Gary Beasley

If its just a small curve on the bottom causing the rocker try taping some sandpaper to your tablesaw bed and rub the piece across it till you have it even and flat again. I have to do that with a bowl bottom occasionally.

Those spalted maples are going to be a pain, stuffs real soft and tearing out. But the ones Ive roughed out so far look really good. The tiger is still at 25% rh so will need drying down after roughing out but that curl is going to look killer.

Rickey thanks for the tiger maple scraps, I think I will be able to make some fine platters from them. The trip to Scotland was a real adventure, wife and I are wore out. Gonna take a while to process all the shots from the digital Nikon.

From the design it looks like its for pulling a strap tight

Run some thin CA into the crack to strengthen it up, then some medium CA behind it to fill the gaps. Let it cure overnight, the CA will not be cured on the inside near as fast as the outside.

Gonna need room for all that goes with it too! Sharpening system, tool rack, a way to contain the shavings without burying the lathe. Then you need a few shelves to dry the roughed out bowls. After that you will need space to display your work in the house, your wife will need more room to store the bracelets and pens you will make her. List goes on and on.

Thanks for the complements, they were quite interesting to turn. Maybe my next batch will be better.

Does that mean the left hand logs are no good?

One upside Richard is the skin on the palm usually heals pretty fast. Ive had some nasty looking gashes on my palm that healed up nicely in a week or two with no trace.

What did your momma tell you about playing with them alligators?

Ive been playing with some rotten wood these past couple of days. The little dark colored bowl is from an old tree root that was dug up when my new septic field was put in. I sanded it to 150 and put Osmo on it to give it a softer feel, still working on building the finish. The other is a piece of badly bug eaten spalted cherry. It has a hole through one side but the wild figure and colors make it worth finishing out. This is a first coat of poly which will be sanded back after it cures fully and another coat applied to get an even gloss.

I hear you about the Osmo. Its a European product thats just recently came to our side of the pond. I got mine through Amazon.

I do like the fact the Top Oil is in a can with a twist top, though I did cut the lock tabs off to make it easier to open.

She has a good eye, like the design.

Osmo would probably work great after a 320 or higher sanding.