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Cracked Ash Hollow Form

Vaughn McMillan

Vaughn McMillan

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This is a hollow form I made from another piece of my ash firewood. The blank had some cracks, but I thought I'd see if I could turn the cracks away. Ends up, I couldn't. Still think it came out pretty neat. It's 12 1/2" wide and 8 1/2" tall. I sold my biggest HF at the last show, so I wanted another big one to replace it in the display. It's finished with a single coat of polymerized tung oil, then rubbed out by hand with white synthetic steel wool and waxed with Renaissance wax. I decided to go for a little foot on this one...it's about 1 1/2" wide.

HF059 - 15 800.jpg HF059 - 13 800.jpg HF059 - 16 800.jpg HF059 - 18 800.jpg HF059 - 14 800.jpg

And if you want to see a mess of progress pics, I put them up on my blog here:

http://workingwoods.com/blog/wordpress/2010/07/23/cracked-ash/

Comments, questions, catcalls and kudos are all welcome. :wave:
 
One very cool piece for sure, I bet a lot of people will look at it and wonder how it did survive the ride :D

Looks like there might have been some stress in the wood, or wind shake etc, glad it all held together for you, hope you sell it straight away! :thumb:
 
Thanks, Stu. Yeah, it kinda looked like wind shake of some sort to me, too, but not all of it was following the growth rings, so I'm not sure.Maybe some of the timber experts here can chime in and educate me.
 
Wow and here i am messing with little knobs. Very nice.

I like the blog.:thumb::thumb::thumb: Did not know you had started it. Great move.

When i look at the sequence of production i realize you sure got an eye for seeing something in that wood.

Now question I have is what makes you choose a spur center over the base plate in this case. Any criteria you use to decide which to go for.
 
Really nice piece Vaughn. Those kind of pieces always for me anyway increase the pucker power. Really well done. Could be wind shake but really doesn't appear like it to me.
 
Thanks for the comments, guys.

Jeff Bower said:
...It looks like it must be very light with all the cracks and holes.
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It's intentionally a bit bottom heavy. I got things a little thinner than planned at the neck and collar (about 3/16" or so, but the body walls are about 1/4" to 3/8" thick. I left some extra thickness at the foot (I'm guessing about an inch) for the weight. With its little foot, I think this one will be the first on the floor in an earthquake. :rolleyes:

Rob Keeble said:
...Now question I have is what makes you choose a spur center over the base plate in this case. Any criteria you use to decide which to go for.
Click to expand...

If I'm planning on a hollow form, I like the smaller hole the spur center makes. If I had used my smallest faceplate, I'd have a 2 1/2" to 3" hole. When I started on this piece of wood I was unsure if it would be a bowl or a hollow form until I got some of it turned away. Since I was undecided, the spur center left both options open for me. I ended up hollowing this one through a 1 1/4" hole (enlarged to 1 1/2" with the final cuts and sanding).

Mohammad Madha said:
My wife would say that it is broken:rofl: ...
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Maybe that's because she's been led into believing a person is supposed to use glue when making a hollow form. :p I prefer to think of it as well-ventilated instead of broken. (Tell her Hi from me, BTW.) :wave:
 
Very nice work Vaughn! I really like the heart shaped form! Looks very balanced!

Bet this one made some noise while turning! Good job on keeping it all together! Hope it sells quickly - so you can turn another!
 
Jim Burr said:
That's a great piece!! But, and I'm sure there are more wondering...what's wind shake? :eek::eek:
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Here's a pretty good description and illustration...

http://www.answers.com/topic/wind-shake

Another similar cracking problem is called ring shake.

Wood (especially branches) can also get similar cracks from stresses that happen when the tree is felled.

In the process of looking some of this up, I found this site...great glossary:

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_glossary.htm
 
Very nice Vaughn. I’d be skeered to death to stick a tool into a hole that narrow let alone try wood with that many cracks in it. You are an artist!
 
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