need advise aagain

[cal thelen]

A friend of mine dropped this off today, said he cut it out of tree about a month ago. thinks its black cherry but is not sure. Any way it measures about 18" high about 16" inches across and about 12" thick. I really dont know how to start cutting this up. I would like to get a bowl or two and a couple vases from it. any guidance would be greatly appreciated. thanks alot for looking.

204749204750

[Marty Eargle]

From the second picture, looks like their is some potential for a blank to fall apart during during if you're not careful. I would probably decide the rough sizes of what you would like to get out of the piece and see if you can work out in your mind the best place to cut them from.

The bark doesn't look like ( hard to tell from the picture ) that it would make the best natural edge bowl...so I would probably start with cutting a slab from the cut side that looks solid. Possible cut a few inches off the top first...that actually has potential for a small natural edge. And then see what you're left with.

My $.02

The stability of the bottle left part of the second picture would really determine how I cut it.

[Steve Vaughan]

Yup, similar to Marty's comment. I think I'd take a platter (shallow) size piece off of one side and see how the wood looks and turn a platter. Might want to be prepared for a bit of CA along the way in this piece. Then, start chunking from there and once chunked up, I'd coat it good with some sealer.