Another Spalted Cherry Bowl

[Tom Keen]

I worked my way through the cherry blanks... have a couple drying, but this one was ready.

Black Cherry, 7.5 X 2.5 " 3/16th thick. Danish Oil, buffed lightly.

Thanks for looking!

64220 64221

[Benjamin Dahl]

tom, very nice bowl. wood is very cool. any problems working with it?
Ben

[Tom Keen]

I think its difficult to work with but my skills are developing, maybe it will get easier. I cut 8 blanks. The spalting causes cracks and I wasnt able to finish roughing half of them, they went into the fire pot. The grain is very irregular, so it doesnt cut very well..easy to catch. And it moves...woo woo does it move...again, the wood is "loose" along the spalting. I thank the good lord for CA...lots of CA :) The end result is sure worth the effort though..

Tom

[Keith Burns]

Great piece of Cherry and you made one fine bowl with it !! Very nice !

[Glenn Clabo]

Man...that is just awesome. Love the wood...and you revealed it. Nice!

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a beauty. I really love the wood. Nice job.

[Jonathon Spafford]

Wow! That is a stunning piece of wood! That really has some amazing grain and spalting patters going on! A fine looking bowl there!

[George Tokarev]

Gorgeous wood. We don't get much of the mineral staining in our local stuff. Yours has it in abundance.

I always look twice when people talk about spalting cherry. Doesn't up here, even when the heart's brown rotted and the sapwood's gone, I've turned the remainder, and no fungus. Weird.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Absolutely a beautiful bowl! Amazing wood grain - you did a fine job of displaying the spalting! Like George stated - up here cherry will totally rot before any spalting occurs - sure makes me appreciate the beauty of your bowl! Nice work!

[Glenn Hodges]

Tom, some people say cherry does not spalt, only rots, what the heck do I know. I know a beautiful piece when I see it, and this is one of them. Thanks for letting me see it.

[Tom Keen]

From what the timber folks have told me. Cherry in Ohio isnt very good (except for turning). Lots of sap pockets and variation in the grain. PA cherry is considered the best for furniture making.

The other problem with cherry is "red rot". A fungus that eats up the wood from the inside. And, where there is red rot, there is spalting..which is a fungus.

Interesting, the cherry on one side of the farm tends to be straight grained and rot free. On the other side, lots of rot and spalting. Similar issues with the black walnut. One side of the woods, clear straight grained, other side, lots of rotten centers. And the smell coming off the walnut from the west side of the woods...phewwwwey it really stinks. :)

Thanks for all the compliments. They motivate me to do better!

Tom

[Patrick Taylor]

Wow... I LOVE that spalting with the color of the cherry. Beautiful!