What would you do with this piece?

[Tom Hamilton]

Season's Greetings to all:

Here's a piece of IKE pecan given to me by a fellow woodworker.

104296 It's 16" across and

104297 nearly 4" thick.

104298

Cutting the pith out will leave two pieces 4" thick to orient the grain side to side in bowls.

What about turning it as a platter in full size. End grain and pith issues must abound. How does one manage that? By cutting it out and turning it in the traditional manner I suppose.

What say you?

Thanks, Tom, in Houston, hoping Santa will find his shiny new post-IKE roof.

[David Walser]

Tom,

From the picture, it appears your blank is already starting to check around the pith. Unless the grain is spectacular, I doubt turning a large end-grain platter or shallow bowl would be your best option -- the checking would most likely require a lot of repair/filling. Since the slab is only 4" thick, your max diameter on a side grain bowl would be about 3 3/4", so that doesn't sound too attractive as an option. If it were mine, I think I'd consider making a bunch of box blanks out of it. I've seen some very nice boxes made out of pecan and your blank should yield a number of nice sized blanks.

Good luck!

[Dennis Ford]

You might be able to get three or four vase shaped pieces with the heartwood at the bottom. The heartwood/sapwood contrast should look good with this orientation.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Any number of end-grain hollow forms... depending on the severity of checking. Looking forward to seeing what you turn out of it!

[Jim Becker]

I'd also opt for the "many" small end-grain box and vessel blanks, myself.

[Jon Lanier]

I concur with Jim adding that you should send me one of the blanks to test it for you. ;)

[Roger Wilson]

I'd second the boxes vote.

[Brodie Brickey]

If you do an end grain platter, you can fill the cracks with an alternating color to contrast (stone, sand, mother of pearl) choose your favorite.

Cutting that blank up for two bowls is a waste.

You could cut it for small boxes or mug blanks (they're 3 3/4 x 7).

Anything left over, convert to pen blanks or wine bottle stoppers.

[Andrew Derhammer]

End grain platter, cut out the pith, put in a contrasting wood for the center.

[Keith Christopher]

Well what you could do with it is send it to me ! heheh

seriously though I'd turn an nice undercut bowl out of it. perhaps a contrasting wood for the rim. Maybe some angled dowel inserts matching the contrasting rim.

[Reed Gray]

At only 4 inched thick, with that amount of checking, I would probably turn it into fire wood. You may be able to get a lot of small box blanks out of it, but if the other side is checked that much as well, you will have to do a lot of work to get some check free pieces. I don't like checks in my work, too much trouble/time to fix them, and more risk of it flying apart when you turn it. If it is a special piece of wood for a friend or some one you know and the tree was important to them, then for sentimental reasons, I would work with it. I am a production turner, so from that stand point, it isn't worth the effort. For me, most of the time, there is plenty more where it came from. You can depend on even sealed logs to split some on the ends which is why you cut the sections longer than what you are planning to need.
robo hippy

[andrew zukewycz]

if the cracks arent bad i would do a platter, if it cracked later i would call it art! or a narrow high side NE bowl.

if the cracks are bad, i would just cut into as many good pieces as i could so i could make a bunch of small stuff!

thats just me... the elderly lady at the woodstore would tell me to band saw it to death and make a segmented bowl or plate.

later
zuke

[Alan Huey]

Bring it to California with you and we can figure something out:D

[Harvey Mushman]

At only 4 inched thick, with that amount of checking, I would probably turn it into fire wood. You may be able to get a lot of small box blanks out of it, but if the other side is checked that much as well, you will have to do a lot of work to get some check free pieces. I don't like checks in my work, too much trouble/time to fix them, and more risk of it flying apart when you turn it. If it is a special piece of wood for a friend or some one you know and the tree was important to them, then for sentimental reasons, I would work with it. I am a production turner, so from that stand point, it isn't worth the effort. For me, most of the time, there is plenty more where it came from.....
robo hippy

I'm gonna have to agree with Reed......Firewood. Unless Pecan is spalted, it isn't a very interesting wood in my opinion. Put your time and effort into something that doesn't contain so many defects(checks).

[Steve Mawson]

Like the name IKE Pecan. For me I would try to keep the checks out of any piece that I would turn.

[steven carter]

Looks like to me that you could get a 10-12" shallow bowl or platter out of the lower right part of the blank, based on the top picture. The rest could be boxes or pen/stopper blanks.

Steve