Box elder bowl, end grain

Oh, turned in my studio, of course

Mike Schwing from Md.

> My BASEMENT studio, that is. Otherwise known as a BASEMENT.

Very Cool, Mike, Very Very Cool

Mark Kauder. Phenix City, AL

>

Re: Oh, turned in my studio, of course

Gil

>Ever see any of Michael Allison's work? He does almost all end grain turnings very interesting stuff. I love the look of the ambrosia lines.

-Gil

Re: Box elder bowl, end grain

adrien

>Mike, that looks an awful lot like ambrosia maple. (Box elder is in the maple family, but....)

Very Nice Mike!!

Tony Reynolds

>

Very nice!!

Bob Hackett

>You`re like a 50`s rock+roll station.The hits just keep on comin`!

MB

Re: Box elder bowl, end grain

Mike Schwing from Md.

>I'd be most happy to call it by the proper name, but I've not encountered any ambrosia maple around here, or maybe I have! We have lots of silver maple with ambrosia infestations and lots of box elder. BTW, those streaks were red when it was fresh cut. I have logs with bark on if anyone can make a proper identification.

Sha-Wing!

Dominic Greco in Richboro, PA

>

Very cool looking Mike! Nice orientation of the grain as well as a killer shape. Did you turn this wet? Was it alcohol soaked? And how did you treat the pith to stop the cracking?

Gotta' love the sheer volume of Maple in this area of the United States. Seems that you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some variety of maple (ambrosia, box elder, or otherwise)

Later,

Dominic

Re: Sha-Wing!

Mike Schwing from Md.

>Dom, thanks bud! It was turned so wet it was slinging water at me. Then it was soaked for 24 hours in alcohol. I was still worried about end grain cracks at the rim so I anchorsealed the rim. I let it dry out in the air for 2 weeks and when I finish turned it there was still a residual amount of moisture near the tenon, so I had some end grain checks on the exterior as I finish turned. There was a tiny pith crack at the start, and I figured it'd grow and I'd fill it, but it never did.

I don't mind a few cracks, and it can hardly be helped in an end grain form with the pith in.

So is this ambrosia maple or box elder? What do you think?

Re: Box elder bowl, end grain

David Hammond

>Very nice Mike - end grain is killer stuff, but so are the results! I love that ambrosia, in maple or box elder, they're both stunning.

David

I'm thinking Ambrosia

Dominic Greco in Richboro, PA

>Mike,

It looks like Ambrosia Maple to me. But what's in a name? It's gorgeous! That's all that matters. The color in Ambrosia Maple is caused by fungus left by the beetles as is the color in Box Elder. Color caused by fungus is considered spalting, right?

I guess we could paraphrase Shakespeare and say, "Spalted Maple by any other name would look as beautiful" :>)

Back about a 2 years ago, I turned some pith centered Box Elder bowls. I used the LDD method on them. Even with saturating the pith with CA Glue, the pith cracked terribly in them. I considered them a interesting, but failed experiment. Several months later during my holiday show craft show, I brought both pith turned bowls in with me to show a friend. A co-worker saw them and thought they were cool. He bought both! Cracks and all. Go figure.

Later,

Dominic

Love it!

Fred in NC

>

Re: Box elder bowl, end grain

Leo Van Der Loo

>Can't believe it's endgrain Mike, first thing I thouht when I saw the pic was WOW thats endgrain? boxelder? , the ambrosia beetle streaks sure make it pritty, to bad I can't pick it up and look at it, close up, feel it.

thanks for sharing

have fun and take care

Leo V

Re: Box elder bowl, end grain

Doug in Md

>Hi Mike,

Looks great. I really like the end grain look. It kind of looks like the top of a really big goblet the way the streaks fan out from the center. Just out of curiosity, why did you turn it end grain?

Doug

Glad you mentioned the alcohol

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>Hi Mike,

I have some whole log vase shape pieces I soaked in alcohol with no pith problems. I haven't gotten around to taking any pictures yet. Glad I didn't because your bowl is much nicer than my turnings. When you get a chance could you send me the particulars on how thick the roughed out bowls are before you soak then? I have found that end grain bowls don't distort very much. You said that the tenon was still damp. Did you have the bowl upside down? If it sat on the tenon that may be why it didn't dry.

Wonderful looking wood. I would expect ambrosia beetles would be content on munching Manitoba Maple as well as any other maple. It is my understanding it is the sugar the beetles are after and box elder is tapped for syrup making in its native range.

Dave Smith

Di a little turning today in Longview, WA.

Re: Doesn't ambrosia always have those holes?

Al Crandall

>I have noticed the holes in every streak of ambrosia staining I have ever seen. Almost every time there are three holes side by side in a row somewhere in every streak, but occasionally there are only two. Now, can anyone tell me why there are three? I mean, one for an entrance and one for an exit, but is the third one a secret emergency escape?

Re: Doesn't ambrosia always have those holes?

Leo Van Der Loo

>Hey Al the beetle got in came out and went back in, you better have a look hes still in there, then again maybe he had companie and both went out their own exit, or the holes are not from the same one and you cut the second hole away

Really, I don't know either Al.

But it can turn a boring wood into someting pritty though.

Have fun and take care

Leo V

Re: Box elder bowl, end grain

MikeinCapeMay

>Very nice. My limited experience, mainly from the blanks obtained from 32' of tree obtained last summer north of Philly tell me that's ambrosia maple. However, none of mine has any red as you mentioned, so hmmm. At any rate it's very nice.

Re: Oh, turned in my studio, of course

Charlie Anderson from Southern Maryland

>Mike's basement studio is dangerous to anyone over 5'10". But it does have a nice mustard colored lathe.

Re: Box elder bowl, end grain

Mike Schwing from Md.

>Thanks Doug. The reason it looks sort of the same way a goblet does is that goblets are also turned end grain. The only way to get the ambrosia streaks to orient themselves towards/away from the center is to turn it end grain. Otherwise they look like the bowl below. This is actually a pretty good example of what one can achieve by critically examining a piece of wood for a particular effect. If I'd have simply sawn it up like a normal blank, the result would have been like the bowl you see below, where the streaks run horizontally across the face of the bowl. Still looks nice, but not nearly as dramatic.

Hope this makes sense.

Re: Doesn't ambrosia always have those holes?

Mike Schwing from Md.

>Hey, Al, I noticed something on this one. One of the streaks appears to have 12 holes in it! Normally with face grain turnings I see only 2 holes, but the way this bowl was oriented allowed me to see that multiple holes were actually from a single tunnel. That was one busy beetle.

Re: Sha-Wing!

Jim Pugh, Ohio

>Boxelder has red streaks and maple has gray streaks. Same ambrosia beetle. If interested, there is an article in the AAW Journal by Bill Stephenson about ambrosia beetles. You will have to search back a few years to find it.

Re: Box elder bowl, end grain

Brad Vietje

>Pretty bowl, Mike !

Have you tried a hook tool or Termite tool in this situation ? I know Boxelder is no great picnic to turn because it's so soft, but I'm wondering if a hook or ring tool might be helpful here. Great pick-up at ye olde stump dump, too !

Safe Spinning,

Brad Vietje

Thetford, VT

Number of Holes

Gil

>Ambrosia beetles attack the wood when wet, and usually when the tree is still alive. The discoloring you see is from a fungus they leave in the wood. The fungus acts as an attractant to other ambrosia beetles, saying "come eat this wood". Therefore more beetles come and dine. They leave the wood once the moisture content is too low (below 14%) I believe.

I only know so much about them because I have 4-500 bdft of ambrosia maple stored in my shop. I wanted to make sure that they wouldn't destroy the house.

-Gil