NE Mesquite Bowl

[Kathy Marshall]

Last night, after finishing up a small batch of coasters, I decided I had enough time to turn something other than a coaster. I looked through my pile of blanks and settled on what was basically a mesquite scrap. When I chainsaw logs into blanks, I slice off each side of the log so that when I rip it in half, each half has 2 flat sides. The piece I decided on was one of the side slices. Since the log I had cut up was good sized, so was the slice :D.

Decided to go with a NE bowl. The mesquite was still soaking wet, but it cut very clean except for the endgrain of the cambium layer, which was something like turning a wet ball of yarn. I soaked the 2 troublesome areas with CA and managed to get a decent but not great cut. Turned to finish size but it was way too wet to even consider sanding, so since it was mesquite I just left it chucked on the lathe so it could dry enough to sand tonight.
The bowl itself was fine and the bark was fine, but the cambium layer had moved around a bit :eek:. It had shrunk up while drying and moved outwards so I ended up with and almost 1/16" lip around the outside (a little less on the sides, more at the ends).
Took quite a bit of hand sanding to knock down the lip.

It's 9" x 7" and 2" at the highest point, finish is just a coat of antique oil.
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Thanks for looking!
Comments and critiques are welcome.

[Keith Palmer]

Very nice Kathy! It is always wonderful to see something come from a piece of scrap or that piece of firewood that might have just been tossed out.

[Doug W Swanson]

Love the colors. The form is different than the norm but I like it!

[Roger Chandler]

That is pretty Kathy......I like the contrasting colors of the sapwood/heartwood. Fine job, once again!

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a beauty Kathy. I like the form and the contrast of the wood.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice work on the sanding - you would never know that you had any problems with the piece! Did the antique oil add the yellow to the cambium layer or was it almost that color to begin with?

[Baxter Smith]

Nice looking NE Kathy. I like the more open/flatter NE pieces

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I like that shape, like a cupped hand Kathy, very nice :)

I've had some difficult cambium on Siberian Elm and some Prunus species, I find it easier to work with after drying the bowl, but yes we sometimes like to get it finished now :D ;)

[Kathy Marshall]

Thanks everyone!

Steve, the antique oil darkened the cambium layer a little, it started off kinda of a creme color. The sapwood was a pale yellow to begin with and the antique oil brightened it up.

Leo, I don't do many NE pieces with mesquite due to the stringy cambium, and if you wait until it's a little dryer, chances are the bark will just fall off the log in one piece.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I've got no turning experience with Mesquite at all Kathy, Mesquite being a Acacia member the closest I come here is Honey and Black Locust plus a bit of small Redbud, the Honey and Black Locust are no problem with the cambium and the bark stays on just fine, though I still use CA usually, I don't recall that I made any natural edge pieces from Redbud as there was only a bit and it was small IIRC.

Up here it makes a lot of difference when the trees are cut, the best time to keep the bark on is in the middle of the winter, wait till early spring and the bark is least likely to stay on, I assume it does make a diiference around your area also, but maybe not as much