Curly Crotch Wood Natural Edge?

Vaughn McMillan

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This is from a crotch piece of red ironbark eucalyptus...more of my office haul. Dunno if this qualifies as a natural edge piece, since I did shape the bark, but it's definitely from the edge of the tree. I got nervous about blowing up the bark, so I used about an ounce of CA glue to harden the bark section a bit. I did get a bit of a flat spot where the bark takes a plunge down the side, but I think the wood makes up for my poor sanding skills. I initially left a bark collar on it about 1/4" tall, but the design committee (LOML and I) decided the collar had to go.

It's about 8" wide by 5 1/2" tall, sanded to 600 grit, finished with my standard Formby's Tung Oil, tripoli, white diamond, and Renaissance wax. (Actually, I still need to wax this one. I had the photo tent set up already so I figured it looked good enough to shoot.)

HF028 - 01 800.jpg HF028 - 05 800.jpg HF028 - 02 800.jpg HF028 - 07 800.jpg

Lemme know what you think -- good, bad, or indifferent -- and thanks for looking. :wave:
 
...Boy, I'd be terrified to buff the top of that! I'd be afraid to get the wheel caught in one of those voids...
Buffing the bark wasn't too scary. It's pretty firm with all the CA in it, but I still was very careful wwhile buffing it. I only used tripoli on the bark though...the white diamond compound would have made a mess with all the little voids in the bark. (Little white dots would be everywhere.) ;)

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

P.S. Ned, it'll be for sale in a few months when I try to get into a few art shows. (I'm working to build up some stock for sale, so I've been turning a lot.) I think this piece will end up somewhere between $200 and $300.
 
That's a real beauty Vaughn! I saw this first while looking at the pictures on WOW and knew it was yours without reading the description. Between that beautiful red eucalyptus and your classic HF shape I knew it had to be a signature McMillan piece. You did a perfect job with the bark too. Like I said, that's a real beauty!
 
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