Dai Sensei
Member
Last weekend we had Turn-Fest 2009 here on the Gold Coast with both international and local turners demonstrating that was fantastic. Whilst attending the sessions on surface texturing, I noticed the scraps of wood that were being used for the burning and texturing were Coolabah Burl and Red Mallee Burl slices ~5/8" thick. They had fantastic grain and hating to see these scraps go to waste, I asked the demonstrator (Glenn Roberts) if I could have them when the workshop was over, and he said yes :tongue:.
The Red Mallee slices were at the join of the sapwood to the heartwood and the grain had a feather type pattern, so I sliced the blank to capture this grain, but only got 2 short blanks from the 2 slices. I got 5 from the Coolabah slices, so 1 spare, but I ended up needing it :redface:.
I decided the blanks warranted more than slimlines, so decided on a pair of Rhodium JR Gents for the Coolabah and a Gold Baron for the Red Mallee, and risk the drilling. The drill size is slightly smaller for the Baron to minimize the risk of a blow-out since I didn't have a spare. I did end up blowing out one of the JR Gent lid blanks with the ½" drill, so lucky I had a spare.
All finished with CA, sanded to 12000 and polished with plastic polish. What can I say, they turned out fantastic, not bad from scraps :biggrin:.
Cheers
The Red Mallee slices were at the join of the sapwood to the heartwood and the grain had a feather type pattern, so I sliced the blank to capture this grain, but only got 2 short blanks from the 2 slices. I got 5 from the Coolabah slices, so 1 spare, but I ended up needing it :redface:.
I decided the blanks warranted more than slimlines, so decided on a pair of Rhodium JR Gents for the Coolabah and a Gold Baron for the Red Mallee, and risk the drilling. The drill size is slightly smaller for the Baron to minimize the risk of a blow-out since I didn't have a spare. I did end up blowing out one of the JR Gent lid blanks with the ½" drill, so lucky I had a spare.
All finished with CA, sanded to 12000 and polished with plastic polish. What can I say, they turned out fantastic, not bad from scraps :biggrin:.
Cheers