Ivory Walnut Bowl

[Mobyturns]

A few years back now (2008) I entered a bowl in a comp that I persisted with. I had essentially given up as I thought the "Ivory Walnut" blank was an unturnable write off because it had areas of spalting and extremely dense wood. Everything I attempted with bowl gouges simply made the surface worse, creating a corrugated finish as the gouge bounced over the hard stuff and dug into the spalted areas.

So with nothing to loose I went for a very large Sorby scraper. The edge / burr off the grinder would only last seconds on the abrasive timber, which I figured would probably consume half of the scraper by the time I finished. I gave it a break and did some more research which led me to burnish a burr on the traditional scraper profile. Initially I found it very agressive and had to modify my turning style and tool presentation angles, but it worked and solved my problem. Light cuts / scrapes at first to remove the corrugations, then more serious stuff to create the profile. Plenty of cursing later, and quite a few regrinds, reform the burr etc & I achieved a half decent finish that sanding made a mess of very quickly. More light scraping with the burnished burr then very light sanding got me there eventually. Way too much time invested but a fantastic learning exercise in retrospect.

395579

Appologies for the background, quick photo back then.

[powderpost]

Geoff, I don't know what speeds were involved, but I have found it better to turn those timbers with a high silica content at lower speeds. I am not familiar with ivory walnut, but have played with a fair bit of black and yellow walnut. If the end product satisfies the need, then the time invested was well spent. :2tsup:

Jim

[Mobyturns]

Geoff, I don't know what speeds were involved, but I have found it better to turn those timbers with a high silica content at lower speeds. I am not familiar with ivory walnut, but have played with a fair bit of black and yellow walnut. If the end product satisfies the need, then the time invested was well spent. :2tsup:

Jim

Jim, truth be known. I don't know what the timber really is but it was called "Ivory Walnut" by the turner I purchased several of these blanks from. These came from a guy on Herberton Rd in Atherton opposite the Hu Wang Temple up from the Platypus Park.

I tried everything on this bowl, low speed, high speed - almost burnt it at one stage because I became so frustrated with it..

[Christos]

I read the other post and see what you mean by the direction of the grain.

[hughie]

Like a lot of our very hard and strange timbers,persistence is the key. This one is no exception, its a great looking bowl :2tsup:

I agree with Jim slower is better than fast although often neither produces any easy quick results.

[Paul39]

Moby,

Absolutely stunning piece. I think it was worth the agony. I have several pieces of spalted maple that were doing the same as yours, I am encouraged by you to have another go.

[Allan at Wallan]

Absolutely fantastic result ... well done!

Allan