean cuts with a light touch, and sanding!

[Baxter Smith]

Pretty wood and shape. Glad you got some "playtime".:)

[Ron Stadler]

Thanks, guys! Sounds like most of you got some shop time in. I hope to get started on my next project tomorrow afternoon, but only if it goes better than today!!
Ron, back when I was doing furniture, I bought green wood, stickered it in the barn, and let it dry. I probably have close to 3,000 bd. ft. of walnut, QSWO, curly maple, cherry, etc. However, when I started turning in late 2009, I didn't have any dry wood, and quickly determined that unlike most turners, I don't really enjoy turning wet wood projects. It isn't the wet wood that bothers me - it is the type of turnings I drifted into. So, I started looking for sources of dry wood. Much of what I have has come from Mike Smith, and a lot from Jeff Nicol, here on the creek. I have purchased from other sources from time to time, and a local cabinet shop saves cutoffs for me, too. Most of it is not large enough for a single turning, but it does come in handy.

The short answer is - yes, I have accumulated quite a bit of dry wood - and, some wet wood, as well, that I have obtained locally.
Jack, I ended up with two chunks of the curly redwood. Both look good, and one of them looks like it came from the same piece as yours. Beautiful stuff. I look forward to seeing yours after it is finished!

Thanks John, I might have to look into a few cabinet shops around here and see if I could obtain some cutoffs myself:)

[Jon Lanier]

I like it John, I've not been able to get into the shop :(
This piece seems like it should have a magnet ring in it so you can keep a whole package of paper clips. (I use a lot of paper clips it seems. And I was just thinking I needed to make a pretty holder for my desk.)

[Michelle Rich]

So this is what you produce when "times are tough" eh? I'm retiring from turning!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice little bowl John! I like the style and it looks like you didn't have any troubles with the finish! Looking forward to seeing the curly redwood!

[Jim Adkins]

John.....Nice looking piece of redwood. Hoping for the best onr Grandson's speedy recovery.
You did a fast turn job on this one & I suspect the WOP will really set this one off.

[bob svoboda]

Very nice, John. It's fun to play sometimes!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

You did much better better than I did yesterday, as at some point the inside got bigger than the outside on the turning I did:rolleyes:, so I went back to sorting and clearing as I had set out to do ;) so we can move all this to the new place :)
Somehow the devil whispered in my ear to remove some of the excess wood from this White Ash blank, I should have stayed the cource :o







http://gallery.me.com/l.vanderloo

[steven carter]

Nice little calabash John! Love the wood and the form, it must have been like Michaelangelo painting a bedroom door:)

[Tim Rinehart]

Nice looking piece John. I like your rim detail...looks kinda familiar....hmmm, perhaps another JK styling queue seen on other recent work. Always nice to hear people finding the time to do what they like, and making good use of that time. This was a couple hours well spent. A pleasure as always seeing yours and others work to provide us with directions to try.
Interesting about the Calabash bowl...I searched and found that it's so named because of the Calabash gourd (with a rounded bottom) that was cut off to make functional bowls, I believe in Africa somewhere.

[Mark Hubl]

Love that form in any size.

Get well wishes for a speedy recovery for your grandchild. That doggon' MRSA and MISA are every where.