challenging little vase

[Tony_a]

I've had a few crotch blanks that have have appeared solid on the sides but on further investigation have bark down the middle almost to the junction of the original two twigs. Have thrown a couple out and chopped others up looking for the feather wood. Then for a bit of a challenge I thought of trying the following.
Vase is turned from blackwood, 230 mm high and rim is 140 mm wide, finished with Danish Oil and buffed with Shellawax EEE.



As always comments welcome.

Tony

[bodrighywood]

Nice little piece. OIf you turn the outside to completion including sanding eyc then wrap firmly with cling film you can turn the inside both safely and with little or no flexing. Just a thought for the next one LOL.

Pete

[hughie]

Good advice Tony. The bark inclusions are fairly common with the Blackwood I have and in some I have filled them with clear resin to hold them together.
But they look good and are still intact, well done . 

[Bryan Milham]

I like it. The crack gives it a lot of character, I just hope that it does not move too much in the summer and break itself apart from the inset base.

[Tony_a]

Nice little piece. OIf you turn the outside to completion including sanding eyc then wrap firmly with cling film you can turn the inside both safely and with little or no flexing. Just a thought for the next one LOL.

Pete

Thanks for the comments Pete. I will give the cling film a go at when the chance arrives.  The piece was solid on one side before I started turning and this wood does not split easily. Initially turned between centres to square up the ends then screwed a face plate on to the mouth end, Drilled a 50 mm hole into the base glued in a plug then turned a tenon and roughed the outside. Glued a tenon onto the mouth then used that to run the steady rest and hollowed through the mouth tenon.  It took a fair amount of hand finishing.

Tony

[Tony_a]

Good advice Tony. The bark inclusions are fairly common with the Blackwood I have and in some I have filled them with clear resin to hold them together.
But they look good and are still intact, well done . 

Thanks Hughie, resin would have made turning easier but I liked the idea of the natural bark edges and it seemed like a challenge to keep it all together with minimal alteration to the piece.

Tony

[Tony_a]

I like it. The crack gives it a lot of character, I just hope that it does not move too much in the summer and break itself apart from the inset base.

Thanks Dragonfly. I am expecting it to twist a bit but don't think it will split at the base.  With the cracks up each side there it doesn't have much to push against the base. I ran the grain in the base plug at 90 degrees to the splits so hope it holds together.

Tony

[edbanger]

Hi Tony

When I do this sort of work I use the cling film round the outside then a coat of gaffer tape over the top of this.

Reading the way that you tackled mounting this piece I think that you made hard work for yourself. A simple tenon on one end and then hollowed from the other would have save a lot of work and the need for a insert in the base.

But however you got there you have made a throw-a-way piece of wood for most in to something worth having!

All the best

Ed   

[Tony_a]

Thanks for the advice Ed. Definitely made it a slow process the way I did it. Will try cling wrap and tape next time.

Tony