Thread: Red Gum Burl Hollow Form

I recently embarked on a journey with hollowed vessels and here is my latest.

The piece for this vessel was a block cut from a 90kg Red Gum Burl. The burl was dry when I got it and measured approximately 850mm in diameter.

I mounted the block initially with 35mm pin draws in a 40mm hole that I drilled in the top of the burl with a forstner bit.

I roughly shaped the outside and turned a spigot on the bottom. I remounted it and finished shaping the outside. I found that I got tear out even with sharp tools so finished it with a couple of passes from a negative rake scraper prior to sanding.

My initial plan was to remove the natural edge but decided midway to keep it and use it as a feature. I took great care in turning the lip down nice an thin and was stoked that it stayed together. This was short lived when a piece snapping off during hollowing - from compressed air . This was later successfully re-glued with the advice of Neil (Dai Sensai)

I wanted to hollow it out to an even 5mm. Midway this plan turned into approximately 5mm for the top half and 10-12mm for the lower half. It started making unhealthy noises and I had visions of it exploding and me wearing the pieces .

Following hollowing I remounted the piece with pressure from the tail stock to shape the foot.

I finished it with 3 coast of Kunos Oil.

Many thanks to Neil (Dai Sensai) who gave advice and took the attached photo's.

Comments and constructive criticism welcome.

Lesson's that I learnt
- Importance of sharp tools
- finishing with a negative rake scraper reduces tear out and sanding time
- I am not totally happy with the final shape and will take more care next time during shaping
- I have been given the advice to wrap vessels with voids etc. in tape to assist with holding it together during hollowing - I will certainly be doing this next time.

Finished dimensions are approx 220mm diameter and 210mm high.

Thanks for looking. Comments welcome!