A Little Bit of a Maine Ash Fence Post

[Baxter Smith]

When I was looking through my cousins firewood pile earlier this week, one piece in particular that caught my eye was a good sized piece of ash. It had both size and a bit of color. This particular piece was the butt end of a log he had sold for lumber. He had cut it along a stone wall at the edge of a pasture. He didn’t think the mill would appreciate sawing a log with porcelain insulators in it. Especially since he had nailed them on there.:)

Roughed these out this morning. The stain from one of the nails is still visible in the rim and had to be saved!;)
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After lunch I took the crotch from what I assume was from the top of that same ash log and turned a blank for a platter,
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and the other crotch half was roughed into a shallow bowl.
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Both of these should have a bit more feather when they are finish turned a bit deeper.

This is the other half of the butt end I turned thin yesterday.
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The three pieces beneath it were what I posted above.

These were cored from the center of yesterdays piece.
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When this piece came off the lathe, I took a break to clean up.
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Tomorrow I may change colors.
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A little osage orange I picked up two days before I headed for Maine.;):)

Thoughts and suggestions are always welcome!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Those are some nice cored bowls Baxter. Out here we find a lot of tree's with fence insulators on them. Lots of osage orange. Should make some nice turnings.

[mike ash]

Gonna be some beauties there Baxter. Don't you just love that Ashwood? Tell us about your curing technique.

Pics of the Osage Orange when you turn it????

[John Keeton]

Baxter, you are in bowl production mode!! And, it looks as though you have some excellent stock for the task.

[Michelle Rich]

looks like you are having fun!!! will the dust collector hose be lost under the pile of shavings soon? :-)

[Baxter Smith]

Gonna be some beauties there Baxter. Don't you just love that Ashwood? Tell us about your curing technique.

Pics of the Osage Orange when you turn it????
Mike, I have some Ash I had sawn more than a few years ago but this is the first time I have turned any other than for tool handles. Here are a few pictures from what I turned a little over a week ago. I have the Oneway Easy core. if I had had the McNaughton,(and knew how to use it) I probably could have had an extra platter yesterday.
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Never took any pictures of the other two that came from the inside of this one. It still needs a final sanding after it is dry. A bit different color on the floor!
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Baxter, you are in bowl production mode!! And, it looks as though you have some excellent stock for the task.
Bowl production is not what I had planned on doing since none of this stuff was even on the horizon 10 days ago. I just seem to have trouble turning down wood I have never turned. And since every one of these bowls has been 17+, I was willing to put off what I probably should be doing.;):) The rest of the blanks I brought from Maine are pretty plain in comparison.

looks like you are having fun!!! will the dust collector hose be lost under the pile of shavings soon? :-) My lathe has been all cleaned up Michele so the dust collector hose is safe.....for now.:)

[Jim Underwood]

I can relate... I've got wood that needs cut up and roughed out coming out my ears. And it always seems to take precendence over what you should be doing...

I like that last bowl you posted. It's got a really nice shape. Looks like you got a bunch more coming....

[charlie knighton]

nice bowls and curlies, pretty work Baxter

[Roger Chandler]

That is an excellent bowl in that last picture, Baxter............and pretty nice stash of turning blanks...........are you trying to compete with Mike Mahoney? :D:D:rolleyes:

[Roland Martin]

That's some nice looking ash you got there, Baxter and a great size for coring. Real good looking bowls too, hopefully I'll be knee deep in shavings soon.

[Nate Davey]

Baxter, that Osage is incredible. I've never seen pieces that big....come to think of it, I've never seen a living Osage.

[kevin nee]

Nice coring, I think ASH is very under-rated. I also know how much work is involved
in cutting sealing and moving wood around after you get a load. Nice when you can
pick what you feel like turning.

[Baxter Smith]

Thanks again for your thoughts!

.....I like that last bowl you posted. It's got a really nice shape. Looks like you got a bunch more coming....
Thanks Jim. There will be a bunch more but not nearly as large. This one was a little over 17. The next biggest one won't be much over 12.


That is an excellent bowl in that last picture, Baxter.......
Thanks Roger. My wife must not have been in the shop then.;) She is always "hinting":rolleyes: that I should do deeper bowls.


Nice coring, I think ASH is very under-rated. I also know how much work is involved
in cutting sealing and moving wood around after you get a load. Nice when you can
pick what you feel like turning.
Thanks Kevin. I seem to like jumping around in both forms and
species!

[Rich Aldrich]

The dark heart in the ash must mean it is black ash. It is really nice wood to turn. Nice job on the bowls. My uncle has an ash he is going to give me. He has a lot of property with quite a few black ash. I will just mean I will have to turn a couple of bowls for him with the ash.