Thread: Rare & Unusual Acacia bowls (burl & crocth)

Both are stunning. It’s no wonder you treasure them.

I'm at the front of the stampede, see you soon!... But yes that's incredible. Timber is just marvelous.

After staring at it for a little while now I wish the left branch on the second bowl had been cut at a slightly wider angle to give the same amount of timber on each side but that may not have been possible.

Thanks Ironwood, as i often say, the wood turners I like most are those who show their mastery of turning by displaying the natural beauty in woods like these. Its a celebration of the wood through the skills of the turner or woodworker. Its why I choose to post in Timber / Wood forum rather than in a Woordturning forum.

Here below are a couple more bowls I selected. Neither are burls though, although one is a figured Acacia and the other related to the Acacias but originally from Siberia and is adapted /naturalised in parts of Canada.

Below: Figured Western Myall (Acacia papyrocarpa) found in western parts of Sth Australia, extending into West Aust. a sprawling tree with an oily, fragrant, dark, dense heartwood. Its beauty is captured here in this 6" diam natural edge bowl.

edit: It says Gidgee I see on the bottom of the bowl so I could be wrong. They are similar woods

WM1.jpg WM2.jpg WM3.jpg WM4.jpg

Below: This small bowl is turned from a shrub growing in parts of Canada called Caragana the genus name for Caragana arborescens. It is also called Siberian Pea bush as it origins are from Siberia and it is a legume like the Acacia also are. But unlike many of our Australian Acacias this shrubs growns in cold conditions. It has an very unusual patterned heartwood in the END GRAIN which I will show later as this bowl does not display it well.

Cara1.jpg Cara2.jpg

The above bowl was obtained at an IWCS meeting in Calgary Canada a few years ago.

Originally Posted by pkroeze

I'm at the front of the stampede, see you soon!... But yes that's incredible. Timber is just marvelous.

After staring at it for a little while now I wish the left branch on the second bowl had been cut at a slightly wider angle to give the same amount of timber on each side but that may not have been possible.

Hi pk, yes it would have better IF it had been cut a bit bigger ... but that's the way I received it and that's the way I passed it on to the turner with a request he make the best of it and he did. As you say he had no choice. What he did was brilliant - it showed the nice form in the crotch, figure, exposed bright wood colour, sapwood, bark & size of this shrub. I was delighted .

Here is a pic of the interesting end grain of the Canadian Caragana (Siberian Pea) mentioned above & shown as a small turned bowl.
I believe 3" or 80 mm is about as thick as the stem grows.

People who like to see pictures faces & shapes in such sections, get considerable amusement every time they cut a stem

Cargana.jpg