Little Penta bowl

[John K Jordan]

Frank gave me this little bowl a few days ago at the NC symposium, glued up from small pieces as he loves to do! The way he used the spalted tamerind makes me think of marble.

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About 3" across.

He also gave me a glued-up blank - Now the pressure's on! Fortunately right now I actually have some time to play on the lathe. I forgot to ask him what kinds of wood are in it.

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JKJ

[John Keeton]

Great use of all the exotic scraps Frank has! Looks like the bottom block in your glue up is glued on end/long grain. I assume that is intended to be a waste block? I am always a bit nervous about end grain glue joints, but Frank has been doing this sort of thing for a long while.

[John K Jordan]

Great use of all the exotic scraps Frank has! Looks like the bottom block in your glue up is glued on end/long grain. I assume that is intended to be a waste block? I am always a bit nervous about end grain glue joints, but Frank has been doing this sort of thing for a long while.

I'm not sure any wood in Frank's shop qualifies as a "scrap"! He once showed me some of his lumber and his process. He typically buys exotics in 16' boards 1 and 2" thick then cuts them all into small pieces for gluing together. He added a room on his shop just for organizing and storing the thin pieces - many drawers full of multi-colored thin strips of wood arranged ahead of time so he can glue up a new blank in a few minutes.

I wondered about the end grain waste block too since I make waste blocks the other way. But as you say, Frank has a lot of experience with this. One thing that may make a difference with these little bowls is the forces involved are low. When I asked him about glue-ups like this a few years ago he said he never glues end-grain to end-grain but interleaves a layer of side grain. At the time I wanted to chip carve around the circumference of some goblets and it's practically impossible to chip carve in end grain so the wood needed to be glued up with the grain running down the axis as is normal with goblets. For this one, resawn walnut "veneer" is sandwiched between the sections of cherry and basswood:

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This method of gluing would horrify a furniture maker!

JKJ