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Vaughn McMillan

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I usually wait until I have a piece finished before showing it here, but I figured you guys might like seeing this one. It's a piece of curly maple that I bought from Robert Mickley in the Classified Ads here. At 19" in diameter, this one is the biggest of three I got from him. (The package was over 80 pounds.) And when he said "curly", he wasn't kidding.

Curly Maple NE Bowl Roughout 02 - 800.jpg Curly Maple NE Bowl Roughout 03 - 800.jpg

I wanted to preserve the bumpy natural edge, but I didn't have a lot of thickness to work with, so it's more of a winged platter than a bowl. (Mark Cothren got the NE bug planted in me bigtime, dang him. I've got two more big ones drying and more NE blanks waiting.)

Curly Maple NE Bowl Roughout 04 - 800.jpg Curly Maple NE Bowl Roughout 01 - 800.jpg

It's soaking in DNA now, and I'll take it down a bit thinner after it dries. Not real excited about the overall shape (I hope to tweak it a bit after it's dry), but this has got to be some of the nicest curly maple I've seen. For the last two pics, I sanded a bit with 80 grit to take out the tool marks and sprayed with water. Still real rough. When this thing gets finished up, the wood's gonna look absolutely 3-D.
 
That's going to be a knock-out when finished. The last picture gives the impression that the tenon is way katy-wumpus out of center. Are you making an eccentric or is it just the photo playing tricks?
 
Well Vaughn, if the endresult is a platter, and it seems so to me, than it will be a striking one.
 
That ain't curly maple......Those are waves in that thing.....Your are turning wet wood again Vaughn! DNA won't help .....those waves will be there forever......Gorgeous wood! Can't wait to see the finished product!
 
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Is this one of the chunks of wood that Robert found while cleaning up? :eek:
Cheers!

Actually that came from a slab from a log I sawed.
BUT theres more of it over there. Some pretty big branches fell out of that tree before I cut it down to get the log.

Vaughn, Wife said I made a mistake thats her piece of maple and she wants it back!! :rofl: :rofl:
You did good on it brother.

If you really want to feel bad theres firewood in my shop with that same exact pattern :eek: :eek:

Wife says wood talks to me since I tend to pick out the nicest stuff for bowl blanks.
I've got some BIG cherry crotches down in the yard that should yield some blanks in the 20 to 24 inch range
 
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vaughn, beautiful piece of wood and it will be fun to watch your progress. how are you going to finish it?
i ask because i am finish sanding a hard maple/walnut lidded box and i haven't turned maple before. not sure what my usual oil/varnish finish will do on maple?? will it blotch up?? i'm tempted to try a sanding sealer/wax finish like i've seen on some lidded box dvd's..knowing that wouldn't bloch. so i'm open to advice. thanks,
 
Thanks for the comments, all. I'll try to answer the various questions...

Frank, tenon looks off-center the picture, but it's just the camera playing tricks.

Gord, dunno if LOML will let this one sell, but it sounds like we may have a wifely wrestling match if Robert's wife comes over to claim "her" piece of maple. (Hey Robert...see if she'd be happy with just a bag of curlies from that piece. :p)

Clark, I'm planning to use my standard oil/varnish routine, most likely Minwax Antique Oil. Maple finishes like a dream with any of the various wipe-on finishes I've tried. I've not run into any blotchiness myself.
 
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