"Prometheus" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:07:07 -0500, "George" George@least wrote:

Worst part of it is, it just looks ugly. No color in the raw, and oil
doesn't seem to have done much for it. At least it was a learning
experience, if not a creative one.

Not to pick on you, George, but why couldn't that be a creative
experience? If something has the grain character of a sheet of paper
when you've got it sanded and on that lathe, who is going to come and
slap your wrists if you stain it, paint it, burn it with a torch or
otherwise break with convention? It doesn't have to be practice or
firewood, it can still be art.


Because the creativity on this was in the first turning. Wasn't enough wood
left for me to make anything but minor changes. Score one for the 1 inch
"rule" folks. Takes longer to dry than 1/2", but allows some re-styling.

Stain is something I've left because in the cross-grain orientation it
absorbs heavily into the end and not the face grain. Looks unnatural, of
course, but even worse, the particulate nature of the pigment also takes
clarity out of the grain where it's not black.

I burn the edges of firewood splits, turn odd shapes and anything I like,
from mushrooms through goblets, boxes, bowls and ornaments for fun, even
turn almost every day.

Sometimes you just end up with crap. If it wasn't unusual to see an
end-grain bowl entire, this would have hit the furnace which was its
original destination.