Sunday, November 15, 2009

Walnut

Further digging into my pile of scraps that my friends have given to me... I present this walnut bowl. It's rather hard to tell in the pictures, as the camera did a good job of washing out the color, but it's actually a cut spanning both the dark heartwood (black walnut) and the sapwood. It made for a very nice blending effect on the inside of the bowl.


I forgot to measure this one before I gave it away, but my guesstimates put it at about 7 3/4 inches across, and 1 3/4 inches tall. It is finished with natural flavors of danish oil and polyurethane. One of the things I like most of this bowl, besides the grain, is the fact that there are next to no turning marks in it.

Walnut is one of my favorite woods to turn, and this is the first piece I've done in quite a while, as well as the first time I've turned walnut across the grain. The last time I did a bigger walnut piece, I didn't have as much experience or patience with woodturning as I do now, and while what I made is pretty, there is a huge difference in quality between then and now. But then I go and look up what professional turners are doing, and realize I have a long way to go.