Curly Sweet Gum - flirting with disaster

Nicest piece of figure I got out of the sweet gum I scored last summer. This one was right in the crotch area of the tree and has some really nifty swirl and depth, I'd have expected the other side to have been similar but it wasn't

Sweet gum 11" x 2" with a wall pretty consistently 1/8 (might be off 1/64 here or there) - I left a small bump in the middle on the inside so I could carry the same thickness throughout and have a small recess in the bottom so it wouldn't rock - that also yielded some (unexpected but nice) change of shadows/light on the bottom. Weighs about 6.5 oz for the whole thing! When I was finish turning the center part it would pop and crackle as it came up to speed and pulled itself back round a little.

now that is some sweet wood and the bowl aint bad either ryan oh like the setting you took the picture in as well!!

I see sweet gum trees around here some... used to have one in my yard in Texas that I hated... the spikey balls made one heck of a projectile out of the lawn mower... tough on the feet if you're bare-foot too.

Haven't had an opportunity to get any for turning, but I do keep looking. I'm working a walnut tree that a lady offered me last fall... it was growing next to a horse lot and every so often the wood will smell like the horse lot... funny how sometimes woods will pick up odors from where they grew.

Love what you did with the wood... very nice grain and good looking bowl.

Chuck Ellis said:

I see sweet gum trees around here some... used to have one in my yard in Texas that I hated... the spikey balls made one heck of a projectile out of the lawn mower... tough on the feet if you're bare-foot too.

Haven't had an opportunity to get any for turning, but I do keep looking. I'm working a walnut tree that a lady offered me last fall... it was growing next to a horse lot and every so often the wood will smell like the horse lot... funny how sometimes woods will pick up odors from where they grew.

Love what you did with the wood... very nice grain and good looking bowl.

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Thanks Chuck, I generally wouldn't get to excited about sweet gum compared to a lot of the other stuff you get there, the walnut will be almost certainly nicer to turn. Its a bit fussy and prone to tear out comparatively. Not junk wood but not premium wood either imho.

Love that shape Ryan...finish is beautiful!

Jim Burr said:

Love that shape Ryan...finish is beautiful!

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Thanks Jim - its just wiping varnish but I put on about 6 coats which starts to get a bit of depth on it

Any chance u can show a detailed image of a bit of the edge you have on this piece.? I am interested to see the profile close up.
Would make a lovely fruit bowl.

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Here you go Rob, taken with the camera phone inside under horrid light so I hope you can see it

There isn't a lot of anything to profile there actually, the outside comes up following the curve right to the edge and the inside cuts out maybe 1/8" back to give it a wee bit of a transition point. The edge is moderately sharp, maybe 1/64 wide.

Very nice, Ryan!