A piece of firewood!

[Les Symonds]

This piece of silver birch has been sat in my log-shed since we thinned a couple of trees in our garden, two and a half years ago. It was an awkward shaped junction of a few side-branches, which is why it escaped the splitting-axe. I wasn't turning in those days, so it was a bonus to find it intact after I'd bought my lathe.

It's about 12cm diameter and 7 cm deep....and it really tested my emerging skills.









All comments and criticisms appreciated...Les

[Paul Disdle]

Beautiful piece of timber and a great job creating a beautiful form out of it

Paul

[woodndesign]

Les,

You just never know the beauty that can be within a log nor as it escaped the axe, that one day you'd turned it into this stunning piece, the results are excellent in form and finish given the degree of spalting, love the colours and to see you've removed the chuck mount, shows you've thought through the piece, pair of V cuts would add further interest, then that's my view.

Be very pleased.

David

[Les Symonds]

Thanks George, Paul and David. I am enjoying turning so much and tickled pink that I'm able to get decent results. When I last turned - over 20 years ago - I was making some very mundane, functional stuff, so the 20-year break must have done me some good.
I bought a set of soft jaws for my self-centring chuck, just so that I could remove the original chuck/fixing marks.
Just one thing, David, when you say that a pair of V cuts could add to the piece, do you mean on the underside? I wouldn't have wanted to put any form of decorative mark on the outer face of the bowl, as I feel that the grain and the spalting make a strong enough statement to stand alone.

Thanks again, guys, for the encouraging remarks....Les

[Bryan Milham]

Les,

you've achieved a really good curve in that piece. A smooth transition all the way from the top, through the max^m diameter down to the base without a wrong angle anywhere I can see.

Unusual foot though, the recurve but it works.

One word of warning for spalted timber, the real pale stuff is much softer than the wood coloured areas, that is when sanding they will abrade far faster and although you'd be unlikely to see it on the finished piece, as you run it through your hands you can feel it.

[malcy]

Beautifully tirned piece. I love the form and the spalting. Well done. Malcolm.

[woodndesign]

Thanks George, Paul and David. I am enjoying turning so much and tickled pink that I'm able to get decent results. When I last turned - over 20 years ago - I was making some very mundane, functional stuff, so the 20-year break must have done me some good.
I bought a set of soft jaws for my self-centring chuck, just so that I could remove the original chuck/fixing marks.
Just one thing, David, when you say that a pair of V cuts could add to the piece, do you mean on the underside? I wouldn't have wanted to put any form of decorative mark on the outer face of the bowl, as I feel that the grain and the spalting make a strong enough statement to stand alone.

Thanks again, guys, for the encouraging remarks....Les

Yes Les, didn't mean to confuse it's just a couple of V's to add a balance, where an as you may wish ... An no .. no ... grain and the spalting alone makes this piece.

Cheers  David

[ken rodgers]

Hi Les,
Very nice bowl and a job done well.
Spalted birch can be be extremely soft if left to long before working it. 2 yrs is a long time and I have found logs can be useless in much shorter time frame (or maybe I have been unlucky)
Well done.
Ken

[Jim]

Very nice turned piece Les, well done. 

[Mark Sanger]

Nice one, great finish.

[Doug Barratt]

Very nice, well turn.


Cheers