mulberry burl bowl

Clark O'Neill

Member
Messages
177
Location
Decatur, Illinois
another potpourri bowl...hope you're all not getting sick of me already.

this is a piece of mulberry burl for which i had no expectations. shavings looked yellow and the wood tone is not pleasant to me. my wife, however, liked the color...go figure.

we feed hummingbirds in the summer so the pewter top fits our interests. this one is only 1/8" thick (i'm getting bolder with cheap wood), 5"dia x 3.5" high. finished in maloof oil/varnish after wet sanding with micro mesh, then beall buff w/wax only.

i'm really liking micro mesh sanding. i cannot tell the difference after oiling vs after waxing. the surface sheen seems the same without the wax. i assume the wax will add some protection and can be renewed so i do it anyway.
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Looks like another winner from here. :thumb: Wood, form, finish, and pics all look good to me.

Did the mulberry smell bad when you turned it? I turned some green mulberry a few nights ago (and least I think it was mulberry), and it smelled like fresh turnips.
 
vaughn, no did not smell but the blank was dry (for a change) so that probably made a difference. i did a little bit of turning or sanding without the triton ventilation system and it seemed to bother me...maybe allergic to mulberry. in any case, i'm not going to save a minute in the future by not putting on the equipment.
 
Clark, very nice figure once again in the wood. No we aren't getting tired of you at all. We love pictures of beautiful work. :thumb:
 
Looks good from here. The yellow color is interesting. I just got back from a friends house where he used his big bandsaw to make a large hunk of mulberry into a (large) bowl blank for me. It is a very old piece of wood, when he cut, the inside fresh cut wood is sorta purple color. Not even close to yer yellow.
 
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