Category: Wood

Here's a bowl I turned for my Mom for Christmas. The wood came from a hickory tree that fell in our yard a few years ago. I really love the color of this piece. I've been getting a lot of my turning stock from trees that have fallen on our property.

I've had pics of a few woodturning projects ready to post, but I was waiting until after Christmas so that I wouldn't let the cat out of the bag. Here some bottle stoppers I made.

Another thing I've been busy with with the wood out back - cutting some turning stock, especially bowl blanks. I can't wait to start turning these! Most of it is spalted hickory, I think. And there's a smattering of yellow birch, ash, and oak in there too.

A few weeks ago, I was driving down the driveway when I looked to my left at a tree that has been dead and lying across the creek for as long as we've lived here. For some reason, this was the first time I had ever noticed that the thing was thoroughly covered with burls! Jackpot! So far, I've cut about 1/3 of them off and moved them into the garage to dry. They should make some amazing turning stock - I can't wait to dig into them! The other cool part that I should have expected was that while cutting the hickory, it smelled just like barbeque. Awesome!

Made this little bowl on my lathe a couple of weeks ago, and forgot to take a picture of it. It's made from some spalted something (hickory, maybe?) that I cut out of an old log back behind the shed that's probably been there ten years. I like it - the spalting really adds character to the wood.

Well, the birdhouses are finally all painted, but we still have yet to hang them up. It's obviously not the right season for it anyway, but the kids can't wait until spring - and this way we'll get to see how they weather the winter, anyway.

Made a few more weed pots in the last couple of weeks. These are fun to do, and a good use of some of the smaller pieces of wood I've been cutting, when a piece is too small for a bowl blank. So far, all of these weed pots have been made from wood from trees that have fallen on our property - which makes them especially cool.

I have been helping the kids to build birdhouses to put out in the yard. Sean had a great time, but only hit each nail in about half-way before he'd ask me to hammer it in the rest of the way. But Carter was focused like a machine. She would hammer each nail in all the way down to the surface of the wood. When Lori asked her, several different times, to look up for a picture, Carter would just say matter-of-factly, "no". She was in the zone, I tell you! After the building, we painted them with two coats of primer. They're currently sitting in the garage, waiting for their final paint jobs. We'll probably do that tonight.

Recently, I've been making these little 'weed pots' on the lathe. There just little vase-shaped turnings for dried flowers or weeds. They're really fun to do, I can usually do one start-to-finish in a single session, and they're great for learning new tools and techniques on the lathe. I've done four so far (only three are shown here), but I've got enough blanks cut to make many more.

A couple of weeks ago, I made both a plate and a bowl from blanks cut from a downed tree in the backyard. I forgot to take a picture of the bowl before I brought it to work to put candy in - I'll have to bring my camera to work some day soon to snag a photo. But here's the plate I made. I love all the spalting in that wood!