Rotten Orange Bowl

[Jason Ritchie]

Proof that carpenter ants will eat anything... Here we have a nice piece of Osage Orange that was so full of insect holes and cracks that I almost threw it out. I did find one interesting thing inside the wood.. what appears to be buck shot. I didn't even notice it until I started sanding and I saw something shiny going by so I stopped the lathe to investigate. Finished with Mahoney's Walnut Oil then Mahoney's Wax.
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Sorry for the low quality pics, I got lazy and didn't feel like dragging out my DSLR.

[jared herbert]

I was making a band sawn box out of a walnut board that I guy gave to me. There were several shotgun pellets that showed up on the inside of it, I wish they would have been on the outside. I was making a shadow box out of some oak once and found a large caliber bullet in a cut, there again too bad I couldnt make it visible on the outside. You never know what you will find in a piece of wood. Jared

[Roger Chandler]

Gotta luv that grain in Osage Orange.......glad the buckshot did not fly out and hit your eye when that thing was spinning!

[Jamie Donaldson]

Ants will sometimes attack the sapwood of Osage, but seldom the heartwood. It hurts their jaws!:D

[Steve Schlumpf]

Good looking bowl! The buckshot is a bonus!!

[Baxter Smith]

Nice looking bowl with a little extra!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Nice looking bowl with a little extra weight.

[Thomas Canfield]

Dennis Ford gave me a piece of Osage Orange several years ago that had a limb and bark off to side. It beat me to death trying to turn the deep bowl outside, and then when I started to hollow out the inside, there was a large void full of live ants that got upset. I finally got it hollowed out only to have a large split develop on one side. It is still waiting to be finished. I may need sewing lessons to lace up the split. Yes, OO can have ants.