need advice - what to do with crotch wood

[Curtis Myers]

I got some Walnut wood yesterday. Three of the pieces are "Y's" with crouch wood.
I have always removed the pith by cutting to the inside of the pith on each side. This leaves me with an odd shaped wedge that I struggle to visualize what to do with it.

I would like to make a hollow form with them. Is this possible?

What do you recommend I do with the "y" pieces?
How should I cut the "Y" pieces to prep it for lathe mounting?

All the Best
Curt


323594323595

[Dennis Ford]

The "odd shaped wedge" is great for hollow forms, it will show nice figure on two sides. Make the small end of the wedge the bottom of the hollow form.
This works best on large crotch sections and does require some additional chainsaw work.

[Olaf Vogel]

Heres a few options I've considered in the past:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tLPbQkn9O0w
https://www.etsy.com/listing/166178896/laburnum-wooden-crotch-winged-bowlhand

[Dan Hintz]

I like this option for crotch pieces:
323607

[Thomas Canfield]

Cut a crotch down the pith line of all sections, and then try turning one section with bowl with rim to center like Dan Hintz photo, and the other section with natural edge rim, or cut off the edge to have standard shape. The grain pattern is dramatically different and you may find the angel in the grain pattern with the bottom toward the center of the tree.

[Wes Ramsey]

I cut a slab of maple crotch a while back and was in the same position - no idea what to do with it. I ended up cutting out just the feathered wood into a long blank and turned a couple of HFs from that. Here's one...
323635

It checked a bit after hollowing so I inlaced some copper powder and it looks like it grew there naturally. Turned out pretty cool! The scrap piece from one of the sides turned out even more interesting - had grain going every direction, but I don't have any pics of it handy at the moment.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I make leaf bowls.

323678323677

Why is it so hard to load an image?

Leaf bowls in progress, not finished. Top and bottom views. The little bowl is cored from the big one. Most of the bowl is carved vice "turned". The wood is kou, a local wood that is traditionally used for calabashes, but since it's pretty rare for me to get some, I wanted to use the most of the piece of wood that is longer than it is wide. I also have the other half of the crotch and another pair of bowls in progress.

[Col Smith]

G'day Curtis,

Just watched this video on making a natural edge bowl from a crotch.
This is one answer to your question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jVoI12Kfug&feature=youtube_gdata

HTH

Col