To Color or Not to Color....Votes in

[Chip Sutherland]

Without a single voice from my peers in favor of coloring this piece, I left it alone and only used Mahoney's Walnut oil. Here it is with 2 coats sitting in my carving vice. I will finish turn the bottom when I get a chance. It's just a utilitarian shape; anything else seemed to compete with the canvas God provided.

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I have a few more pieces of wood like this so don't be surprised if one shows up brightly colored. I have a persistent 18 yr old daughter who likes colored wood. She still loves me even though I did not succumb to the temptation. Plus I bribed her with a purple fiddleback maple piece in her school colors. The specks in the 2nd pic are from the dye being pulled thru by my vacuum chuck. Oops. My sanding sealer is old or I didn't stir it well so it didn't penetrate well. Plus I really didn't have to apply the dye on the vac chuck, either. Lessons learned. Forgot to sign it, too. Finish is 2 coats WOP...not buffed.

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Thanks for the unanimous vote to leave it natural.

[Baxter Smith]

Great colors on the natural bowl Chip. I am sure your daughter will love the purple one!

[Jim Burr]

I've done several fiddleback platters Chip, and with one exception, they were all dyed. The grain just lends itself to color! As a suggestion for later, try leaving the bottom inside the foot natural...looks kinda cool!

[Phil Labowski]

I'm glad you decided to leave it natural Chip. That piece has so much natural beauty that coloring would of just been so wrong ;) Like your daughter I loves me some purple, but I really think it would have robbed the piece of so much. I like the "fiddleback" you did there too. Why are they called that?

[Brian Kent]

I like the special specks feature on the purple.

And I really like your main piece and your decision for a simple form.

[Tim Rinehart]

I like the "fiddleback" you did there too. Why are they called that?
Phil, I'm pretty sure this is the 'chicken or egg' scenario, but in this case, the chicken came first. Seems that this kind of wood was so often used for fiddle backs, that the type of figure became synonymous with being called 'fiddleback'. Don't ask me where the term 'fiddle' came from...that's outside my pay grade.;)

Chip, both pieces are very nice. I like the purple contrast to the maple, looks really good. Are you using water based or alchohol based dyes. The other piece looks either like box elder or buckeye, regardless, has some great natural color in it.

[Chip Sutherland]

Tim....the purple came from red liquid TransTint and powdered Blue TransTint. I mix such small combinations that my preference is powder where all it takes is a tip of a small screwdriver tip and about 3-4 tbs of DNA. Your story on the origin of fiddleback is what I have always known it to be.

The other piece is local TX maple (it was a neighbors ornamental tree) that spalted in my garage after I end sealed it with AnchorSeal when the wood was wet. Those tints came from the man upstairs. Good thing I got out of the way....my peers prevailed.

[David DeCristoforo]

Good call. That bowl is killer. The purple one ain't too shabby either!