Blackwood vase

Haven't posted for a while and smiife has been making me feel guilty with his steady stream of turnings. This piece was turned from a 20 year old blackwood from my yard. Doesn't have the colour of the old blackwoods I have been using but my wife likes it none the less. Turned this green from a branch with the sharpest bend I could find on the tree. Was turned on centre, top and bottom, which accounts for the white sap wood on one side and dark on the other. Picked this piece with its bend and and turned it so it would be part sap wood and part dark wood hoping it would move and distort more than it did. It dried in about 6 weeks and is a little out of round but this is not obvious. Stands 220 mm tall and is 140 in diam. Dry sanded to 400, wet sanded to 1200 then finished with Danish Oil.

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As always, comments and criticism welcome.

Tony

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Originally Posted by tony_A

Haven't posted for a while and smiife has been making me feel guilty with his steady stream of turnings. This piece was turned from a 20 year old blackwood from my yard. Doesn't have the colour of the old blackwoods I have been using but my wife likes it none the less. Turned this green from a branch with the sharpest bend I could find on the tree. Was turned on centre, top and bottom, which accounts for the white sap wood on one side and dark on the other. Picked this piece with its bend and and turned it so it would be part sap wood and part dark wood hoping it would move and distort more than it did. It dried in about 6 weeks and is a little out of round but this is not obvious. Stands 220 mm tall and is 140 in diam. Dry sanded to 400, wet sanded to 1200 then finished with Danish Oil.

Attachment 448530
Attachment 448529
Attachment 448528

Attachment 448531

As always, comments and criticism welcome.

Tony

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Hi Tony , yeah , I am glad I made you feel guilty , wow , what a beautiful vase , the grain and colour looks great, the form is perfect , the finish looks great too!
Steady stream of turnings .......?
You should keep a steady stream if they look like this one :2tsup:

Fantastic, grain, colours, shape, a real stand out piece :2tsup:

Love the way this has turned out.

Hard to find a piece of timber like that, I think. Very nicely turned. Personally, I think it would be a shame to have it distort too much. How do you finish the base, by the way?

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Originally Posted by Hardenfast

Hard to find a piece of timber like that, I think. Very nicely turned. Personally, I think it would be a shame to have it distort too much. How do you finish the base, by the way?

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After turning used a negative rake scraper to remove tool marks and any tear out leaving a fine finish. Left the tenon on the base. After drying used a random orbital sander on the outside and an inertia sander inside. Had it pretty smooth off the tools but the grain seemed to lift a bit during drying and it took a fair bit of sanding to get it smooth. The wood turned easily while green but the sanding was a bit of a brute. The final wet sanding was done by hand. I don't normally wet sand turnings but had read about it somewhere and thought it would be worth trying. Having tried it couldn't see any benefit and it wont be something I do regularly.
Finish with 3 coats of Rustins Danish Oil.

Tony