An Experiment............

Stuart Ablett

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Location
Tokyo Japan
.............OK, I've been told that this Keyaki stuff (Japanese Zelkova or "Zelkova Serrata") is turned to final size wet, then dried, then sanded and finished.

I know from experiance that when dry, turning concrete, WITH rebar would be easier than turning this stuff. :rolleyes:

I'm going to give this a whirl and see how it goes.

I turned the first bowl VERY thin, only about 2mm, so what is that, an 1/8"...:dunno:

In fact, it got below that on the bottom (again!) :eek: but this is just to see how it dries.

thin1.jpg
Getting thin! :)

thin2.jpg
Almost a funnel, could still be a lamp shade :rofl:

thin3.jpg
Some neat grain and pattern

thin4.jpg
The form is not the best, but I was looking for thin, to see how it dries
thin5.jpg

thick_side.jpg
This is the thicker one, about 1/4" thick, most of the way round

thick_bottom.jpg
The bottom is a different color because of I used the donut chuck to turn away the tennon, and in the time between finishing the outside and truning away the bottom, the wood dried that much....

thick_inside.jpg
The inside, nice grain, but there is also a branch pith, so we shall see what happens there........... :dunno:

One more thing, I'm fairly pleased with my speed, start to finish for both bowl, took me about 90 minutes, I know I'm still slow compared to experianced turners, or Pros, but I used to take me twice that for just one bowl! :eek:

I'll update these and see how they turn out.... :rolleyes: :D
 
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