Beetle kill Pine Burl

This was an interesting find. A friend brought me several Pine Burls to make bowls out of, and one of them was also nicely decorated by Pine Beetle Larva. What made this turning interesting were the 3 bark inclusions that were fairly equally spaced, but also had cracks at each end of them. These had to be stabilized to keep the top from trying to spread on the lathe. When I first started, I thought I was just going to end up with a mess on my shop floor, but I ended up with a rather unique bowl. I left the walls thicker than usual to bring out the effect of the bark. It is 8” tall and 9 1/2” in diameter.

All the cracks were filled with Turquoise Inlace.

The finish is lacquer.

None of the other burls had more than 1 or 2 worm holes in them.

If you haven’t ever turned a green pine bowl, the sap in pine makes one heck of a mess, and this piece had an abundance.

-- No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow your progress, you're still way ahead of everyone who isn't trying.