Several weeks ago I bought a big, rough slab of yew, about 10ft long, varying between 20" and 24" wide, and 2.5" thick. It was riddled with bark and dead-wood inclusions, pippy burrs etc etc, and I managed to cut 10 bowls and 2 platters out of it, to say nothing of all the scrappy little pieces that made baubles etc at Christmas time.
I turned this piece on the weekend and was delighted with its natural features. When the tree was still growing it surrounded and encapsulated a dead branch, which had turned black. The branch sweeps across a part of the base of the bowl and then pops up through a knot hole elsewhere. It's overall size is 16" diam x 2.5" deep.
I experimented with the finish on this piece, and remembered something that Bryan (Dr4g0nfly) pointed out to me several months ago, when some spalting on a bowl that I'd turned had sanded away more that the surrounding clean and harder wood. So I deliberately sanded this piece really hard, even going down to 40 grit paper, then 60, 80, 100, 120 etc, up to 400. This had the effect of making the surface 'readable' to the finger tip. Every little pip stands out and it's a joy to run your fingers over. I managed to get the beads to remain crisp by leaving them slightly over-sized and then re-cutting them a little when I got up to the 180 grit paper. It's had 2 coats of sanding sealer and 3 coats of micro-crystaline wax.
I'm really pleased with the texture that it's produced and might well use the system again for such pieces as this.
Comments and criticisms always welcome....Les
