16” Fiddle, Spalted Ambrosia Maple Bowl

[Bob Bergstrom]

I corded a large half log of ambrosia maple for a friend. His lathe couldn’t turn the largest blank so he kept to two smaller bowls and gave me the larger one. The wood came from Nortern Alabama. It was a little softer than silver maple found in the Chicago area, but turned well and was easy to sand. It is 16” in diameter and about 5” deep. The depth is about 5”. It has two coats of wipe on poly mixed with danish oil.

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[daryl moses]

Wow!! I like everything about it. Shape, color, and finish are outstanding!!!

[Ted Calver]

That's a lovely chunk of wood, Bob. Good job!

[Rob Price]

Very cool. I like the foot and rim detail.

[Pat Scott]

It has two coats of wipe on poly mixed with danish oil.

Gorgeous wood for sure. But Danish Oil is a blend of oil, poly, and thinner. Wipe on poly is regular poly that's been thinned. So when you mix wipe on poly with danish oil what you're really doing is adding thinned poly to already-thinned poly. It's a beautiful finish that you have, but it might be more poly than you want and is building a film finish instead of soaking in. Depends on what you're after or the intended use for the bowl.

A lot of people mix their own Danish Oil and will use wipe on poly instead of regular poly. The thinner (mineral spirits) that is mixed in will thin regular poly, and it just thins wipe on poly even more than it already is.

[Bob Bergstrom]

Gorgeous wood for sure. But Danish Oil is a blend of oil, poly, and thinner. Wipe on poly is regular poly that's been thinned. So when you mix wipe on poly with danish oil what you're really doing is adding thinned poly to already-thinned poly. It's a beautiful finish that you have, but it might be more poly than you want and is building a film finish instead of soaking in. Depends on what you're after or the intended use for the bowl.

A lot of people mix their own Danish Oil and will use wipe on poly instead of regular poly. The thinner (mineral spirits) that is mixed in will thin regular poly, and it just thins wipe on poly even more than it already is.


Pat , I should have stated the finish more accurately. I use straight poly out of the can, I mix in an equal amount of danish oil or or some type of wipe on oil. I also add a small amount of Japan Dryer to speed up the drying process. Normally the finish is dry in 2 to 3 hours. This bowl will probably be steel wooded and relieve some wax.