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View Full Version : Beauty hiding in plain sight



Dave Mount
01-02-2021, 4:57 PM
Years ago I was over to a friend's house, and he was in the process of remodeling his basement. He'd taken out a 6x6 post and cut it into 12" lengths to burn. I winced, it was old clear old growth Doug fir, super straight and tight grain. I asked if I could take a couple chunks home, thinking I might resaw it into thin stock to make a gift box or something. Those pieces have been sitting on a shelf in the back of the shop for many years. I pulled something off that shelf the other day exposing them and thought I should do something with it and, since I've been on something of a sphere-making kick lately. . .

About 5.25" in diameter, bigger than a grapefruit, smaller than a cantaloupe. By my count it took 137 years to grow this piece of wood. You're looking at end grain, and you can see by the lack of curvature that this piece was a few feet from the pith. That was a very large, very old tree, probably well over 1000 years. Hasn't been buffed yet, not sure how much shine it will aquire.

Something about the picture makes it look like there are visible sanding scratches running somewhat vertically. I can assure you that's an illusion created by the wood itself.

Best,

Dave

448512

Mel Fulks
01-02-2021, 5:18 PM
Well, I'm proud to comment first. Beautiful thing! I know it's one of the planets ,but can't remember which. But those
rings tell me it's an old one.

Al Launier
01-02-2021, 6:22 PM
Nice work! that sphere will certainly drive some thoughts of its history.

Richard Madden
01-02-2021, 8:04 PM
Nice work. Did you free hand the sphere or use a jig?

John K Jordan
01-02-2021, 8:44 PM
Very, very nice. I see character in the wood but nothing that looks like sanding scratches!

Dave Mount
01-02-2021, 11:51 PM
Thanks for the kind words. No jig used. Turned to an approximate sphere between centers, then parted off and held in compression between some wood blocks with cupped ends, then turned iteratively on three axes until spherical. I have adopted the "octagon" method for the initial roughing out, and I'm very impressed with it -- I've found it gets me much closer to spherical to start, which means fewer iterations to finish. Probably becomes unnecessary with continued practice, once your ability to envision spherical develops, but for once in a while sphere turning, I highly recommend it.

I picked up a piece of bloodwood recently, which is very wet still. I turned a sphere, coated it with anchorseal and put it in a paper bag to season. Never turned bloodwood before -- man, was that stuff hard on cutting edges!

Best,

Dave

Frederick Skelly
01-03-2021, 3:07 AM
This piece connected with me. It's a beautiful way to display that ancient piece of wood. The spherical shape and color draw your eye and then the grain makes you go "Oh my, this piece of wood is special". If it were displayed in my house, I'd have a plaque made with a short version of what you wrote: It took 137 years to grow this piece of wood and it was probably part of a very large, very old tree, probably well over 1000 years.

Really a nice piece Dave.
Fred

Jamie Buxton
01-03-2021, 10:46 AM
Old growth Douglas Fir is gorgeous. You did it proud.