Loranthus

[Caveman]

G'day folks - it's been a while since my last post.
Been busy feeding the addiction - doing lots of 'regular' bowls - not much new to add to the 'pot'.

Recently finished off this thing - a bit different to the norm.
Pic's 1 to 6 taken during roughing. 7 during re-turning after a few months drying and the others after a finish of BLO.

Is a Loranthus species of some sort - a parasite - grows quite big on a couple of trees round here.
Have turned several very hard timbers but have never come across something as difficult to cut. The thing seems to want to fight you every step of the way and I ended cutting opposite to the norm i.e. 'downhill' instead of 'uphill' on the exterior etc...
Having said that, it seemed quite a bit easier to re-turn once dry and left a decent finish off the tool prior to sanding - although the 'punky' bits of bark inclusions were a challenge, but little nibbling cuts seemed to finish it off ok.
Had to do quite a bit of sanding with the lathe off, otherwise I think the barky bits would have been sanded down very easily leaving low spots.

I have a huge pile of these things to do battle with!

Been some work before on these 'mistletoe's' that turned out quite nice.

Check these out:

One from R.B. plus a couple more pics of my effort during roughing out.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=67457&highlight=mistletoe

and Vern's 'mistletoe'.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=33866&highlight=mistletoe

https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...ight=mistletoe

[Robomanic]

That is quite impressive

A number of years ago we severely cut back 4 trees that were choked in mistletoe. Wish I knew then what I see here (and that I had the lather I have now )

[Caveman]

Thanks Shannon - yep - I get the same feeling when I think of the firewood I've burnt over the years and what one could have done with it.

But then there's only so much wood one person can turn.
My log pile is already over flowing.

[robutacion]

Thanks Shannon - yep - I get the same feeling when I think of the firewood I've burnt over the years and what one could have done with it.

But then there's only so much wood one person can turn.
My log pile is already over flowing.

Are you sure? Caveman!

Well, that is a impressive piece of "tomber" a cross between mistletoe & timber!
I'm surprised that it stayed in one piece, nicely done!

Not that common to find them, up here, shame...! didn't your Mum taught you to share?

Cheers
RBTCO

[Ed Reiss]

Nice bowl Caveman!

Don't know about Loranthus, but it kinda' looks like a root burl. Chances are that the interlocked grain made the cutting more difficult

[artme]

Great work Caveman.
All the better when difficult pieces yield such wonder results.

[TTIT]

Nice looking piece Andy Any idea what type of tree it was attached to??? There are only a few species around here that react like that to the mistletoe so I'm curious as to any more that do it, particularly with all the Aussie plantings you have around you.

[hughie]

Andy,

Interesting piece, have not seen allot of it around my area

...maybe I need to get out more

well done.

[dai sensei]

Your are a braver man than me Andy, those big air cracks must have been a worry as it got thinner. I would have filled the lot with resin. What you have ended up with looks amaxing .

[rsser]

yeah Andy, an exciting turning I would've thought.

Did you wrap her in tape before hollowing? Or use a very long tool? ;-}

[Caveman]

Thanks for the comments all.

Are you sure? Caveman!

Not that common to find them, up here, shame...! didn't your Mum taught you to share?

Quite sure RBTCO! Even in this part of the world there are only 24hrs in a day - and I quite enjoy sleeping for a few of those!

Quite happy to share with you if you want - a small Ocean to cross, only about 12,000kms!

Nice looking piece Andy Any idea what type of tree it was attached to??? There are only a few species around here that react like that to the mistletoe so I'm curious as to any more that do it, particularly with all the Aussie plantings you have around you.

Yep - not an Aussie tree though - was attached to an Acrocarpus fraxinifolius - an exotic tree that was planted in the 'old' days and is now happily seeding itself everywhere. This one was on a friends farm and was covered in the parasite - I've not seen them growing so big on any other species. Some of the bits we took off must be around 15" in diameter.

yeah Andy, an exciting turning I would've thought.

Did you wrap her in tape before hollowing? Or use a very long tool? ;-}

Didn't need it on the roughout but certainly did when re-turning - used a few turns of masking tape - seemed to hold it together ok.

[Caveman]

Just finished another one.

This one a bit bigger than the last - about 12" diameter.

Same treatment with the BLO - waiting to dry before some beeswax.

A bit more friendly to turn this one - not so many jagged edges.

Sure is weird stuff!

[rsser]

Very striking.

Nice one.

[TTIT]

That is one seriously good example of mistletoe at its best and you've done a top job of presenting it Andy - bravo!

[Caveman]

Thanks Ern and Vern.