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Mother nature makes it different
By Frederick Corrigan
There are times when Mother Nature can improve your art project. This was the case when I found a downed Maple tree in the woods. I was in search of wood for the fireplace and hoping to find a partially dried downed tree. It always makes me feel better to take what Mother Nature has given, rather than felling a good lumber tree to burn for pleasure.
I started to cut up the tree into chunks, when I realized that water had begun to work into the grain of the wood. This process creates random water marks in the wood and adds a different effect on your wood-working project. Knowing that Maple is a hard wood, with a light-colored grain, that is used for flooring and furniture, I decided to cut some larger chunks to use for wood carving.
The tree provided me with a couple of large chunks that appeared to have some water seepage in them. When I got back to my work shop, I proceeded to slab these chunks. Using my chainsaw, I stood the chunks on end and cut down through the long way of the grain. This exposed the water marks and then the long drying process began. These slabs were 12 inches thick and I knew that it would take at least three years of drying before I could start to use the wood for carving. I placed the slabs on 1 inch square pieces of wood so that the air could circulate around the slabs.
Finally, I was ready to proceed with my project. With my chainsaw, I decided to remove some of the interior wood and then a Maple bowl was starting to form. You never know what you will encounter as you get to the interior section of a thick piece of wood. You could find a knot, a rotten spot, a piece of wire from an old fence or a nail from a sign that the tree has grown around, as it aged over the years. Some of these things could ruin your project and you would have waited three years for your wood to dry, only to be disappointed.
This was not the case, as everything looked good, so now I could remove some of the excess wood from the outside of the bowl with my chainsaw. Working very carefully, I left about one inch thick walls on the bowl.
The next step was to remove the rough shaped bowl from the rest of the wood. Once again I used my chainsaw to cut the bowl away from the slab. It is very dangerous to use a chainsaw and not recommended for beginning woodcarvers.
Then I used a number of different wood chisels, rasps, and sanders to remove the excess wood and reveal the finished shape of the speckled maple bowl.
A number of coats of finish reveal the speckled effects of the water marks in the wood. Now you have an original design, with a “one of a kind” pattern in the wood grain. The images below will show the slab of wood, the cut away interior of the slab, cutting the rough bowl away from the slab and the finished Speckled Maple Bowl with the water marks.
The total time spent on this project was approximately 60 hours, not counting the three year wait for the drying. It’s tough to price a work of love!
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Speckeled Maple Bowl
Wood Slab
Remove Interior Wood
Cut Bowl from Slab
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
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Lovely!
This looks like a beautiful bowl you've created! I've seen bowls like this in stores that fetch a pretty high price. Well done!
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thank you for your visit and comments, Danielle.
Best to you.
Frederick
Beautiful bowl, maple is one of my favourite woods.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thans for stopping by and your supportive comments.
Best to you.
Frederick
I still have a mahogany bookcase that I built in High school woodworking class in 1963. It's a shame when you see imports from China selling for a few dollars that mimic something that took 60 hours of hand work to produce like your maple bowl. We can't make money selling bowls, can we. Jim O
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thank you for stopping by and for your comments, Jim.
Most of my woodworking is for the joy of accomplisment and to make a special one of a kind for a gift.
Best wishes.
Frederick
WOW! You have talent, Dude! That bowl is very unique!
 | | Laraine Jun 30, 2011 03:24 |  appreciated |
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thank you for stopping by and for your comments, Laraine.
The bowl is a signed one-of-a-kind and I can only hope that the person that I gave it to, enjoys it as much as I did, when I made it.
Best wishes.
Frederick
The copyright for this content entitled "Mother nature makes it different" has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
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This content may be copied, distributed, and modified, as long as a) the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page, and b) if the work is modified, the result is distributed with this same license.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://frederick.qondio.com/
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