Bodark Burl Natural Edge Bowl

Dave Hoskins

Member
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5,252
Location
Parker County, Texas
I turned this bowl during the course of the day. I liked the combination of burl and natural edge to it. The burl mainly shows on the base but you can see it on the bottom of the inside. Also there is a pithy area, though small on the side that I firmed up with some superglue. Wonderful stuff. The bowl is 8 1/2" in diameter, 3" high, and 2" deep. The wood was sealed with walnut oil and polished with a walnut oil/shellac mixture. The base may look at bit on the rocky side but it is quite solid. Thanks for looking!
 
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Hi Ryan! With this bowl, there was no real need to do anything for the bark. This bowl has the crust layer that's between the bark and the cambium layer. With this I just hand rubbed in some walnut oil and that was that. Then while spinning, rubbed in the walnut oil/shellac finish. With bowls with the bark on them, I use regular superglue in a bead running the full expanse along the bark on both the inside and the outside. When I do the final sanding you can't see the glue. Using the liquid, it saturates into the bark well. Take care.
 
Neat bowl with a 'rugged' look. How many times did you have to resharpen turning that? ;) Despite it's hardness, I enjoy making things from Bodark a/k/a Osage Orange and about 99 other names. You do realize, I hope, that it will turn walnut dark brown from exposure to light.
 
Yes, Frank. It turns color after so long. I call it burnt orange, but I am not great with colors. On the resharpening. For a smaller project like this, I usually don't have to resharpen. Just have them sharp at the start. I did use all of my bowl gouges. I did the initial roughing with the 3/4", then down to the 5/8, and the rest with the 1/2", Some small stuff on the base I did with the 3/8". I use Hamlets and they hold their edge real well with the harder woods. I actually like them better than Crowns or Sorby's. I don't use the easy tool stuff. I'm a bit more traditional. Thanks everybody for the comments.
 
That was a good sized tree to get an 8" bowl from... we didn't normally see them that sized when I was down that way... My step father did have a huge one in his cow lot though... not certain how big it was, but I took a few limbs from it that were over 3 1//2" diameter... couldn't reach the bigger ones closer to the trunk.... the main trunk was used as the gate post for his lot... he swung an 8 or 10 foot gate off of it.

When he was farming, my dad cut every Bodark he could find for pence posts. He put them in the ground green because after they dried, you couldn't drive a staple into them.
 
Hi Chuck! This came from a branch. The main trunk was about 32" in diameter. When you find bodarks in wet areas, they will be pretty good sized like most other trees. I have seen them in this area as big as 4' diameter. Wish I could have gotten that one. It was offered to me but I didn't have heavy enough of equipment to move it once I had it down. I have the saws to take a tree like that down, but in that particular case I would have needed an 18 wheeler flat bed and a large Cat track loader to move it. Oh, well.
 
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