Carved from Eastern Cedar. The split was planned and a natural part of the wood I was intending to highlight. I did a little light touch up with a carving tool to clean up the split and hand sanded/finished off the lathe (didn’t trust my hand/fingers to the split while spinning).

I appreciate feedback and critiques.

Wood: Eastern Cedar
Diameter: 6”
Height: 5”
Finish: Shellac and buffed to shine

This is a cedar bowl with a natural edge. I started off attempting to make a platter but while carving it I decided to go with more of a bowl shape. I really like the natural edge.

The finish isn’t holding and if anyone has any experience with finishing cedar bowls/patters/etc I would love to hear some recommendations!

Feedback welcome! Thanks for looking!

Wood: Red Cedar from South Carolina
Width: 15” (max)
Height: 3 1/4”
Finish: Tripole, White Diamond, wax —> Shellac Sealer/Finish & buffed with white diamond to shine

EDIT: Thanks to the great advice I refinished the cedar bowl using Shellac as a sealer and finish. I buffed it using white diamond to a high gloss finish. I put some additional wax on it but honestly it didn’t need it. This was the first time I really used shellac and I love the way it turned out!

This is the second Box Elder Bowl carved from the same crotch section of wood. This bowl’s shape was pretty much defined by the wood in the sense that large cracks formed in a “V” like shape. I played off this shape to create the red wine goblet like shape of this bowl. A fairly large crack formed near the opening of the bowl during the turning and I decided to fill it with gold dust and CA glue to slightly accent it as part of the natural character rather than turn the bowl down to avoid it.

Wood: Box Elder from North Carolina
Height: 3.5”
Width: 5”
Finish: Tri, white diamond, wax
weight: 5oz

Comment and feedback welcome! Thanks for looking!

It has been a while since I’ve posted any projects so it is time to start getting back to it.

This is a bowl carved from a crotch section of a box elder tree. The wood had been sitting outdoors for over a year and shows signs of spalting. The structure of the wood was compromised as well resulting in consistent tear outs and raised end grains. I stopped carving when the wall thickness was just under a half inch thick. To finish I sanded the bowl down to about quarter inch wall thickness with a power sander to eliminate the tears and end grain issues. I wet sanded up to 1000 grit and then buffed/polished to a shine.

Wood: Box Elder from North Carolina
Height: 4 inches
Width: 6 inches
Weight: 6 oz
Finish: Tri, white diamond, wax finish on the outside. Mylands friction wax on the inside of the bowl.

Thanks for looking!

This is our first bud vase and it is carved from pecan and inlaid with turquoise. My wife drew the “drip design” and I carved it out with a dremel. She inlaid the stone. Overall we’re happy with the results.

5.25” tall
2.75” diameter at base
Finished with Mylands friction polish

Over this weekend I had a great opportunity to work in the wood shop with my cousin who is a Florida Fire Fighter. We got to playing around with different things on the lathe when he asked, “Do you think it would be possible to make a fire hydrant?” It never occurred to me before but after a few minutes of thought the wood shavings began flying.

The smaller one stands about 3.5” tall and I didn’t measure the taller one. The two woods are Yellow Heart and Purple Heart. Both fire hydrants were done completely on the lathe.

Overall, something a little different than the normal wood turning I’m use to creating in the shop.

The bowl was first turned about 2 months ago and set aside to dry out a bit. This weekend I was able to finish turn the bowl into this final shape. Late last night Alison came up with a nice free hand starburst design to inlay in the top of bowl. This was our first attempt at free hand carving and then inlaying such a large area. We think it came out pretty nice!

Wood: Elm
Stone: Sleeping Beauty Turquoise
Measurements: 7 3/8” diameter x 3 3/8” tall
Opening: 1 1/2” diameter
Weight: 1lb 8.5oz
Finished: 3 stage buffing system (Tripoli, White Diamond, Wax)

This is our first of many bowls my wife and I created that will have a natural stone inlay. The bowl is turned from green River Birch donated from my parent’s campground up in Asheville, NC. The bowl is about 7 1/8 inches in diameter, 4 inches tall, and weighs about 1lb 1oz. The inlay was done by my wife who used Sleeping Beauty Turquoise. Finished to 800 grit sandpaper with a three stage Tripoli, white diamond, wax buffing system.

Found a really nasty, spalted, rotten, burled piece of oak unfit to be burned indoors and decided to put it on the lathe. I wasn’t really sure what shape it was going to take and if there would be anything worth saving but in the end it looks like a keeper.

The bowl measures 4.5” diameter x 3.75” tall.
Finished with a combination of mineral oil and a good deal of buffing.

A couple wine stoppers I turned out today. Each are carved from a piece of spalted wild cherry I found in our yard and had drying. The natural cracks and beetle holes were inlayed by my wife with turquoise and copper. Finished with a couple coats of Mylands.

These are some Eggoscopes carved for my kids for Easter. The middle egg is pink ivory and the two end eggs are walnut. My wife did all the stone work for the darker eggs using turquoise (blue), malachite (green), howlite (white), rhodolite (pink). Fun project and the kids love them.

Had a small piece of Box Elder that was drying in the shop. Decided to see what I could do with it and came up with this. Unfortunately it developed a small crack in the face which I repaired but other than that it came out better than I thought. Overall it was just plain fun to see how thin I could go before running into trouble.

Dish is 5 3/8” diameter by 1 3/4” tall. Finished with Mylands.

Turned this from a solid piece of American Cherry. The bowl measures 9.5” diameter by 5” tall. It is my 4th bowl and by far the largest. Compared to my last project, I spent more time in the finishing stages on this than the carving or hollowing. The bowl is finished with a few coats of Mylands on the inside and a 3 stage buffing on the outside (Tripoli, White Diamond, Wax).

Most interesting thing I found when turning this was when I started turning the cherry it was green. I rough turned it and then let it dry for about 2 weeks. While it was drying the fresh turned bowl smelled like fresh cut watermelon. Every time I walked by it while drying I had to smell the wood!

Walnut bowl turned from some firewood. This is my first small-er aperture hollow form.