I really needed to clean up my desk at work, so I grabbed a pice of cherry ranch off my shelf and started turning. As the bark flew off, so did a lot of dust! Stopping the lathe, I noticed that the wood had serious worm damage. I considered scrapping it for another piece, but then I decided to carry on and use the worm holes as a “feature”. I think it looks pretty neat.

Finish is Danish Oil and poly applied under friction on the lathe.

Last weekend, my wife announced that she needed a gift for a friend. She was in a hurry too! After 40 minutes at the lathe, I brought this wine stopper upstairs. Apparently it was a big hit with her friend.

Wood is British Columbia Dogwood, which, incidentally, is our Provincial flower as well. It turned very vicely and was a pleasure to work with.

It’s good to have a few of these glued up and ready to turn for situations just like this one. Very quick little gifts that have that personal touch.

A fellow LumberJock and buddy of mine and I salvaged some enormous pieces of European Beech from the sidewalk in front of the old Telus Buildig in Victoira. We were nearly popping our spines lifting some 5 foot sections of trunk into my truck. Later that night we bucked them into managable lenths, sawed them down the middle vertically, and sealed the ends. I’m just getting around to rough turning them now.

The blank you see on the lathe is about 15” in diameter, and weighs nearly 40 pounds. There was a fair number of bark inclusions in this wood, which is great of the look I am trying to create, but challenging (for me anyway) to turn. In the last picture, you can see the outside shape.

Turning these rough was the easy part. As they dry they will become harder and the bark inclusions will become more stressed. I expect to lose a few to cracking, but hey, nothing is perfect.