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In a previously posted project and forum call to experienced bowl-turners, I referenced finding some red-stained box elder logs at my sister-in-law's outdoor wedding in Chicago. I prevailed on the woman that we carpooled with and several log sections hitched a ride back to Omaha. I gave wet-turning a go, and the German in me just could not live with allowing nature's plan to free-form warp. From now on out I will either season the logs (three halves are split and stickered with latex painted ends in the garage for the next go) or wet turn to way over-sized proportions before allowing the drying process to commence. I don't have cole jaws for my mini-lathe, and the dovetail recess I made was warped out of round, so I super-glued a dowel tenon to the middle of the rough turned bowl and re-turned the outside of the bowl, including a new recess. I knocked out the dowel and re-turned the inside. With not great tools and even poorer sharpening skills, it seems that I had a fair amount of sanding to do to get things to the final juncture. This mini-bowl, is the end result. But I will try, try again down the road. Finish is Myland's cellulose sanding sealer, with a final application of Myland's High Build Friction Polish.

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Here is what the wet bowl looked like.

tightbowl
 

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Douglas that is how you learn - try, then try again. Perfect size bowl for a small salad :)). The wood is beautiful and the bowl look good.
 

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Douglas, I've only turned wet once. It was fun, but the result never saw the light of day.

Your small bowl is very nice; quite delicate looking and a beautiful color.
 

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end result: Beautiful!!!
 

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Douglas, what I know about wet turning youcould put in your ear and have room left over for your hat. The bowl looks neat and trim and the color is very unique. i don't think you hurt yourself here.
 

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Great Bowl, Handy for some dainty rose petals.
 

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just trying to fis something, sorry
 

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Thanks folks.

Karson, that is a very poetic sentiment! Now I'll have to give it to the wife and I have the perfect presentation.

I held it up to the light to see if it would transilluminate (you can see the light through the bottom). But specifically you can see all the way through that little knot. Tiny little hole there. Perfect for the dry measure of rose petals!
 

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I salute you, Douglas! Great job on your first try at turning green wood. You'll find that it always looks fuzzy when turned green, too. I've turned a lot of things, but haven't made a saucer or bowl. :^( Keep up the great work and work on those sharpening skills. They are very important in turning. You may want to look into the Scary Sharp way of sharpening…it uses different grades of sandpaper, instead of stones that are glued with adhesive(spray) onto a piece of acrylic or other smooth flat surface. It works well. In the furture…save some of your shavings and/or dust from sanding…this way you can fill that hole with a little Titebond and saw dust, then just sand it flush after it dries, thus eliminating the hole while matching the color of the original wood by using it's own dust/shavings.
 

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Very nice Doug. I'd like that on my desk to hold stuff.

One of these days I'll actually try my hand. I like the idea of turning green wood.
 

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Thanks Oscorner! I do the scary-sharp on my plane irons, and have one side of auto safety glass lined with P 80, backside ramps through the grits up to P3000 with Japanese auto body paper. I never considered honing the skews, gouges and scrapers. I've been on the net looking at Alan Lacer's posted material. If I ever get seriously dedicated to bowl work I'll consider getting a good grinder and a Wolverine or Oneway jig. The thing that really gets my goat, I have a super Ashley Iles 3/4˝ oval skew that I have butchered up trying to sharpen. Maybe I need to try and sell some pens or other projects to foot the bill. So many tools, so little money.

Since Dan Walters has shown up, I had the thought that maybe we should have a LJ consortium-store on eBay. I can't see any of us buying from each other, perhaps it's time we showcase our things to the unsuspecting public. Just a thought. I might have to swing over to the coffee lounge and post this.
 

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Doug, just awesome! I'd love to get my hands on some box elder.
 

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Great job on the bowl. The color of box elder is incrediable.
 

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Excellent proportions, and little knotholes like that can add a lot of character to a bowl. Good job!
 

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beautiful piece.
love the wood.
great design.
 

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Great looking bowl Doug. I think you did a great job. I through away 2 for every good looking bowl I make. Keep up the good work. jockmike
 

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Doug, one of the first things I did when I started turning was to buy another turners work. I chalked it up to 'priming the pump'. Sold $220+ worth of pens to a single customer last week and often go beyond $100 per ticket. That won't make me rich … but it gooses the steady trickle of onesies / twosies and keeps the credit card payments up so I can buy more 'stuff'. ;-)

My bowls are at http://nmwoodworks.com/cube/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=9&ccSIDb4c410adddf67168ce2ac0e2807326f8=efd583850f075807accc5d83494b0878
(mind the wrap)

You can look without buying. ;-)
 

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Fellas, having just walked away from an unscheduled 11 hour day at work, and coming home to a raft of supportive comments like this is a treat. Thanks so much. I had only read about boxelder in FWW, and seen this bowl on FWW.com.
Glorious stuff.

Bill I have never seen CubeCart. Tell us more, and BTW great variety of beautiful bowls you have there, hope more LJs show up to visit.
 

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Douglas - I really like the way this turned out and it was fun following this from the beginning! The form, figure, and color are all really interesting and pleasing to look at! Overall, this piece (in some way) is reminiscent of abalone.
 
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