| Project by scottb | posted 366 days ago | 431 views | 1 time favorited | 10 comments |  |
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This has got to be my favorite bottle stopper to date. I turned it about a week ago, and hesitated to include it in this series. First off, I wanted to keep it, and second, there was a hairline crack in the wood (far right photo). I wanted to see how it would fare (after superglueing and sanding) and giving some time to hang out in the dry dry house – to see if I’d have to repair it some more, or (gasp) turn it down smaller to hopefully pare off the imperfection, and risk loosing the entire blank – before I was comfortable offering it up to friends and family.
This rare specimen came from Karsons collection. I traded some Apple wood I liberated from a local orchards winter trimmings in return for a treasure trove of lathe worthy goodies.
From the gospel according to Karson, supplemented with some info from the web :
Desert Ironwood is a protected species. No living trees can be harvested. It grows in the Sonoran Desert in Southwest USA and Mexico. You need a federal or state permit to be able to collect the dead trees from the desert. It’s very slow growing shrub to small gnarly tree, with lots of splits and cracks and very tight growth rings. The sapwood is light yellow, the heartwood is brown with black streaks. When it is sanded it shines like no other wood I’ve ever seen and hard as a rock and heavy, It sinks in water.
I love the grain on this one, I so wanted to keep this one for myself for it’s appearance and rarity. I didn’t know what the proportion of heartwood to sapwood was going to be until I got to turning and the “landscape” in the grain revealed itself. Can be described as hard to work, I loved this wood (use a respirator though). Such a great wood to work, and the contrasting grain. Such tight growth rings from its very very slow growing habit.
This stopper is sanded super smooth, buffed even smoother, and finished with walnut oil to really bring out the woodgrain but without yellowing it further as some other oil finishes may do. As with all the other stoppers I make, this one is machined from a solid piece of stainless steel, not chrome plated that will flake off. Ever.
This is the 20th item in my 30 day project/challenge
& auction.
-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/
10 comments so far
Dusty56
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3456 posts in 580 days
posted 366 days ago
It’s not fair that you tease us with only one picture of your projects all the time ! I’m sending you a fresh roll of digital film at no charge…please make good use of it ! thank you : )
-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .
John Gray
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1748 posts in 777 days
posted 366 days ago
BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
-- Only the Shadow knows....................
Napaman
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3482 posts in 969 days
posted 366 days ago
this one is truly amazing!!! hard to believe you are on day 20!!! congrats…down hill…you are amazing!
BTW…i ordered a bunch of goodies—-stainless steel stoppers…and two different mandrels…and lots of other goodies…should get here tomorrow!!! SO i may have 20 projects this weekend, lol…THANKS FOR YOUR help, ideas and true inspiration scott!!!
-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...
scottb
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3403 posts in 1219 days
posted 365 days ago
Thanks!
thanks for the digital film dusty… I’m finally figuring out how to get good pictures out of my “photo studio” that I set up. I’ve got about 5 good photos of this one. Now it seems I’m just having trouble with the uploader (or my internet connection ‘round midnight). Almost didn’t get this posted last night ;( I’ll try to get the other pix up again after work. Then I’ll have another couple of weeks worth to snap, class photos as it were, before they head out to the lucky winners.
-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/
darryl
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1392 posts in 1218 days
posted 365 days ago
that’s a very cool selection of wood.
I like that you’ve kept the design simple to allow the wood to speak for itself.
nice work.
-- www.darrylmasterson.com ~ www.darrylmasterson.etsy.com
Karson
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25794 posts in 1292 days
posted 365 days ago
Scott glad that you find this wood so beautiful. I love it also.
The bottle stopper looks like something that you’d love to get your hands on.
For cracks like you find. I use the dust from the turning and sanding and mix it with a little epoxy and work it into the perfection. Sometimes I will use a contrasting wood to make the defect visible. Like maybe some of your Barista wood dust.
-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
rikkor
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11338 posts in 766 days
posted 365 days ago
Wow, that is so cool!
Woodhacker
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1145 posts in 615 days
posted 365 days ago
Very nice Scott. I love the contrast between the heart/sap wood.
Thanks for posting it.
-- Martin, Kansas
Dusty56
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3456 posts in 580 days
posted 365 days ago
Thank you for the extra pix : ) That wood is gorgeous !!!
-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .
jockmike2
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7297 posts in 1138 days
posted 364 days ago
Nice looking stop Scott, you’re getting very good at it.
-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com