Once a jolly swagman camped by a bilabong, under the shade of?????

[Les Symonds]

  Well, here it is at last....the coolibah burr that I just spent hours and hours picking away at with dental tools to remove the bark from.



 On the surface, the bark was soft and flaking, but once the outer surface was removed, it was tough as old boots and came away in pieces no bigger than a match-head.



..The wood was exceptionally hard...just like cutting stone...and it wrecked the edge on my tools which needed sharpening after just about every pass.







It's 12" x 8" (30cm x 20cm) and stands on three ebony legs, so I guess that it's a trivet, not a bowl. I gave it one coat of lemon oil and four coats of finishing oil, with a day to dry in-between each coat, then tonight I buffed it through the three stages of Tripoli, white wax and carnauba, which has given a very deep lustre to it.

C&C always welcome...Les

[woody]

Now that I love its beautiful it looks more like a brown mallee burr to me but I could be wrong it wouldn't be the first time LOL

[Les Symonds]

Hi Woody...thanks for the comments, much appreciated.
I spent quite a while identifying this burr, which came in a job-lot that I bought for about £1.50 a piece! As I understand it, both coolibah and mallee are eucalypts. However, coolibah is a specific species, whereas mallee refers to a growth pattern in which multi-trunked shrubs form from the root of any one of a number of trees that are all eucalypts of varying species......but I have relied on Wikipedia for much of my info!

Les

[woody]

Hi Les £1.50 a lump what a bargain that is what I call jammy you have obviously done your homework on the burr I'm must wrong again LOL sorry

[woodndesign]

Well Les, the hard work paid off with this one, you've come up with a marvelous piece, worth the effort, and a lot more than £1.50 ... now to replace it .. IF .. If you'd find anything near as nice, then that's the beauty of wood, all are different.

The nice uniform feet/legs set it off just right. Well done.

Cheers  Dewi

[Bryan Milham]

Les,

that certainly looks like what I turned once. You say you've picked off (some of) the bark covering, has that relieved the spiky bit's I can see in the last photo below the left leg?

Tiny bits the size of match heads, certainly sound right, as does dental picks and I also used a few other unusual medical tools I've acquired.

It makes for a very dramatic piece when fully finished, keep at it, you'll get there and Yes, it is worth it.

[Les Symonds]

Cheers guys for the comments.

Bryan...There was an outer layer of bark which I have completely removed...it was very flaky on the surface, but became tighter and harder just a couple of milimetres in. Once it was all removed, underneath it there was a hard, dark brown skin, a bit like the hard, brown skin that you sometimes see inside Brazil nut shells. I managed to remove nearly all of it...just a few odd signs of it here and there.
Underneath the hard, dark brown skin is the inner bark which is still intact, with the exception of the little bit that's missing in the final photo. I took this small piece off because it was very loose, and sure enough, it revealed an even spikier texture beneath it. I think that this layer is called the cambium layer, and it's just about impossible to shift because it's like concrete. I tried digging a dental pick into it and all that came away was a tiny amount of fibre.
What makes the thought of any more work on it just too daunting, is that the more bark I remove, the rougher and spikier the burr becomes and after the 3 hours that I spent digging away the outer layer of bark, my hands are in one heck of a state.

Les

[Bryan Milham]

Ah ha, a use for 'gloves' for us woodturners - see another thread.

Yes, I used a thick work glove on my left hand, but managed to scrape the knuckles on my right hand quite a bit. Holding a small tool in thick gloves did not work.

I also spread the work out over a couple of weeks.

[flames]

Les, that's a stunning piece of timber, have you thought about displaying it on a mirror, so you can see the beautiful grain on top at the same time as the natural burr underneath (and all your de-barking hard work too)?
Tom

[georg]

hi les i have done a few australian burrs in my time.
WHEN THEY WERE CHEAPER.and after the time spent cleaning them
like you i could not bring myself to turn the outside into shavings.
you have made a good job ,
the piece is well proportioned  AND LOOKS GREAT.
  TONY

[Francesco Dibari]

beautiful work  .. !!

[Roderick Evans]

Siwd mae Les

What a beauty! Well turned and finished as always. How long did you spend working out the length of three different size feet so that it sat level???
I also like the tapered point on the base of each foot.

Hwyl am y tro
Rod

[Les Symonds]

How long did you spend working out the length of three different size feet so that it sat level???

Ha ha, a diolch, Rod....not as long as you'd think. I lay the finished bowl down on the bench-top, face down. Next, I put 2 small pieces of 4" timber, one either side of the bowl with a batten across the tops of them. Measuring down from the batten to the hole for each leg gave me a set of three measurements.....that was the measurements for each leg.
Simples!

Les

[Roderick Evans]

Diolch Les

Got O Lvel in maths but didn't do woodwoork in school

Rod

[Les Symonds]

Diolch Les

Got O Lvel in maths but didn't do woodwoork in school

Rod

Ha ha...diolch Rod

Got O Level in woodwork but didn't do maths in school

Les