Two weeks ago, on a whim, I got home after work, sliced off a piece of smaller branch from my large pile of smaller Jacaranda branches (~2.5”-3” dia.), and turned a bark-rimmed goblet.
Sorry for the gratuitous lighting :)
Let’s fly into it…
The inside is smooth, and today, 15 days of air-drying on my dining room table later, it still has no checks, even around the pith inside, or on the bottom of the base!
Here’s my hand for some better scale, with the rest of the branch whence came this goblet’s blank:
And now, some closeups of the feathery texture I got from the 1/2” Sorby Spindlemaster, which I used mostly laying flat, instead of on edge, making knife-like slices while riding, bevel-on-part as it is meant to be used (though I did this, too, as seen wherever you see a very thin slice at the junction of 2 separate sections:
Note the chipout around the pedestal under the cup – very hard to avoid in this very soft wood:
I got a little chipout on the rim, too – again, very hard to completely avoid without preparing the blank first somehow. The dark, cambial layer makes the rim stand out rather boldly:
Extreme closeups…
I like the moss on the bark here:
Some raked lighting across the inside curvature:
Two different lightings of the same shot here (turned overheads off for second one):
Something of note to me in the previous shots, and in the cup design in general is that the cup feels a little too large for the stem, but moreover, viewed from higher angles, the ornamentation at the base of the cup – just above the stem – begins to disappear. The stem starts to appear to simply jut out from the cup’s bottom, with no connecting decoration. I’d like to try this idea again, but I’d like to leave the cup proper a bit shorter, elongate the pedestal under the cup, and lessen the angle at which it recedes toward its bottom, make the stem longer, and reduce the size of the decoration above the foot. I had intended the top of that bit to be convex, like the inverted version of it under the cup, but I got to playing with the Spindlemaster, making that convex curve the ‘right’ way, and forgot later to bring it back to convex, as I’d had it previously (though far too big at that point).
Anyway, two last shots in mood lighting of the cup seen at a better angle for the stem/cup pedestal, with and without hand for scale reference.
I plan to put a slightly thick layer of shellac on it, then apply enough coats of wipe-on-poly to bring the surface up to completely smooth, polished to a shine. This will contain and hopefully flaunt the deep, feathery texture under a kind of bar-top finish, hopefully allowing light and shadow to play interestingly across it. The shellac should deepen the shimmer that Jacaranda secretly holds.
-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator
16 comments so far
TopamaxSurvivor
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3044 posts in 573 days
posted 92 days ago
Sure looks like it will take a lot of wipe on poly to smooth it up. Go for it!! Let’s see how it comes out :-))
-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.
scrappy
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1641 posts in 327 days
posted 92 days ago
Looks great Gary! I like the way the spindlemaster textured this. Allways nice to play with the new toys!
Great job.
Scrappy
-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!
littlecope
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602 posts in 399 days
posted 92 days ago
Looks like you’re having a blast Gary, with all your new equipment! Nice Work!
I was actually thinking of you yesterday…Went up the Folk’s house to do the lawn, but Mom had asked me to trim the hedges too, cut them from 6’ to 3’, and narrowed the 100’ row from maybe 7’ wide to 3’. By hand. It had grown too thick for the electric trimmer. Not sure of the species (could have used your help there!) but when I was finished I had a small mountain of thin, green, hardwood trimmings, thought “Where’s that Fixler guy to haul all these piles away?” :)
I should have taken some pictures, but I peeled the bark from one of the pieces to check the wood out and it was some of the whitest wood I’ve ever seen, lighter even than Maple…Probably good for a few pens or something…You’ve got my mind wondering if there’s anything I can do with it…:)
-- Mike in Manchester, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.
mmh
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1385 posts in 619 days
posted 92 days ago
Very nice! Could you have sanded the goblet while still on the lathe? Or, is this wood too soft? The grain is quite beautiful. It’s a shame is a soft wood. Otherwise, I’d be hounding you for a trade.
-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe
Gary Fixler
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648 posts in 279 days
posted 92 days ago
Topamax – Yeah, I’m hoping the shellac pics up the slack a lot there! It’s a 2lbs cut, so pretty thick, and it dries fast.
Scrappy – Keep in mind that it was using the Spindlemaster the wrong way that imparted this texture. I’ll have to see how using it the right way fares next.
Mike – They weren’t some kind of holly hedges, were they? That’s the only extremely white wood I know so far. Here's an example, with ebony details. This page also has holly used in many different turnings. You can see how milky white it is. I’m hoping to get my hands on some one day. My parents have about 30 acres in S. Jersey now, mostly woods, and there are tons of hollies throughout it, so I might have to scout around for one on my holiday trip home this year.
mmh – yeah, way too soft. It was already wobbling quite a lot, and I could easily have broken the stem at its thin point. It was also still really wet. This wood is like a sponge. Sanding wet wood is a nightmare. It just immediately gums the paper up in a couple of rotations. Jacaranda is somewhere between wood and foam. It’s possible to casually chip a huge chunk off.
-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator
TopamaxSurvivor
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3044 posts in 573 days
posted 91 days ago
GAry, that Holly bowl doesn’t look like wood. More like ceramic or plastic!! :-(
-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.
lew
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4496 posts in 652 days
posted 91 days ago
WOW!!
littlecope
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602 posts in 399 days
posted 91 days ago
No, definitely not Holly, I’m familiar with that…
I’ll try to get some pictures later on…(Should have done that Yesterday, darn it!) :-(
-- Mike in Manchester, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.
Innovator
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3125 posts in 310 days
posted 91 days ago
Gary, nice work on the goblet. I have never tried to turn from a branch and leave the pith in the project. I was always affraid of it cracking. I need to give it a try.
Thanks again.
-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!
MsDebbieP
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14162 posts in 1058 days
posted 91 days ago
that is awesome. I love that edge and the moss really makes it a piece of art. SWEET
-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
reggiek
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717 posts in 167 days
posted 91 days ago
Gary….now you’re cooking….very nice….actually the grain tear out gives it a different light and an interesting texture…even if unintended…
Two ways to avoid tear out is to use very-very sharp tools and to use almost 90 degree angle on the tool…its more like scraping then cutting….you can read the reason on this by looking at high angle planes….they make very high angle knives for the softer more figured woods and this relieves the tear out on those items. I usually run a skew or scraper that way after forming in order to reduce the amount of sanding I have to do later…
Just like any form of woodworking….it takes some trial and error…to find what works. Even with all the books, videos…etc…I still like to try different techniques…methods to see what happens….but I also read alot to insure that I know what things should be tried…and what things are better not tried…experience is a big help there….
All in all you are getting nice results…..keep it up….
-- Woodworking.....My small slice of heaven!
TopamaxSurvivor
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3044 posts in 573 days
posted 91 days ago
littlescope, what do you mean?? Don’t turn holly??
-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.
littlecope
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602 posts in 399 days
posted 91 days ago
Topomax, what do you mean?? Did I miss something? I was just saying the shrubs were not holly…
-- Mike in Manchester, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.
mtkate
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664 posts in 222 days
posted 91 days ago
really really cool. You people keep pressing the point that the next toy should be a lathe.
TopamaxSurvivor
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3044 posts in 573 days
posted 91 days ago
I didn’t realize you were Mike in the question about your shurbs being holly. Another Sr moment ;-)
-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.
a1Jim
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16978 posts in 474 days
posted 91 days ago
Hey Gary cool goblet unique
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon