Michael Mocho Demonstration 2009 Symposium of the AAW The ...

The Making of an Old Butternut Bowl—A “Reclamation” Projectby Bob Heltman, CMW, AAWMost turners who do demonstrationsuse sound wood, likehigh grade kiln dried, unless turninggreen. Many woodturners ingeneral want “good” wood and findproblems dealing with knots, cracks,odd inclusions, or partially decayedwood. Maybe it is because I was ababy in the Great De- pression priorto WWII, when you saved and madedo with what you had. Maybe it isalso that I like the rare beauty andchallenge coming from workingwith trees that nobody wants. Orfrom stump dumps, blow downs,etc. It seems like a proper frugality,the right thing to do. Ecologicallysound! That is what led to this storyabout the making of a sizeablebutternut salad bowl around 12”diameter.Lightening had hit my powerline between the water well andhouse. This led to a lot of diggingand rewiring by our friends at CaseElectric and Plumbing. Archie Caseand his Dad spent several longdays at that task, during which theynoticed my collection of woodturnings.Mention was made of their oldbutternut (often called white walnut)tree that had been standing deadfor several years, and whether Iwanted any of the wood, and if I didwhether I’d make them a bowl.Naturally I answered, “YES!”and in a few weeks a number of 4foot logs and a root ball showed upoutside my shop studio. Some of thewood looked downright awful, andbug holes abounded. Some lookedlike #6 shot had been fired at thetree. Other holes fit a stout finger.Figure #1 shows the remaining butternutlogs.The bark had largely rottedaway leaving black staining. Twolarger bowl blanks rest on top, withends sealed. Beauty from this!?From some of the trunk piecesthat were about 10” diameter I madeseveral intermediate sized bowls,and finished 2 to present to theCases, leaving them in a plastic sackhanging on their back door knob,which they found and enjoyed duringThanksgiving. Figures #2 and #3show a remaining such bowl.For “white” walnut, much ofthe heartwood seems to have takenon a darker semi-walnut coloring.A recessed rim means faster M&Mscooping!Fig. 1Fig. 2The wood shows very nicecolor and figure. Finish is severalsoaking coats of lacquer followedby paste wax and buffing.Fig. 3Then came the challenge withone of the bigger blanks chainsawedfrom just above the root ball. FirstI roughed out the piece and putit in a paper bag to season. Eventhough the wood was some- whatdried because it came from a longdead tree, rain water soaked it, andsome stresses were re- lieved just byhollowing to wall thickness about10% of diameter . In several moreweeks I mounted the dry blank andcontinued turning. Very large beetleor worm holes were encountered.These I filled with EZ Poly WoodRebuilder®, which is a combinationglue, structural filler, and sealant.I colored it black with Tempura®black powder pigment. This gaveme a confident sense that the woodwould not fly apart or give otherproblems as turning continued.Figure #4 shows the outside aftermore turning, tru- ing, and roughsanding. Note that the black EZ Polyhas been cut to surface level, and insome places more voids showed upat the filled edges. I can fill theseareas again with a bit more EZ Poly,[Continued on Next Page]More Woodturning August 2009 Page 11