Desert Ironwood Hollow Form

Vaughn McMillan

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This little HF is about 4" wide and 4 1/2" tall. It's some of the desert ironwood I got last spring from a guy that I met at one of the art shows. Aside from a couple bottle stoppers, this is the first "real" piece I've turned from it. The whole log (I'm guessing 150+ pounds) was hollow most of the way though and pretty badly checked. Some spots are pretty crumbly, but if it stays together it finishes out nicely. The voids are places where the walls just crumbled away...they weren't there when I started. I ended up getting a bit of the wall thinner than I'd planned, so I went ahead and made the whole thing that thin. It's about 1/16" thick all the way down the sides, and about 3/8" to 1/2" on the bottom. I was shooting for a Pueblo Indian look, and I think I got what I was looking for.

This has no finish on it...just sanded to 600 then buffed with tripoli and Don Pencil's PL compound, followed up with Renaissance wax.

HF055 - 03 600.jpg HF055 - 04 600.jpg HF055 - 05 600.jpg

This one will be a gift to the guy who sold me the wood. He's coming to the show tomorrow to pick it up, so I figured I should get it photographed tonight.

I forgot to take any progress pics, but here are a couple shots of the blank I started with. You can see where I drilled a 1" hole to hold the spur center while I was roughing it out.

HF055 - 06 600.jpg HF055 - 07 600.jpg

Comments and critiques are welcome, of course -
 
looks like yu need more practice vaughn this has holes in it,, and you might be able to start making lamp shades now yu got 1/16th walls down pat.. wow vaughn i have got some of that iron wood as well and its crumbly.. beautiful color on that and it surelooks indian to me.. its heavy stuff to huh, how did it cut on the lathe it seems to be hard on edges..
 
Vaughn one look at that piece and I was reminded of the words from a local add where a little girl speaks. No typing would convey the tone and punctuation but i can type the words.

"Now thats simply beautiful...:thumb:"

Of all the turnings we get to see here i find i am drawn to the darker woods, maybe its their earthy tones.

Man i can only imagine how sharp your tools must have been to cut that log. Real nice shape and i like the holes.


Hey Vaughn what would show up in a piece like that if you put a light bulb inside and switched it on. Are the walls thin enough to get any light shining through? Thats a piece i would love to see in real life. Dont think the picture does it justice.
 
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Vaughn, that is a nice HF. I like the shape and the wood. I like that fact that you have shown the blank before turning. I am going to try to remember to do that on one of mine. :rolleyes:
 
I like how yours turned out. Makes me think about a pc i got from a friend awhile back when i took that vessel turning class - He gave me a pc of ironwood that he was going to throw out because of the crumbling on the sides. I think im going to try it myself now after seeing how yours turned out. I put it the side and didnt know if i was ever going to use it because of the punky areas and crumbling. I think ill try to stiffen it up and turn it now that i see yours.........looks great........Dan
 
Vaughn - well worth the wait!

Beautiful piece that looks like it belongs in a museum collection of Southwest artifacts! You have an amazing finish on this considering it is only buffed! The guy receiving this should be extremely happy! Hopefully - he will come up with some more of this wood for you!

Nice work! Thanks for sharing!
 
Vaughn, Never had the pleasure of handling any Desert Ironwood but that density of that little piece conveys the impression that it's a hard subject to work, certainly holds a good finish.
 
Thanks for the comments, guys.

Pete, I usually consider a "finish" to be either a membrane like lacquer or varnish, or a penetrating oil like BLO or tung oil. I don't really count wax as a finish, but in reality I guess it is. ;)

Rob, it's dense enough wood that even as thin as it is, the only light shining through it would be through the voids. As far as I know, wood needs to be a light color in order to be translucent. I've not heard of any dark woods like that.

To those who asked...this wood was surprisingly easy to cut and turn. In its log form, it did dull my chainsaw pretty quickly (after about 3 or 4 cuts, it needed sharpening), but my bandsaw didn't seem to have a problem cutting it and it responds very nicely to sharp turning tools. And it sands wonderfully. Any tool marks sanded out quickly, and it didn't take very long at all to work through the grits from 120 to 600.

BTW, the recipient of this HF got it today, and he was very pleased. :)
 
Nice one Vaughn! I haven't attempted a HF from DIW yet, but I have a blank waiting for me when I feel like getting really dirty and dusty:eek:. The first few things I turned out of ironwood I simply put wax on as a finish cause it polishes up so nice. But I have noticed that the wood tends to quickly ,(from oxidation I assume) darken and loose a lot of the color it has this way. I now use a membrane finish of poly or laquer to better preserve the color. Dont really like it, but decided it was a compromise that was worth it. Just something I have learnt.
 
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