Prickly Pear

[madcraft]

Hi All

Just wondering if anyone has tried turning Prickly Pear Stem

Had the idea when we were driving home through SW QLD / NSW Border country and some of the PP must be 2 to 3 feet across the base of the stem brought back some Paw Paw and Palm { not sure what type but looks like your garden variety golden cane only bigger , stem is around 6 inch Dia } from North QLD so I'll see how they go , So if anyone has tried them before and has any tips , it will be muchly appreciated



Cheers
Glenn

[tea lady]

I would have thought prickly pear would be kinda spongy. Maybe you could embed it in resin or something?

[TTIT]

Methinks ye will end up with something like this Bottle tree - there are limits to what is reasonable - but then who am I to judge - I turned a bowl out of Kurrajong and it's soft enough for cattle to eat

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Perhaps the liberal use of CA during turning?

I've successfully done this with extremely punky woods... but I've no idea what Prickly Pear is like. Never seen it, myself.

[tea lady]

So cut a bit off the end. Give us a gander. We're all curious now.

[STAR]

Neil, Dai Sensai was talking about it in the car on the way back from the Toowoomba BBQ a few weeks ago.

It appears someone in the states does it and I think he uses a resin to skeletanise
( spelling ? )all the pulpy bits. I wasn't paying to much attention, more interested in how my third leg of the Uni Tab treble went.

He is off to see our Mexican friends tomorrow morning, so he might not see this post in time.

[PAH1]

The centre of a Prickly pear is like the centre of a sea sponge. A great deal of spongy stuff that eventually leaves a net like skeleton.

[Texian]

Star,
That fella is right here in Wimberley. He was somehow removing the juicy bits, leaving only the "skeleton" structure, and casting that in resin to make pen blanks. Not sure if he is still making them.

TTIT,
What a great looking tree (Bottle). Could you fill a section of it with some very low viscosity resin (epoxy or polyester) so it would flow into all the crooks and nannies?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Ahhh! The cactus pens! Now I remember...

Yeah, I had SWMBO in fits when she saw chopped off bits of her cactii lying in the sun to dry out...

[TTIT]

..............
TTIT,
What a great looking tree (Bottle). Could you fill a section of it with some very low viscosity resin (epoxy or polyester) so it would flow into all the crooks and nannies?

That pic was taken just 1 week after it was cut - another couple of weeks and all that is left is a pile of pulp. I reckon you stand a better chance with the cactus skeleton

[madcraft]

That pic was taken just 1 week after it was cut - another couple of weeks and all that is left is a pile of pulp. I reckon you stand a better chance with the cactus skeleton

Thanks TITT

You saved me another post about the Bottle tree {I saw them too as I came through your country and thought I might try and get hold of some. oh well

While we are here has anyone done any tree fern ?

Glenn

[Texian]

Thanks TTIT. Too bad. Cut through that largest split would make a couple of interesting bowl blanks.