What is this wood?

[Russell Neyman]

My friend and neighbor, Dave Masters, turned this bowl this week as part of an experiment, and does not know what type wood it is. He pulled the piece off of his scrap pile and was surprised at both the attractive coloring and how easy it was to turn. Anyone recognize the creamy-colored stuff used for the segments?

I'm posting the picture portion of this and Dave will come here later to explain the experiment itself.

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[Steve Vaughan]

I'm gonna guess maple?

[John Keeton]

Nice bowl, Russell, and nice to have neighbors that like to turn. Makes for good company.

My guess is silver maple. It is an excellent wood to turn and usually has some nice coloration, spalts easily, and also is really prone to Ambrosia beetles - a turner's dream wood!

[Dave Masters]

Silver maple is an excellent guess, John, but this stuff is certainly not the everyday maple I run into in this neck of the woods. And you are exactly correct in that this piece had some worm holes. I'm thinking you're right on the money. It will be interesting to hear what the others have to say.

Let me tell you about this particular experiment. While my segmented pieces are notoriously precise, Russell suggested that I try to go in the other direction -- that is, making my segmented rings unlevel, which creates an odd pattern between the layers, as the eye follows from thick segments to thin. But that was just the first part of this project. The second thing I tried (also at Russell's suggestion) was to add a coloring agent to the Titebond III glue, to see if it would appear after all the sanding and finishing. If you look very closely, you'll see that the joints have a bit of blue in them.

In both cases, these experiments taught me something that I plan to employ down the road.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Allan Ferguson]

You have put a new slant on this and I like it.

[Ralph Lindberg]

Dave
Please bring it to this months meeting and maybe Hinke or Jimmy can give you a guess... Parts almost look like Red Alder