A silk purse or a sow's ear....

[Michael Stafford]

Here is a box I turned from some most troublesome Tasmanian myrtle burl. It came to me heavily waxed so I rough turned it and soaked it in alcohol and let it dry for at least 3 months before finish turning it.

The first problem I encountered was that the pink color was not evident when I first rounded the blank so when I parted it into to separate the lid from the body I found that the pink was on the body blank end and I would have preferred it on the other end.

So after letting it dry I chucked up the lid blank, turned the inside and found all this wonderful grain but a somewhat stained and mottled coloring. Oh well...

I chucked up the body blank and turned the flange to fit the lid roughly as always and proceeded to finish hollow the inside. As I approached the final wall thickness a chunk of the body flange decided to break off. I am not sure why as I did not have a catch.

So now I have roughly half of the flange left on the body and the body is already hollowed. I don't know if you have tried to recut the body flange with no wood supporting it but it will sometimes chatter like crazy. So I mounted my large Oneway cone and brought it up to support the box body and fortunately it fit okay and did not bottom out.

I went ahead and recut the flange losing about 3/8" in height in the process and messing up my grain match and color transition somewhat but at least I completed the box...

Not everything works the way it is supposed to.... The box finished up at 2 3/8" in diameter and 2 1/2" tall.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Even with the last minute engineering changes......an excellent box Big Mike!..........I ran into a similar problem in my short turning carrer! I, too, was able to recover but the results weren't nearly as nice as yours!

[Henry C. Gernhardt, III]

And that box has its grain match messed up? Wow. I only hope that my first box has a grain match even half as nice as the one on this box.

Mike, you astound me.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

That is sure one nice piece of wood!

Cheers!

[Mark Cothren]

Geez Louise... if you'd have just posted it and said "Look at this perfect box I turned from some beautiful wood" I'd just have replied with, "Amen!"

Another great box, Mike!

[Glenn Hodges]

The end results is a beaut.

[Chris Barton]

Silk purse!

[Keith Burns]

Silk purse!

I agree, nice box:)

[Ernie Nyvall]

Mike, that's definitely a silk purse. It's wonderful.

Ernie

[Corey Hallagan]

Mike, no one would have know if you hadn't said anything, that is how good the box looks! Beautiful figure, love that wood!!

Corey

[Jim Ketron]

I like it!
Nice Box Mike!

[Michael Stafford]

Thank you for the nice feedback. I appreciate it.

Henry, the grain alignment is somewhat deceiving in the picture. I have positioned the top and bottom of the box to their best advantage to show the best grain alignment that I could with what is left of the box. When you rotate the box you will see how misaligned the grain is. Normally I take pride in having the grain aligned almost all the way around a box. Unless the grain is perfectly straight and uniform it is impossible to have perfect grain alignment.

[Jim Dunn]

Mike why not re-define the top to look like the bottom? That way the person using the box could place it "pretty side" up. I turned some smallish boxes for my granddaughter and made both ends the same. That way she always puts it down rightside up.

[John Hart]

Big Mike...You must be talking about another project. This one looks like flawless execution. That figure is just dancing!!! Very nice!:)

[Michael Stafford]

Jim that is an excellent idea. I wish I had thought of it. At the time the proportions between lid and body were not the same as they are now. I lost 3/8" of the body when I had the "accident". And since this lid is an overfitting lid it would not be best if it were reversed. Still an idea I will have to remember. Thanks!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Big Mike another beautiful box. If you hadn't said anything I still would have said WOW. Nice work.

[John Miliunas]

Mike, you're right; Without a doubt, a sow's ear. Tell 'ya what: Send it on over here and I'll stick on my mantl....errrrrrrrrr....in the shop to collect odds 'n ends. Wouldn't want that "ugly" piece distracting from all the other beautiful work you do! :D Good grief, man!!! If I were only to have such "sow's ears", I'd be happy as a pig in .......!!! :D :cool: