Another Black Ash with metal in it

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I had made another Black Ash, that has metal in it, the blank came from a tree that my buddy and I removed from his camp to make the parking easier and away from the camp buildings.
As I sawed the blank in two equal halves, I looked at the newly sawn face and noticed a shiny spot, as I never noticed anything while sawing I wondered what it could be, scraped my nail over it and it was gone, fell into the shavings, and I just left it at that.
Than a few days later when I was rough turning the piece, I stopped the lathe to see the grain and what the grown over wound would reveal, again there was a shiny spot, but this time when I scratched it I felt the softness of the metal, LEAD it was, now the picture became clear, the healed wound in the tree and the shiny spots, the tree had been shot !!!
As I continued the hollowing I removed almost all the bullets but at the end there where still a few showing, so I kept them, thought it was kind of neat and a good conversation piece at that, thought I'd show it.
It is about 8½" wide and 2½" high
Any-all comments appreciated :)

[Wayne Bitting]

Good thing it was lead bullets instead of a iron nail:eek:. Looks great and glad you kept the lead in there for some story telling!

[David Walser]

Leo,

I love the bowl. In particular, I like the handles you've created out the rim. That's a very nice touch. I also like the beading details you added to the bowl's foot. A very nice surprise for whomever turns the bowl over. Of course, the wood -- particularly the contrast between the "wounded" and "normal" grain -- is wonderful. The interesting story just makes it better still.

I've one question regarding leaving the bullets in the bowl. If someone were to use it for something like a salad, is there an risk the lead might leach into the food? I'm not sure how you could seal the lead in such a way to prevent that from happening.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Leo - great story and a really good looking bowl! Love the grain and your 'handles'!

[curtis rosche]

i always wondered what bullets would look like, i have a peice that i was going to turn that is full of 9mil. rounds. great work

[Tom Green]

Well, I've gotta ask. How did you do the handles??? Great bowl Leo. Always look forward to seeing your work.
Tom

[Phillip Bogle]

How do you explain the bullet as a design feature? I tried to explain to my wife about this beautiful bowl. In the process I almost bit my tongue. Try saying "Black Ash Bullet Hole Bowl" without damaging your tongue or getting slapped.:D I must remember to be more careful.

Beautiful bowl.

[curtis rosche]

how did you sand it so that the lead wouldnt smear?

[David Walser]

how did you sand it so that the lead wouldnt smear?

Well, with a sharp tool and proper technique, sanding isn't necessary....

:) Sorry, couldn't resist.

[robert hainstock]

Another superior piece of art Leo. Makes me wish that I had found a bigger piece of black ash than the peppermill I'm making now. :):)
Bob

[Richard Madison]

So being shot in the ash can be a good thing. Great looking bowl, Leo. And I also love the handles.

I hear gunfire all around the country, as turners "embelish" their work.

[Dave Mcintire]

I've had several pieces of wood with bullets and shot in them. Lead from bullets can be planed and sawn with no damage to your machinery or blades. If I remember correctly even copper jacketed bullets arn't too much of a problem. Steel and ceramic from grown over fence post insulators, etc. is another problem. Usually you can detect metal by a purple streak in the wood near the metal.

[curtis rosche]

can you turn a peice of oak, with say, about 21, 9mil. copper jacketed bullets? with out doing damage to something?

[Richard Madison]

Use a sharp tool and motor gently.

[curtis rosche]

will it chip the tool, like when hitting the faceplate screws? or is copper soft enough?

[Richard Madison]

Unlikely. The copper may be work hardened, but will still be much softer than HSS tools.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Wayne, yea you're right, I was working on a Acer Negundo (box elder ;-)) ) bowl last night and ran into a steel strap with a nail through it, made the 14" blank shrink to 10" and nicked the gouge slightly also gave me a half hour work to hack it out :-((.
Thanks for looking and your comment :D

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi David thank you for your reply, I would advice against using the bowl as a salad bowl, probably there's no problem using it for that, but why take chances, it's just not worth it, the beading is a bit of a trade mark of mine, kind off, as that's on just about every bottom I turn, takes but a second and spices it up ;)

Steve thank you for looking and the reply, ;)

Hi Curtis thanks for looking and your reply and ???, the rounds should look really sharp IF you can turn the wood so they do show, I had many bullets in there, but only a few that do show now. After sanding I very carefully scraped the lead so the metal would show bright, and yes you can machine copper and brass, tin, lead and even steel with HSS, the lead, tin and copper are softer than brass, they can be cut, but you have to be careful with lead and tin, as it's so soft that the tool might dig-in and grab the bullet right out of the wood, I'd advice a high speed and a light cut with them, the copper cuts and the brass will work better scraped, but can be cut also, steel needs a very slow speed and very light scraping cut with a very straight angle on the tool, like only a 5° relief on the tool and the rest very close, that's also a good idea with the other metals.

Tom thank you for looking and your reply/question :D
To make handles like these on a turning, you can leave a rim around it and than saw off the part you don't want, then a bunch of sanding to make it all smooth and even.

Hi Philip, thank you also for looking and reply, I'd say probably something like "That one didn't get away !!) or look at all the Lead in there :eek:

[Maylon Harvey]

Leo,
Another great piece. If I ever get to the point that I'm able to turn stuff 1/10 as nice as yours, I'll be tickled to death. If you have said, I can't remember, but what is your choice of finish?

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Bob, thank you for looking and the reply, Yes Black Ash is a nice wood to turn, but it has this problem (for turners and sawyers :) ) that it has ring shake very often, that's very nice for hoop and basket makers as they can split the layers apart easily, not so healthy for us if a big chunk comes flying off and you get hit in the noggin :eek: :mad:

Hi Richard, the shooting goes quickly, waiting for the tree to heal over does take rather longer than I'm prepared to wait :p :D
Thanks for your reply, take care

Hi Dave, the steel will show if the wood has tannic acid in it, like Oak and Cherry, but others like Ash will not show the metal is there, that's how I ran into the steel strap last night in the Manitoba Maple, there is no staining at all :-((

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Maylon, thank you for looking, reply, and ?.
Maylon my personal choice would be no finish but a much used/handled patina, it would wear out my hands though :eek: and most people do seem to like a shiny finish, so I go halfway :D and use an oil finish, I use pure Tung oil from Lee Valley most often, and for the occasional shine I use pure polymerized tung oil, also from Lee Valley.

[Steve Mawson]

You brought back memories with the bullet story. I have a walnut tree on the farm where I grew up and it just so happened that I had to shoot that tree several times over the years. Finally the tree had to come down and I took the trunk and had it sawed into 4/4 lumber. While planing one board I noticed a groove the planer blade was leaving. I checked the board and there it was, a 22 cal. bullet. Lead is soft but this one put a big ding in the planer blades. Great story and bowl.

[Andrew Derhammer]

I would be very careful sanding the lead. You can create lead dust that when you breathe it in it does funny stuff to you.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Andrew, yes lead is poisonous, but it's too late for me, the damage is already done :eek: :D :D :D

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply, -----Yes I suppose it is the same as water and other things, you hit water at high speed it's like solid rock, if you try to drill at a very high speed the hard drill will melt, and I assume if you hit oxidized lead at 4000 rpm it could very well take the edge off of a planer blade.
I do know one turner and WW that used a backstop tree they used for target shooting and rifle setup, to make a gun cabinet out of, that looked real sharp with all the bullets in the wood.

[Ben Gastfriend]

Neat-o! The bowl looks great.

[Jim Underwood]

I've never had a problem with copper and lead leaving nicks in my planer blades, but steel jacketed bullets might. Nails certainly do...:rolleyes:

[Jim Kountz]

So being shot in the ash can be a good thing.



Ok I lost a mouthful of java with that one!! Thanks alot!

:D:D:D:D

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I've never had a problem with copper and lead leaving nicks in my planer blades, but steel jacketed bullets might. Nails certainly do...:rolleyes:
Wouldn't that be a little hard on the gun barrel Jim???
I have used hard armor piercing points as center punches, but those were copper clad.