Spalted Birch Bowl

[Bryan Milham]

A lump of wood rescued from a friends firewood pile.

This bowl was formed from the last slice of the trunk, it had a dip in it which resulted in the hole as I turned it. There were a couple of small cracks around the rim near where the heart/pith would have been. Probably did not need it but I decided to put the bronze bands around to look like they were holding it together.

Size is 230mm x 80mm. Not seen her but the outside was buffed with a wheel I'd polished some copper with, so it has a slight metallic sheen and will hopefully develop a tinge of green as any verdigris develops, well you've got to experiment...

C & C always welcome.

[fuzzyturns]

I love spalted birch, and this is a very nice piece. I am not so sure about the bronze bands, to be honest. In the second picture they look good, but in the first one, where the ends go into the bowl, that looks odd to me, especially when there are small gaps.

[Les Symonds]

It gets my vote for a few reasons (beyond the fact that Bryan put his skew chisel away for this project). I love spalted birch, AND recovering wood from the 'burn-it' pile, AND the use of wire (silver in this case, I think), AND the inclusion of voids.
However, fuzzy's got a point about the termination of the wire in the first photo!

Les

[georg]

   
   Hi Bryan

  Its always good to experiment and step out of the box now and again..... colour wise  we feel it all blends together very well
  and sure we can see some of the copper glinting through which is a really nice touch ...... not fully sold on the bronze wire though,
  perhaps burn lines..... only a personal thought.
  kind regards
  Tony & Di
 

[bodrighywood]

I like the wire effect though agree with Les in that it would be better if a bit tighter where it finishes. Apart from that I think it's great and a number of counts.

pete

[GREEN MAN]

Hello Bryan

I like this bowl a lot.  A beautiful finish on the inside of the bowl.  I like the wire effect- is it set in a small groove?

I wonder if the effect could have been improved by the wire crossing the hole as well? I guess it would have been even more difficult keeping the wire tight!

Thanks for showing and nice to see you also turn bowls 

Kind regards

David

[edbanger]

Hi Bryan

I've look and look at your bowl overall I like the piece I have to agree with Les & Pete the wire looks to gap a bit and would look better if it were tight, but the effect works for me. It will be interesting to see how the bowl looks over time if the copper does take on some natural verdigris.

It's great to experiment and we all need to do more of this type of thing if we are to bring woodturning in to the 21st century 

Ed

[Bryan Milham]

Thank you for the comment and feedback guy's.

I'll respond to the comments on the wires. I use Bronze wire and it is very hard, hence stiff. Think back to the bronze age, the Egyptians used bronze tools to build the pyramids, armies used bronze weapons.

Why do I use it, well I have a fair amount of the stuff in various diameters but unlike copper or sliver it's not very easily shaped.

Maybe it would have been better if the photo was of the other side of the hole, I was able to form the wire hook section that goes into the bowl far more accurately around the woods shape, my error.

Why add the bands, as I said in my opening post, ' to look like they were holding it together', I like Les' silver staples he puts over cracks but did not want to overtly copy the idea, and the cracks are not that big or likely to grow. And I did want something to add as a detail to the rim, hence the three bands not just one.

Why not a full ring around the rim, the wire has to start and stop somewhere, and because of it's stiffness needed to be 'hooked' in, so either side of the hole was the obvious choice.

[bodrighywood]

Would kit be possible to heat the wire a bit first or would it have to be hot enough so it would char the wood? Just a thought.

Pete

[steve w]

I like Les' silver staples he puts over cracks but did not want to overtly copy the idea,

i like it and appreciate how hard it is to form bronze wire, i dont think you would be copying as staples have been used alot on turnings i have seen.

[John D Smith]

Hi Bryan,
             Would it be possible to anneal the bronze wire to make it more malleable ? Regards John

[Bryan Milham]

I'm not a metal person, Electronics is my background. But I do know members of the Armourers and Braziers Guild that can answer and help me learn this, if it can be done.

I will ask and see if I can improve on the way the bronze can be worked next time.

Thanks for the idea guys.