eucalyptus bowl with a bit of a story

[Stephen Hibbs]

This is a piece of ironbark eucalyptus, 6.25" at widest, 2.75" tall; the walls are around 1/4" thick. My first bowl on the home lathe, and this was some hard, dry wood, being dry eucalyptus. It took me over 3 hrs to get it roughed out (I was using a parting tool to rough it, and it kept catching and stalling the spur center, plus it bent my tool so I had to grind it the other way) Then I flattened the bottom and attached a glue block, attached the faceplate and turned it almost completely done, so I decided to shave the glue block down in in preparation of cutting it off once I had sanded the bowl. However, the top rim was uneven, so I decided to touch that up, and broke the inch thick piece attaching it to the faceplate, sending said bowl bouncing.
I sanded the bottom down once more, put on a new glue block, re-rounded the bowl as far as I dared, and sanded it. I then finished it, and put extra finish by hand on the parts where I couldn't sand it well (due to the unevenness of the remounted bowl) and hand sanded the bowl a few times. I don't know how many hours I put into this, but I would say a good 7 or 8. Not too shabby for my second bowl though. I now use a roughing gouge to do the roughing with much better effect, and I have a grizzly chuck on the way.
I like the red in the wood and all the character it has, people at my school seem to think the wood coloration has something to do with my skill :D , I assure them this is not so. I can't get my favorite angle to compress, so here's a pic that obeyed.
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[John Hart]

Quite a saga Stephen. Pretty little bowl too! I didn't know that eucalyptus could be so hard! Way to stay at it!! Nice.:)

[Don Baer]

Stephen,
I realy like how it turned out. I'm going to have to get some Euk. and add it to my wood stash. Maybe I 'll make a bonker out of it..My neighbor has a about a cord of it he burns in his fireplace.:(

It's a fairly common wood hear about so I can get it very cheap...:D

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

WOW...What a way to go.

Looks good. I like the shape and the grain pattern.

Bruce

[John Timberlake]

Very pretty bowl. Keep at it - it gets easier as your skill and tool collection improve.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great job Stephen. Love the grain of the wood. Didn't realize that eucalyptus was that hard of wood.

[Corey Hallagan]

Not too shabby to say the least! Nice job Stephen.

corey

[Ernie Nyvall]

(I was using a parting tool to rough it...


Stephen, I can't even imagine doing that. Very persistent and impressive. Nice bowl.

Ernie

[Stephen Hibbs]

Thanks for the complements, but beware fellow turners, there are two types of eucalyptus. The one with the hard, dark bark is ironbark and is hard and good for turning. The silvery bark is bad for turning (I hear) and cracks extremely quickly. The guy who gave me the ironbark said the other stuff cracked on the 5 minute drive home, and that was after he cut the waste off before loading it. He also said it doesn't turn out nicely. The leaves are the same though, so it's easy to spot, they often grow together near where I live ( we have a watch out for fallen ironbarks)

[Mark Cothren]

Stephen, I can't even imagine doing that. Very persistent and impressive. Nice bowl.

Ernie


Ditto! Nice work!

Thanks for the picture!

[Keith Burns]

Very nice Stephen:) Way to hang in there! Your efforts were worth it:)