I've got a piece of really punky dogwood burl on the lathe right now that is becoming one of those pieces that I just want to finish and get out of the shop. It's soft on one side and hard on the other but the burl and grain patterns are terrific. After I finally got it to some semblance of round with lot's of tearout on the soft side, a 2 oz. bottle of thin CA soaked into it like a sponge, and that's just the outside. I still can't get a clean cut with the sharpest of tools.
Riding the bevel of my bowl gouge is tricky at best because of the piece being slightly unstable and the densities of the wood being so drastically different from one side to the next. It feels like it's bouncing through half the cut. I resorted last night to using my homemade scraper and surprisingly took out quite a bit of material but the finish on the cut makes me cringe.
Unfortunately, I think I'll have to let this piece be a little "rough around the edges" and actually make it a design feature. I'll post a picture once I'm finished with the piece.
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