Here’s a pretty unique piece of English Walnut. It was a from a tree that was harvested across the street from our shop. This particular piece was near the graft line giving it a really unique coloring for English Walnut (We graft English Walnut to black walnut for bug resistance here in California). The wood was stored in a shed for close to 10 years, so by the time I got to it the spalting had worked its magic just enough to add the dark streaks and a few creamy white pockets as well. Its about 10” x 3”, and was finished with heated mineral oil n beeswax, buffed to what you see here. Hope ya like it, thanks for looking!

Here is the first of a run of ornaments for some local craft fairs that start next month. The top and bottom finials are Walnut and the bulb is Redwood Burl from Mendocino CA. The bulb is hollowed to roughly 1/8”. The finials are attached to the bulb with titebond 3 and a small tennon that fits the 7/8” hole in the bulb. I added a small eye hook to hang it, rather than drilling a hole through the top finial for ribbon or string, seems a little neater that way.I finished with Boiled linseed oil and then lacquer once the oil had cured. Ive seen hundreds made, and thought they seemed simple enough, and they are once you get the process down, but a challenge none the less. They keys are ratio and bulb shape. Ive noticed the more perfectly rounded shapes are harder than an oblong bulb, but that may just me personally. I had a hard time getting a perfect globe shape with figured wood.

This was my first hollow form, turned from Spalted Black Oak. I didn’t get a very good shot of the dark spot that you can vaguely see in the 1st picture, the main spalted area (of coarse). But I was happy it came out so well for my 1st. I used a spindle gouge to shape the outside. A round nose scraper to rough out the inside, And the easy wood tools full size hollow tool (Ci3 i believe). I didnt have a way at the time to reverse or jamb chuck it to add finishing details to the bottom, so it is just perfectly flat. The inside is finished, but only sanded to 180 grit, and that seems adequate. Its about 5” tall and about 3.5 wide.Thanks for looking.

( P.S. I added a picture of the place where all the magic happens :P )

A rustic Cedar and Pine chair we made for a craft fair display. The seat back was carved into the uppermost log, which was the most challenging part of the project. Made with all 2” round mortis and tennon. Finished with poly, and beaten for 14 weeks at the Grass Valley, California, Thursday Night Market. Thanks for looking.

Heres a few stoppers I made for my sisters friend. They are opening a winery apparently, and thought these would be a cool gift idea for their customers. They are made from Maple Burl, Figured Black Walnut, Spalted English Walnut and Birdseye Maple (with dyed red beads). This was the first time Ive ever made more than say a few at a time. It was fun playing with different shapes and experimenting with the dyes n a little paint. All are sprayed with lacquer. Still have 2 more to make of the cork screw type. The additional pictures of some that I think turned out pretty good. Thanks for looking!

My first try at turning ambrosia maple, and it turned really nice. The Bowl is about 8” wide and a lil more than 2 inches tall. Finished at 800 grit and treated with hot beeswax and mineral oil, and buffed out to what you see here. I left a few beetle tunnels near the rim of the bowl, to signify the cause of ambrosia maple, and highlight the woods natural beauty. Thanks for looking, hope you like it!

This is my first segmented piece, Ive been gluing up rings for awhile now but I dont have a drum sander (until next week) . I trued this piece up by mounting it on a waist block with hot glue and holding a true board with a strip off an old sanding belt glued to it, on top of the tool rest until the straight edge sat flat across the ring. Its about 14” by about 4”, finished with mineral oil and beeswax.

Here’s a little Birch spoon made mostly on the lathe, the bowl of the spoon was carved with the dremel. Sanded smooth and finished with mineral oil and beeswax. The black lines were burnt with copper wire. We got the wood from a neighbor who had the tree laying in his yard over a week.Thanks for looking, this was a fun little project.

Well this is probably my best work yet as far as form goes. I started turning in January, and have practiced almost daily. This isn’t the prettiest wood I’ve used, and in fact, it was the first time I used poplar at all. I was shocked to see how much figure was hiding in there. I never really thought of poplar as a high figure wood, but alas.. The finish is mineral oil and beeswax melted and applied hot, allowed to cool and buffed to what you see here. Thanks for looking.