# Firewood or ?



## chippypah (Dec 24, 2007)

Elm Burl 20 x 9 ½ x 3 ½ inches

Well here is my latest turning project, an Elm Burl. This has taken a lot of thought on the best shape, due to irregular shape.
I did send Harry an email with a picture, to see if he would have a design in mind. He considered it for a while, and I eagerly awaited his reply and this is what I received.

After intense scrutiny and deep thought, firewood is the best I can come up with, sorry! H

So this became a challenge not to make firewood, and this is the result. 

Whenever doing a winged bowl ALLWAYS make sure.
1 The lathe is set at its lowest speed (Opps broke rule one, and the lathe came off the concrete blocks that raise it to my height)

2 When you turn the lathe on, make sure your arm or hand is not in the firing line. (Yep you guessed it, clouted my arm and wow did that hurt)

As always an out of balance bowl needs very special consideration, as even on a slowest speed a major vibration occurs. Also a heavily one sided wing on the bowl also is not only hard on the chisel but also the concentration. The chisel is only in contact with the wood for a very short time, so position of the tool rest is vital, and also constant sharpening of the chisel. As the clouting action takes the edge off the tool very quickly, and it then becomes more of a tearing process than a cutting action. Everyone is different in there approach to this challenge, for me as it is almost impossible to see where you are cutting, I take a mental picture and do this process with my eyes shut. Yes truly I close my eyes and let the sound and feel guide me, this is something that I would not recommend you doing, unless you feel at one with your turning and totally confident.

Well as I have already said before a picture is worth a thousand words, so hopefully they all make sense.

Cheers

Pete


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## Glenmore (Sep 10, 2004)

Really nice one Pete. Has a lot of character with the bark still on.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Pete, what can I or anyone say, that is truly amazing, both the visualization and the actual turning. With work of this standard you should soon be a wealthy young man.
The photo-shoot is of course exactly what we all want, the fact that the order of the shots is jumbled, is of course a long standing problem with the forums program, but I'm sure that every member knows that holding the cursor over each shot displays it's number.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 6, 2006)

Pete, all I can say is; BEAUTIFUL!!!! You are a true artist. I would bet that if you placed this piece for sale it would bring hundreds of dollars (pounds?). Thank you so much for the pictures.


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## Mitch12 (Mar 29, 2008)

Pete
Real nice job Pete. You did well on this one too. Looks splendid. Mitch


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## karateed (Feb 7, 2006)

Once again Pete, all I can say is WOW!!!

That is an awesome beautiful piece of firewood (joke)....

Really, it is truly awesomely beautifully done....and....there is no such thing as firewood....but it must have been a huge task if Harry thought it should end up as ashes.....

Ed......


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Very nicely done Pete. That burl has some nice character to it. Beautiful piece.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Pete, if you had shown me the blank before starting I would of said cut it into smaller pieces, and that would of yielded some very nice bowls. The way you did this project would not of occurred to me and I must confess I am awed at the result. I hope this one is going into a gallery.


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## chippypah (Dec 24, 2007)

Thanks for the kind words, they are really appreciated. Thanks Mike it was a tricky one to make, and I felt that yes I could have made a few bowls and pens out of it. But it just looked to good a piece not to do it as one piece. If the Mrs lets me yes it will go to the gallery, but somehow I think that she has fallen for it, so just have to see.
Also I hope this inspires a bit, and push the limits of design and fun.
Cheers
Pete


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