Yesterday, I was excited to go out to the shop and tackle this piece of wood.
Crotches can have great, unusual grain patterns, like what I circled to be a bowl. Unfortunately, they are also areas under stress, and can have flaws, like the large crack with the X’s on it.
I had arranged to avoid the crack marked with X’s in the last photo, but there were others I could not avoid. So, no bowls from this piece of wood. Burn it …. Oh well, I got some practice with the bandsaw and wedges and cutting oddly shaped lumber.
So instead I grabbed this nice straight log, and cut it up
and got these 6 bowls. All are about 5-6″ diameter and 2.5-3″ tall.
I’ve rough turned 16 bowls from the oak I brought home, and still have some wood left for the future. I’ve learned a lot working with this oak over the last couple weeks — about processing, my tools and how to use them, how to cut up wood into blanks. Sometimes it’s been frustrating, but it’s also so satisfying when I manage to do what I was trying to do.
I also learned that no matter how much wood you bring home, you will regret all the wood you left behind. I should have taken more, Mike …
