Walnut Crotch HF with Ebony Finial

Vaughn McMillan

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This is a piece of eBay wood I've had for a while, and I finally got around to doing something with it. I think it might be the prettiest piece of walnut I've turned, but it gave me fits trying to get a finish I was happy with. I had a few coats of Antique Oil on it and it was kind of streaky since the finish was old, but I went ahead and tried to buff it. The tripoli helped some, but then I made the mistake of buffing it with white diamond. The finish clouded up like a summer thunderstorm. I ended up sanding it all down to bare wood and starting all over, this time using some (newer) Formby's Tung Oil finish. A couple coats later, I rubbed it out by hand with Micro Mesh to 12000, then buffed with just tripoli followed by Renaissance wax. The finial and its base are ebony, with no finish, just tripoli and wax.

It's about 9" wide and 7" tall to the top of the finial.

HF052 - 01 800.jpg HF052 - 05 800.jpg HF052 - 04 800.jpg

Comments, critiques, and suggestions are always welcome -
 
It's a lovely piece of wood and you've certainly done it justice. It's really hard to get the proprtions right on these things isn't it.

One question....you say it has an ebony finial and base, can't see the base, I assume it's very small?

Pete
 
Pete, I was referring to the base of the finial. I used a pen blank for the skinny part, but needed a bigger base to cover the hole, which is about 1" in diameter. You can see the joint between the two, particularly in the second picture.
 
Thanks for all the kind words, guys.

Nice One Vaughn :thumb:
What tool did you hollow with?
Larry

I used the Monster Articulating Arm hollowing rig with a variety of bit and bar sizes. I used the 3/4" Monster bars when I roughed it out, then used my home made 1/2" bars for finish turning, just to try them out. The 1/2" bars are more vibration-prone, but they maneuver around the opening a little easier.
 
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