Eastern redbud bowl

[Bombarde16]

(Documented here if only to create a thread that will be resurrected once this is dry.)

A friend lost a redbud tree in his backyard. I had a clear morning so I gave him a hand chopping it to bits and feeding it into the chipper.

Like most ornamentals, the trunk was a gnarled, twisted mess and useless for flat stock. So, I indulged myself with shorter lengths for bowl blanks. Got them home, gave them a hard look, and figured that only one was even worth getting up onto the lathe for a rough turning. The others had bark inclusions that looked likely to blow apart at speed.

Some day, I'll make a proper circle cutting jig. For now, I nip the corners to produce an octagon. This is enough to start working on making chips.

Sopping wet, the heartwood has a yellowey greeney color to it. Kind of like poplar, but with a lot more variety. Swirls, streaks, etc.

The rim has a rot pocket (lower right in this photo) that I expect will be turned away once dry. The bark inclusions will probably need to be stabilized, but that's a next year problem.

Fun tip: Typically after crosscutting, one runs a chainsaw right down the middle of a log to produce two halves, each of which becomes a bowl blank. In this case, I knew that only one side of the log was worth keeping. So I left a bit of pith on the keeper side. As the blank dries, the sides pull in, leaving a hump at what was the center of the tree. That always gets turned away, so one may as well leave a bit of pith and conserve some height for the blank.

The blank finished out at about 12" diameter and 5" high. I took the remaining chunks and bandsawed them for flat stock. Maybe I'll be able to use those for a segmented rim. With that, it all gets a slobbering of paint. Labelled and put aside to await what it will become.

[Gary Beasley]

Leaving the pith can sometimes cause cracks deep into good wood that otherwise wouldnt happen if turned away.  Its iffy, depends on the wood.  Have fun with it.

[Tpt life]

Redbud cracks like none other I have tried. Help it dry slowly. 

[Bombarde16]

22 hours ago, Gary Beasley said:

Leaving the pith can sometimes cause cracks deep into good wood that otherwise wouldnt happen if turned away.  Its iffy, depends on the wood.  Have fun with it.

I stacked the deck in my favor by ripping a small kerf down to the middle of the pith.

It's a modified version of a Japanese technique called sewari, literally, the "dividing of the spine". The wood cracks because the rings want to contract into a PacMan shape, so let's give them one big "starter" crack in an area which will eventually be turned away. That's the theory, at least. Worst case scenario, we have a piece of artisanal firewood for next year.

[Bombarde16]

Well, that went well.

Ah, the carnage. I doubt that even Frank Howarth could salvage this thing.

[wtnhighlander]

So, instead of a bowl, you have a dugout canoe. Still a success!

So, instead of a bowl, you have a dugout canoe. Still a success!

[Gary Beasley]

What kind of paint was that? Waterbase acrylic? Would have been better to simply bag the rough turned blank until it was dry enough.

[Bombarde16]

On 8/31/2019 at 11:30 AM, Gary Beasley said:

What kind of paint was that? Waterbase acrylic? Would have been better to simply bag the rough turned blank until it was dry enough.

Correct. Leftover interior house paint from gawdonlyknowswhat.

Drying a rough piece in bags can be a tricky endeavor. Plastic bags (obviously) don't allow any moisture to escape.  Within a week or two, your blank with be covered in rank, sticky mold and will smell awful. Paper bags do allow moisture to escape, yet somewhat slower than if the blank was just out in the open air. I tried paper bags a few years ago and sometimes it worked...sometimes it didn't. Sometimes even the paper bag held in so much moisture that it started to grow mold itself.

In the abstract, painting the surface is preferred because it plugs up the pores (slowing the transit of moisture) but doesn't leave mold anywhere dark and damp to work its moldy awfulness.

In this case, however, nothing would have saved this blank. (Except perhaps a vacuum kiln?) As one other poster mentioned, redbud is just a wild and wonky wood. Lesson learned.

[RichardA]

On 8/31/2019 at 9:27 AM, wtnhighlander said:

So, instead of a bowl, you have a dugout canoe. Still a success!

So, instead of a bowl, you have a dugout canoe. Still a success!

You're stuttering.

[Gary Beasley]

3 hours ago, Bombarde16 said:

Correct. Leftover interior house paint from gawdonlyknowswhat.

Drying a rough piece in bags can be a tricky endeavor. Plastic bags (obviously) don't allow any moisture to escape.  Within a week or two, your blank with be covered in rank, sticky mold and will smell awful. Paper bags do allow moisture to escape, yet somewhat slower than if the blank was just out in the open air. I tried paper bags a few years ago and sometimes it worked...sometimes it didn't. Sometimes even the paper bag held in so much moisture that it started to grow mold itself.

In the abstract, painting the surface is preferred because it plugs up the pores (slowing the transit of moisture) but doesn't leave mold anywhere dark and damp to work its moldy awfulness.

In this case, however, nothing would have saved this blank. (Except perhaps a vacuum kiln?) As one other poster mentioned, redbud is just a wild and wonky wood. Lesson learned.

Looking at the picture the first problem is leaving the pith on the bowl. This is the epicenter for cracking and keeps the wood from relieving the drying stresses without splitting. The house paint is another thing I would not use, acrylic paint will pass moisture fairly easy. The point behind the bagging is to keep the moisture gradient through the wood fairly even. You may have to change the bags out often to prevent mold but you do what it needs done. If the outside of the wood dries too fast and shrinks on to the inside splitting is how it balances the forces. 

Good luck on your next bowl, may it make something nice.