Spalted birch bowl

[keith zimmerman]

Greetings All,

I mentioned in a reply to Carole's post that I had just completed a bowl from spalted birch and that I had had a heck of a time getting it firm enough to turn. Well, here is a picture of that bowl. It is about 5" in diameter, 2" deep, and has 3/16" walls.

As mentioned in the earlier post, I first tried soaking the blank in a mixture of Elmer's glue and water, which was marginally successful. After starting the turning, I got into very soft wood and tried to use CA to firm it up. Big mistake...the CA reacted with the residual PVA and started foaming, like I had sprayed the piece with accelerator. I chucked it back up and turned off the foam, then soaked the bowl in Minwax Wood Hardener. What a stench!! That did the trick though. I finished the turning and sanded to 320 grit. So far, I have one coat of Minwax Tung Oil Finish. It will get a few more coats, then a good buffing.

Sorry, no picture...I screwed up and uploaded it in another thread, then deleted it and I can't upload it a second time. I don't know how to find it after uploading.

Keith

[Gary Max]

At least nothing blew up.
Almost sounds like a---Don't try this story
I have been hunting around here for some river birch. I ain't real sure what the real name is ---but thats what they call it around here. It only grows on the rivers.
If nothing else you could always break down and take another pic before the POLICE show up..

[Karl Laustrup]

Keith, if you have the pic on your 'puter yet, all you need to do is go in and rename the picture. Then you will be able to upload it again.

[Glenn Hodges]

I had a small log of spalted river birch, and always wanted to try turning some so after much trial and error, some ugly words, and a lot of time I finally got a bowl turned from it. I burned the rest of the log. Cased closed in South Georgia, that was the best way I could find to end such a pressing problem so I would not have to worry about it any more. The spalting in the river birch was brown rather than black. Woodturners have a unique way of solving their problems.

[keith zimmerman]

Success, I think. BTW, this is White Birch from Northern Wisconsin.

keith

[Jim Dunn]

Keith that is a pretty bowl. Is that a knot in it? If so does the knot make it harder to turn?
Jim

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Keith, that bowl was well worth the work that you had to go through to do it! It really looks nice!

[keith zimmerman]

Keith that is a pretty bowl. Is that a knot in it? If so does the knot make it harder to turn?
Jim

In this case, no. It was actually softer wood than the rest of the bowl. I have found, in general, that knots are not really a factor. if your tools are sharp.

keithz

[terry richards]

I have used the Minwax wood hardener on spalted birch with good results. My experience is that the wood should sit for 2-3 days after applying the hardener before turning. Also, even though this hardener is very thin, it may not soak all the way into a thick piece of wood. If you are removing much wood after the application, you may want to re-apply.