Blue Pine Bowl

[mike ash]

12.5"x5.5" bowl from Ponderosa Pine. The blue stain was created by the tree as it reacted to pine beetles that had invaded it. In the "old days" blue stained lumber was undesirable. Now-a-days, it is in high demand for it's beautiful character. I picked up a couple of rounds of this while hunting in eastern Oregon last year. This weekend, I final turned it and then applied minwax finish, followed by a buffing and waxing.

C&C welcomed.

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[Bob Bergstrom]

That is a really nice looking bowl. Well done.

[Brian Brown]

Very nice bowl Mike. I have wanted to try ponderosa and lodgepole pine for a while. How much problem did you have with sap slinging off, and getting on everything?

[mike ash]

Brian - there was no problem with sap/pitch. Give some a try!

[david privett]

kinda ironic in 2005 I had a logger come in an cut 23 acres of infected pine as fast as he could to get rid of the bluish pine ,and still it was all sold as pulp wood . I remember how quickly that stuff got brittle, something about the fungus(it turns the wood blue) that the beetles carry attacks the cells of the tree and breaks them down, well that is what I was told by the forester anyway.

[Pat Scott]

Very nice!

[John K Jordan]

Nice! Quite an attractive contrast between the heart and outside.

[daryl moses]

Usually not a fan of using pine for turning but that bowl is stunning!!
We had an invasion of pine beetles several years ago where I live, it was devastating to our SYP plantations. Loggers wouldn't touch it as their wasn't a market for infested logs at that time.

[robert baccus]

True blue stain will not hurt the strength of pine usually. If you have traveled out west lately it will be the only color of pine. Most of the conifers in the west are as dead as far as the eye can see. A real tradgedy.