All cracked up and nowhere to go......an experiment

[Roger Chandler]

I began a turning last week........about Tuesday, I think...........I was just roughing out a piece of badly cracked walnut..........the purpose was to try out a gouge that I had not used before, and so I finished it up today, and decided to further experiment with some wet sanding techniques that were posted on a thread by Fred Belknap and commented on by numerous others.........also try a form I had not tried.............it was an experiment in form, so I am not entirely sold on the result as I think the transition from the bottom of the bowl part to the pedestal is a bit angular, but again, this was just to try the idea and see how I liked the finished result.....likely I will go back to a more rounded transition next time I do a similar form.

This will make a nice base for a centerpiece of silk flowers............what I had in mind when I started this one.

This piece of walnut was full of tear out on the end grain when roughing it out, it also has the pith in it.........I did not cut out this blank, and do not remember off the top of my head how I acquired it, but it almost deserved a special place in the wood stove! :rolleyes:

To make a short story long..:rolleyes:........I thought I would show you the pics. The wet sanding really did wonders for this piece of walnut, and it has Mahoney's Walnut oil for a finish. It is about 7.5 inches wide and 4.38 tall. Your observations are always welcome!


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[Brian Kent]

I like the "experiment" all the way around. The form is very pleasing to my eye and the walnut is beautiful. Sometimes the risky pieces have the most beautiful grain movement. I'll look up the wet sanding thread to see what the technique is, but the finish looks nice and soft. Do you think you will have to seal the cracks or is this a pretty dry and stable piece now?

[Roger Chandler]

I like the "experiment" all the way around. The form is very pleasing to my eye and the walnut is beautiful. Sometimes the risky pieces have the most beautiful grain movement. I'll look up the wet sanding thread to see what the technique is, but the finish looks nice and soft. Do you think you will have to seal the cracks or is this a pretty dry and stable piece now?

Brian..........I think this piece is pretty stable for the most part.........my conjecture is that all the previous movement caused the cracking, and while some of the biggest cracks were at the pith [it could be a limb pocket] I was able to apply lots of CA glue on the blank before I ever mounted it on the lathe......got it pretty stable as far as the cracks spreading.......I also let this one sit on the lathe uncovered for almost a week.......before I gave it final shape and hollowed out the middle......

Again, my initial purpose was to try out that gouge I was sent on what I considered a piece of "throw away" wood.

[Brian Kent]

And you definitely ended up with a keeper piece.

[robert baccus]

Very nice bowl and finish. Good as is--the waist might be a bit sharp but still cool.

[Roger Chandler]

Very nice bowl and finish. Good as is--the waist might be a bit sharp but still cool.

Thanks Bob! I wanted to complete one this way just to see how it would turn out...........now that I have done it, I see areas where I could improve the form by different lines, curves and adding a cove to the pedestal underneath the bowl section......

This pretty much was going to be a throw away, but it ended up having some decent look to it, so I stayed with it.

[bob svoboda]

Thanks for sharing, Roger. Would have been a sorry waste to send that wood to the stove.

[Eric Gourieux]

Roger, it's nice when experiments are sucessful. This turned out nice. The transition to the base looks ok to me, too.

[Roger Chandler]

Thanks Bob.......thanks Eric!