Buckeye burl HF with 10 minute finish!! (well, maybe 15 min)

[Tim Rinehart]

I bought a couple blanks like this one in the pics from a local turner during a swap meet. I think I gave him a dollar for the first one and it was about as ugly as could be like this one...all dried and checked looking. Well, I liked so well the results from that first piece I posted http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?138941-Buckeye-HF&highlight=buckeye that I decided to go back and get more from him...as much as he had left. By the way,in the pic showing the the two pieces, the upper most piece is the original piece from the thread in April 2010 with the foot removed...a great bit of advice for me and what I was doing at that time.
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Most of the blanks were like this, 5x5x3 and pretty dried out, no end sealer or anything to preserve it. I think I ended up with 4-5 more blanks but at more than a dollar, but still a great deal.
This particular piece started with alot of cracks and voids and about 8 months ago or so I was playing with some epoxy (Sys 3) and black tint and decided to fill the voids to see how it went, this stuff flowed like water practically. What I will say, and I don't know if a long cure time is responsible for it...but this stuff when I hit it with my tools, ground it down like it (the epoxy) was made of carbide, and I might add...I tried my Glasers, my D-Way and my Thompson tools!

This is a little different in form for me, but I've seen others do similar work and I like it. Something about that edge that works in my opinion.
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The piece was sanded to 800 grit and then my second attempt at the infamous Keith Burns 10-minute finish! I deviate a bit...haven't had it in me to take to first buff with the AO still tacky.
The piece is 5" diam x 8" to top of blackwood finial. Looking at the piece, I like it alot and think proportions look about right overall. Looking at pics however, I think I could have gone a little lighter on the bulb of the finial. C&C most welcome.

[Bob Wolfe]

Very, beautiful piece Tim. Nice form, but I especially like the way you duplicated the shape of the vessel in the finial one time, but perhaps doing another one at the finial tip is a bit much. The tip just seems heavy with it up there like that. The 15 minute finish looks great on this vessel, glossy would have looked out of place IMO. Thanks for sharing.

[Lionel Mercier]

cool piece
the proportions are pleasing
I just hard to imagine that the finish lasted only 15 minutes

[Nate Davey]

You're right Tim, those are some ugly pieces of wood. I'll give you a dollar for each and take them off your hands so you don't have to waste your time with them. Beautiful job on the form and finish. Are you going to the symposium?

[Tim Rinehart]

You're right Tim, those are some ugly pieces of wood. I'll give you a dollar for each and take them off your hands so you don't have to waste your time with them. Beautiful job on the form and finish. Are you going to the symposium?
Thanks Nate...I get offers like that all the time but will log yours for future consideration. ;)
I will be at the symposium, or there will be three demonstrators without a lathe to turn on! :eek:

I'll be up early Friday morning unloading and setting up and am staying up there for the three days with LOML. She's in charge of finding me 'pretty wood'!. I'll be running around with a red director shirt and spending a bit of time with the Charlotte Woodturners room, where Chuck Woody, Mark St Leger and Warren Carpenter will be giving demos, look me up by all means.

[Nate Davey]

Thanks Tim, I'll be up Saturday. Offer still stands for that ugly wood :D

[Scott Hackler]

Nice work Tim. I have never turned any buckeye burl (other than a pen that I made for myself and my wife stole for herself!). I saw a nice sized piece in Waco that Keller turned and it is really nice wood in person. I might NEED some of that variety some symposium down the road!

[Jim Burr]

Dude!! Those are crazy amazing:cool:!!! I have a huge chunk of BB in the shop that is waiting for better skills to develop:rolleyes:. Just me, but the finial seems a bit tall...the shape is amazing, but may overpower the HF a bit. I'll check with my glasses on in a bit;)

[John Keeton]

Tim, that wood is just awesome! And...you stole it!;) I have a couple of large burls, and probably will get into them soon. They have a lot of voids, so I will need to pick the right project. However, mine do not have the blue cast so cherished with this wood. You have some nice stuff there, and good idea on the black epoxy.

I like the overall concept, and I hesitate to offer critique as any viewer is going to comment based only on his/her own taste. You need to suit your own artistic needs, not mine. That said, for me, these are things I might consider.

On the "step", or collar coming off the shoulder, I would not have the extra "rise" in the curvature and instead, follow the flow of the collar into the cove base for the finial. The waist of the finial, I would make about 1/3 shorter, and much thinner, with the thinnest part at 2/3 up from the bottom vs. midway as you have it. You have the top of the cove a bit smaller than the bottom, but I would probably make it smaller still - that would show more of the form replication, which is very well done.

The replication of the form appears to be about 1" in diameter, and perhaps something closer to 5/8" might work a bit better and be in more scale with the top portion of the finial. I agree that the replication on the tip appears a little heavy, but it might work if it were lower on the stem, although it would work as well without it.

The scale of the onion and spire could be reduced a little, with the height of the spire about 2/3 what it is now. And, finally, I would make the base of the finial (the part going into the form) considerably shorter - usually just the thickness of the form at that point.

Please understand that we all do these things differently, and the above is just my take on it. I think you did a great job on this piece, and I like the form quite a bit as well as the concept for the finial.

[Cathy Schaewe]

I'd be proud to have turned those - and what a steal on the wood! Great stuff!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking piece Tim. Really well done.

[charlie knighton]

nice form, nice stuff, i wonder if any bb will be around at symposium???

[David DeCristoforo]

The "original" piece sans foot is very sweet. the new one is also sweet. I really like the hard line at the shoulder and the step at the top. But for me, the finial comes close to overpowering the form. I agree with most of John's suggestions, all of which could be bundled together into "the finial needs to be a bit more delicate". But both forms are terrific and the buckeye burl is awesome...

[Harry Robinette]

Tim
A beautiful piece, that BB is really unbelievable. My only comment would be the finial looks a little heavy to me but thats just my thoughts.

[Michelle Rich]

glad you made something gorgeous off your thievery!!! Very nice vessels

[Tim Rinehart]

Thanks all for your feedback on this piece. I agree completely on the finial being a bit shorter, and quite a bit more delicate in both the bulb and the cove base. John, your suggestions on the cove base details for height and delicacy made me think hard to visualize what you were telling me, but I get it and couldn't agree more.

Part of the difficulty in this piece was that it's size and proportions really begged for a full scale sketch and not just a rough sketch and then eyeball out the rest as I've typically done. I think I would have captured the essence of the feedback received had I committed it to paper first.
I wanted to have something complete on this piece for symposium...may still have some time to play with variations.
Thanks all!