Spalted Oak Bowl

[Ben Gastfriend]

So this is the first one that came out of the DNA, and I've already determined that this is the best of the drying processed I've tried. I've got a few more bowl coming out of this same wood, which I really like (courtesy of SMC Member Barbara Gill- thanks!)

7"x 4". Sanded to 600, BLO, and Minwax Wipe-On Poly.
83194 83193 83195

Your comments and critiques are always welcome and appreciated.

[David Walser]

Ben,

That's a very nice bowl. I like the form. The rim shows off the wood. And, of course, the wood itself is beautiful. Good job.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice work Ben! Good form, beautiful wood and a good looking finish! If I were to critique anything it would be the photos - sure would like to see them a little larger. Good looking bowl like this - you should show it off!

[Tom Sherman]

Lookin good Ben. Nice job.

[robert hainstock]

You do such nice work, Ben. Ilike the form and as I am a big fan of wipe on poly, Love the finish. :D
Bob

[Ben Gastfriend]

Thanks, everybody.

Hey, Steve.... do you have any tips on getting them bigger? My camera's 5 megapixels, and when I compress them to small enough for the forums max. KBs, they end up tiny.

[Paul Engle]

Very nice Ben, spalted can cause fits some time and it looks like you got it handled good. The rim is spot on and the finish is perfect, gotta like that wipe on poly !!!!

[Mike A. Smith]

Nice form Ben, I like it!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking bowl Ben. Nice form, wood and finish.

[Keith Burns]

Great bowl Ben !! Great form and finish !

[Glenn Hodges]

Ben you caught the spalting just right. That along with a great form has produced a great bowl.

[Jeff Moffett]

do you have any tips on getting them bigger? My camera's 5 megapixels, and when I compress them to small enough for the forums max. KBs, they end up tiny.

Ben, when you resize your images for the web, change the DPI (dots per inch) to 72. Web browsers don't display anything greater than that and it will reduce the file size.

[Tim Thomas]

Ben, when you resize your images for the web, change the DPI (dots per inch) to 72. Web browsers don't display anything greater than that and it will reduce the file size.

Also, a good general purpose image editor that is free is IrfanView (www.irfanview.com (http://www.irfanview.com)). When you use it to save a jpg image it will give you a "slider" to adjust the quality which affects the file size. So first I resize the original image to 640x480 and then save it using about 50% on the quality. The pictures still look good enough for internet viewing and they are well within the limits of the forum file size.

(Sorry for the thread jack about image editing. Very nice bowl by the way. I don't do any turning yet, but if I keep coming in here and looking at all of these great projects I'm probably going to get sucked into the "vortex"...)

[Dennis Peacock]

Very nice bowl there Ben.!!!!

I've never really had any decent luck with turning oak. I guess that's the difference between northern oak and southern oak. :)

[Ron Drew]

Very nice Ben. The clean simple form accents the spalted wood. I like it.

[Brian McInturff]

Oak is one of my favorites. And add Spalting to that and it just can't get any better. You learn to have sharp tools quick when turning oak so I'd have to say you did good on all the above. Great form, great wood and finish, and good job keeping the tools sharp:D

[Ben Gastfriend]

Thanks for the tips, Tim. How long have you been lurking in the turner's forum? If it's been more that about 2 months, the turning vortex marketing department hasn't been doing its job! No lathe yet!?!

[Tim Thomas]

:)
Thanks for the tips, Tim. How long have you been lurking in the turner's forum? If it's been more that about 2 months, the turning vortex marketing department hasn't been doing its job! No lathe yet!?!

I'm just looking at all the beautiful work. I've got tons of projects lined up to do in my shop that I'll have to do before I get a lathe, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the fine craftsmanship here at the creek. :)

I have been thinking about going to the John C. Campbell folk school to take an introduction to turning class. I visited their campus last year for a few hours while on vacation and the new turning building is awesome. I have a buddy who went to the folk school for a book binding class and he said it was a great experience. So when I finally have time in my schedule for a full week of vacation, and after I have finished building a kitchen full of cabinets, I'm going to sign up for a class there and get properly introduced to lathe work.

The only problem is that the setup at the folk school seems almost TOO nice. :D I think they have a dozen of the Powermatic 3520's and each station had a nice wall-mounted tool cabinet with everything you would need (well, at least to my untrained eye it looked that way). From what I could tell that is about a $3000 setup for each student. That is more money than I currently have tied up in my ENTIRE SHOP! How could I learn to turn on a setup like that and then come home to an inferior experience? It might be cheaper for me just to take a week of classes at the school every time I get the urge to turn. :)

[Joseph Peacock]

Wow!! That is good Mr.Ben!:cool: