Spectacularly Spalted H/F & I Blew It.

[BILL DONAHUE]

Had a bad day! Had a piece of river birch sitting on the ground with fertilizer on top and below it for three months and it had spalted beautifully. Turned it and thought it would be a winner if it was just a little bit thinner. I blew it. Such is woodturning. Next one will be better.
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[Steve Vaughan]

Hate when that happens! Beautiful piece of wood though. Is there any way to turn that bottom off and glue another contrasting piece onto it and re-turning? Make it sort of look like it was made to sit on a base? Hope you can save it!

[Greg Just]

looks great from the side! Perhaps a natural edge bottom? :D It happens to all of us and we learn from our mistakes and move on.

[Brian Kent]

Nice lampshade.

[Fred Belknap]

Believe I would try turning it up side down. I think it is salvageable. Beautiful piece of wood.

[Ben Darrah]

I agree, time for some glue up to save it. Call it a design mod. Walnut pedestal possibly?

[charlie knighton]

put it in corner, just a reminder

[Michelle Rich]

eeek! it can be repaired..return it and put in a plug or another base. the HF & wood are too lovely to throw away.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Bill, first of all, sorry but it's only wood. It just happened to be a freaking gorgeous piece of beautifully spalted wood that you had high hopes for but.......... I am curious how this happened. It looks like you may have been removing the tenon when you went through. You didn't tell us any details.
faust

[Marc Himes]

It is really a shame that this happened. The wood is wonderful! I would do what ever you can to salvage the wood in one way or another even if you end up making jewelry out of it (which would look stunning if you can visualize it). You know the recipe for more, so I am looking forward to the next one.

[Dan Jechura]

Plug the bottom, return it and love it.. It's still beautiful.

[Jon Nuckles]

Ouch! I still have a maple burl hollow form with a similar problem sitting under my bench. Guess I haven't been able to move on. If you come up with a great save for yours, please post a picture!

[BILL DONAHUE]

Had no intention of attempting to recover this piece, but after these comments I feel shamed into doing it. Looking forward to the challenge now.

I am curious how this happened. It looks like you may have been removing the tenon when you went through. You didn't tell us any details.
faust
Had turned it to about 1/2" thick and decided to reshape the bottom from the outside. That left the inside near the bottom at about 1/4" and possibly 1/8" in one spot. Then started at the inside top using final light cuts to get it to about 3/8" to 1/4" overall. The wood was punky and soft in spots and just gave way right at the bottom.

[James Combs]

Bill, I do a lot of spalted(punky) maple but I stabilize it before I get to finish wall thickness. I will rough turn it to about 1/2" wall thickness then stabilize it with Cactus Juice (http://www.turntex.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=121). Check out some of the videos at the linked website. You do need some specialized equipment to stabilize but for me it is worth it.

[Ray Bell]

Bill, I am in agreement with the others, Too nice to toss. I am curious about the spalting process though. Was this wood still wet when you started, and what fertilizer did you use? Thanks

[Thomas Canfield]

Had no intention of attempting to recover this piece, but after these comments I feel shamed into doing it. Looking forward to the challenge now.

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The challenge is always good for the next one. That is a nice piece and worth some recovery work. I had a punky China Berry crotch that lost its bottom, broke the glue block I added, and then allowed me to add a walnut bottom to make a nice 15" D x 5"H footed piece that LOML has in a prominent place. Get ready to display your recovery.

[BILL DONAHUE]

Bill, I am in agreement with the others, Too nice to toss. I am curious about the spalting process though. Was this wood still wet when you started, and what fertilizer did you use? Thanks

I have been experimenting with spalting for the last two years and wrote about it in my article in the April, 2013 issue of "Woodturning Design" titled "Translucent Norfolk Island Pine." For this piece I cut the river birch in two just to make sure I had a very green area to place on the ground though the piece was pretty green. Cleared off some mulch and put the freshly cut ends on the ground on top of some Miracle Grow shake and feed plant food. Added more plant food to the top of it, put some paper towels on top of that to hold moisture and to keep the sun off. Then covered it all with a thick plastic sheet with the intention of creating a contained atmosphere around the wood where the evaporation from the ground would go to the plastic sheet, come back down to the paper towel and keep the wood moist. It worked very well and was fun too. Kind of like a H.S. science project.

[Wade Lippman]

I have ruined too many by chickening out and not making them thin enough. It is a shame it is such a nice piece of wood, but ruining one once in a while by making it too thin is just the way it goes. Don't let it bother you.

[Vince Welch]

Hi Bill,
With all the talk about woodturning protection and people getting hurt if all you did was just tore up the peice it might have been a good day after all... Al least you are able to tell us about the wood being tore up and not you getting tore up...lol. ANd you understand how to spalt another peice! V
P.S. I am not saying it was not a nice peice...lol

[Bob Rotche]

I guess I'm in the minority on this one. It's just wood and it really does grow on trees. This happens to be an especially gorgeous piece and was well on its way to being a real winner. My approach would be to chuck it in the burn pile and move on. Consider it a learning experience. "Saves" are rarely ever as nice as what the original would have been. There's so much nice wood out there and so little time to turn it that I hate waste time and end up disappointed with the result. You now have the formula for spalting your own so supply should not be a problem. You practiced a form that you like and the next one will likely be even better. Look to the future and forget about "what could have been".

[David C. Roseman]

Bob's point is well taken, but another vote here for a save, Bill! It looks like it may be very difficult to remount it, tho. Maybe hold it bottom down on a belt sander to sand off the jagged perimeter of the blow-out, then separately turn a contrasting or even matching base to seat it in?

David

[john taliaferro]

I use polycrill from packard when the piece is iffe mixed with water it dries fast hr or two and adds stiffness to soft wood that will help save it sometimes . Bracelet for Bigfoot ?

[Ray Bell]

Thanks for the reply Bill, I would love to read this article. Is it available online? So it sounds like instead of laying the pieces face down you stood them on end? also since this was only spalting for three months you were turning this green?

[Cody Colston]

Too bad about the vessel. The wood is spectacular. My experience with River Birch, though, is that it will spalt like that very quickly without doing anything more than keeping it in the shade. The trick is catching it at the right time when the spalting is gorgeous but not letting it go too far. There is a narrow window between optimum spalting and punky wood.

[BILL DONAHUE]

Thanks for the reply Bill, I would love to read this article. Is it available online? So it sounds like instead of laying the pieces face down you stood them on end? also since this was only spalting for three months you were turning this green?

I can no longer find the article online but the magazine can be purchased online. Spaulting though, is really easy to do and the fun part is experimenting with it. The technique I mentioned earlier will do the job.

[BILL DONAHUE]

I use polycrill from packard when the piece is iffe mixed with water it dries fast hr or two and adds stiffness to soft wood that will help save it sometimes . Bracelet for Bigfoot ?
John, I couldn't find polycrill in the Packard catalog. Does it have a more complete name? Thanks.