Curt Fuller
11-06-2011, 9:52 AM
In the Beauty and Beast contest at WTA I won a $100 gift certificate to "Got Wood". I got what looks to be some pretty good wood. It's the first time I've ever bought wood online and I wasn't sure what I would get. This is the first piece of it I've done anything with. This was a 14" x 6" "Select Maple" blank. They didn't have actual photos of the piece of wood you're buying so I was curious what select maple would be. It was a true 14", maybe a hair bigger. I know you PM3520 jockeys and Steve with his new American Beauty say "pfffft, that ain't nuthin" but on a 14" Oliver a 14" blank fits so close that it if it didn't have a space between the ways it wouldn't fit. I had to take a hand plane and knock off a few spots before it would spin.
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Anyway, I roughed it to a little under 1" thick about 4 or 5 weeks ago and soaked it with some Pentacryl (that I also won in the contest) which is supposed to stabilize the wood. I wrapped it in paper, per instructions, let it sit a month and then finish turned it. It ended up 13 3/4" x 5 7/8" with 5/8" thick walls. It's a solid bowl. The maple is much different than I thought I would get. This has a lot of different colors from what is probably spalting of some kind. It has reds, pinks, grays, and even some blueish parts. It's different but kind of pretty. It's a heavy, solid bowl for sure. The Pentacryl seemed to do it's thing too. After sitting for a month, there was almost no warping in the roughed blank as you can tell by the fact that I was able to get a 13.75" bowl from a 14" blank. I know that's not a lot of time and it could still move some more but my experience is that most of the warping takes place in the first month of drying. The finish is Howard's Feed and Wax, a combination of orange oil and beeswax.
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212119
Anyway, I roughed it to a little under 1" thick about 4 or 5 weeks ago and soaked it with some Pentacryl (that I also won in the contest) which is supposed to stabilize the wood. I wrapped it in paper, per instructions, let it sit a month and then finish turned it. It ended up 13 3/4" x 5 7/8" with 5/8" thick walls. It's a solid bowl. The maple is much different than I thought I would get. This has a lot of different colors from what is probably spalting of some kind. It has reds, pinks, grays, and even some blueish parts. It's different but kind of pretty. It's a heavy, solid bowl for sure. The Pentacryl seemed to do it's thing too. After sitting for a month, there was almost no warping in the roughed blank as you can tell by the fact that I was able to get a 13.75" bowl from a 14" blank. I know that's not a lot of time and it could still move some more but my experience is that most of the warping takes place in the first month of drying. The finish is Howard's Feed and Wax, a combination of orange oil and beeswax.
212120212123212122212121