closer!

Actually completed this vessel from very wet sawtooth oak. Three to five coats of BLO inside and out over a few days, minor checking, a little CA and more sanding. The weather has been right, I'm not running air conditioning or heat so this has been drying inside on the shelf wrapped loosely in a hospital scrub cloth. This old home is well insulated and I get very slow temperature changes. Looked good for three days, . . . . fourth day, gloom, despair, excessive misery! Not really, laughing as I type but this was the first one nice enough I planned to sign and date it if it survived drying.

Oh well, they are getting better with almost every attempt. (I didn't really apply the spices to try seasoning the vessel, wanted to see how the wood would look against my black stove top.)

hu

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Looks good! Looks like a good candidate for filling in the crack with crushed turquoise or something.

Ha, Gloom despair, agony on me, deep dark depression and excessive misery... We must be from the same era.
 
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Looks like you tried and end grain rotated 90* HU...very tough to pull off! Great job of keeping the bark on as that is usually the weakest point.
 
I like the shape on this one, nice even curves and the cuts all look clean even. I'd say you're getting it down pretty good! :thumb:

Yah anytime you have a pith penetration your odds of a crack go waaay up. If you can get a piece big enough to avoid the very center of the log the survivability seems to go way up. Now this is from having done like 3 natural edge bowls that survived so insert a giant grain of salt :D The couple I did that I liked and that survived I ended up making kind of serendipitously as I was cutting around flaws and they "just ended up that way" so I haven't figured out a consistent formula either yet :D Consistent wall thickness seems to help as well (as do thin walls - they warp more but thats kinda fun as well - I have a small ~4"- flat bottom bowl I made that ended up being pretty darn oval - and some how the bottom stayed pretty much flat :huh:).
 
Paul,

Yep, if you instantly flash to Hee-Haw when you hear or read pieces of that line, we are probably pretty close in age!

I'm thinking I might try to repair the vessel someday. Gonna just let it sit on the shelf and see what it does. No real surprise, one side is bending more than the other and I don't have any epoxy or filler on hand so it may not be fixable by the time I get a roundtuit.

To everyone,

I was aware of the evils of the pith. I used every bit of what was I guess I would call a branch trunk, it started low to the ground and went up nearly vertical. Probably had the evils of reaction wood to further reduce my odds of it surviving but the powerline crew cut it down not thirty feet from my lathe. What else could a wood turner do but turn?:) I could have turned some really tiny things or as I tried to do, center the pith and get some wood all the way around it as I have heard recommended. Might have worked had I gotten it a little thinner, maybe the piece was born to die.

Working on the barn the last few days, I have an itch to turn. Maybe this afternoon. Been watching a lot of Lyle Jamieson video, he of Jamieson hollowing tool fame. He does things a little differently than most and I want to give it a try. Y'all think I am ready to try a torso?:D Naah, just want to try roughing a bit differently than I have been doing.

Hu
 
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