Taking care of a punk (pics)

Bill Grumbine

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252
Location
Kutztown PA
Well, sort of. :D The pictures below are of a punky spalted maple burl. It was so soft and cheesy that I could just about pinch chunks off to get the shape I wanted. I am not entirely happy with the finished piece, but they don't always come out the way we would like.

punkyspaltedmapleform01.jpg


This is the good side. The bad side isn't all that bad, except that it allows one to see into the interior. I soaked the thing real good with Minwax Wood Hardener, but hollowing it out still ripped it up pretty good, and there was no way I was sticking anything in there to try and sand it up!


punkyspaltedmapleform02.jpg


It is finished with Bush Oil, and that is it. It is a little dull looking, but I think it is going to stay that way - unless someone has a suggestion for me. Buffing it out, and I am not sure I have enough shellac on hand to give it a good French polish. I think it might soak it all up!

Finished size is around 7-8" in diameter and 4-5" high. I forgot to measure it before I came in to post.

Thanks for taking a look.

Bill
 
You make beautiful stuff out of wood that most would not even bother using for firewood! :thumb:

VERY nice, I like the shape and the bad side, it looks......organic...... :D

Cheers!
 
I'm with Tod...pucker is right. I think I'd want full body armor before even spinning that bad boy up. Then again, my turning muscle is not as highly developed as yours, Bill. :D I'd be interested to see how you chucked that piece up.

It looks nice, expecially considering what you had to start with. Real pretty wood, where there still was wood.
 
Thanks guys!

Glenn, it seems we think alike in some ways, since I had that exactly in mind when I was posting!

Stu, truth be told, this stuff wouldn't even burn well at this point, and we heat the house with wood. But please, tell me what you mean by organic. I have an idea, since someone on another forum likened it to dog doo. It does have that "dropped and plopped" look, doesn't it? :D

Corey, the hole was even bigger for a while, since I blew it out all the way to the top! I was able to find the piece and glue it back in though, and keep going. The glue lines are virtually invisible, even on close inspection. There is so much other stuff going on in this piece people will never notice.

There was a lot of puckering going on with this piece, and of course, the closer it gets to finished, the higher the sphincter factor. Fortunately, I am well protected with uhh, natural protection, should anything go south in a hurry. :D

Vaughn, I chucked it like a regular bowl, with a tenon on the bottom. When I flipped it, I used my vacuum chuck as a friction chuck (no vacuum was going to work here!) and turned the tenon off leaving the bottom rounded, like a southwestern pot or a Hawaiian calabash would be. I like that shape, and there are not too many others doing it that I know of.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!
 
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...........Stu, truth be told, this stuff wouldn't even burn well at this point, and we heat the house with wood. But please, tell me what you mean by organic. I have an idea, since someone on another forum likened it to dog doo. It does have that "dropped and plopped" look, doesn't it? :D ..................

Doggy do-do it ain't! :thumb:

What I mean by "Organic" is that it looks like it was grown that way, not made or manufactured.

Some turnings really show off the beauty of the wood, but they definitely look like turnings, you look at it and say "Wow, look at the beautiful grain in that bowl, or HF, or platter etc, but this, well it don't look like it was turned, it looks like you plucked it off a HF tree just like it is, know what I mean :D

Sorry, hard to put that into words, I just think the hand of the craftsman hidden is often the hardest thing to do, and I think in this piece you have done that.

Cheers!
 
...it looks like you plucked it off a HF tree just like it is, know what I mean :D...
So THAT explains it. There are hollow form trees that these guys just pluck these things off of. I just knew there was no way it was physically possible to make them on a lathe. :p

(If I had some time, I'd go Photoshop me one of them HF Trees.)
 
Thank you Stu, that is a very nice thing to say. I think I will go along with Vaughn though, and see if I can find one of those trees. We have just about every other tree here in PA so we must have one of them! :D

Bill
 
Bill, you might remember that piece andy sent me. I used the same stuff turning it, but didn't have the guts to make a HF.

Not ALL pieces need to be all bright and shiny to be beautiful. I'm sure there's someone out there that will buy and CHERISH it.


Bruce
 
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