Wood turning is a process of shaping wood on a machine called a wood lathe. There two types of turning done on a wood lathe . Spindle turning is done by holding the wood between two centers.
Spindle turning is used to turn round balusters, lamps, chair parts, ect. The other type of turning is face plate turning. Face plate turning is used to make bowls, platers, lamp bases, ect. To see how a wood lathe really works you can look on You Tube under wood lathe. Most of what I turn are wood bowls. Now at 77 years young I have been turning wood since I was 12 years old and earlier in life I had a commercial shop where I produced all types of turned items. At this point of my life I turn what I want to not what I have to make a living. You can view some of my recent turnings below.






Pistachio Graft Line Bowl 11" Round x 3 5/8" high
You can't always judge a book by its cover as the saying goes and you can't always judge a log by it's bark. This is very true in the log and the bowl made from it. A very good friend of mine asked if would like to have this Pistachio log that he had for 5 years. As I said yes and it was in my car. After getting it home and unloaded I wondered why I took it. Upon cleaning up both ends with a chain saw I could clearly see that it was pith cracked from end to end. Pith cracked is when the center of the log is cracked. After I figured out how to yeild the most turning wood for making a few bowls I quickly realized that I had a diamond in the rough. This log was a graft ling log ,what that means is that it was cut close to the ground where the tree was grafted. Most production nut trees are grafted at a very young age. The way the graft is done is that a branch of growing stock of a larger tree is grafted on to the smaller, stronger root stock and it grows into a large strong production tree in about five to six years. As I started to turn this bowl the cracks started to show more and more. Not wanting to discard this one of a kind block of wood I was forced to try and stabilize this very cracked and unsafe turning block. What I was able to do was to mix some clear epoxy with black tint and fill all of the cracks. The end result is black veins running thru the bowl. The darker greenish wood is the root stock and the more orange wood is the growing stock. In all my years of turning bowls , this is one to keep. So in the end "never judge a log by it's bark". The finish is food safe organic Walnut Oil.



Claro Walnut Burl 13" Round x 2 3/4" High



Blue Oak Live Edge 12" Round x 5" High






Spalted Camphor 5" Round x 5" High





Live Edge Claro Walnut Burl 7" Round x 6" High



Silver Maple 11" Round 4 " High



Spalted Maple 7 1/2 " Round x 2 1/2 " High



Claro Walnut Burl 11 1/4 " Round x 2 3/4 " High



Eucalyptus (Red Gum) 10" Round x 3 3/4" High



Claro Walnut Burl 11 1/4" Round 4 1/4" High




