As part of a larger turning project designed to clear an entire shelf of turning wood, I did a small batch of Claro Walnut bowls since the wood happened to be clustered on the same shelf. Claro Walnut is easily one of my all time favorite turning woods because it cuts incredibly clean, requires little sanding and is easy to sand when needed, and it frequently features a wide range of wild figures and grain patterns.
Five Claro Walnut Bowls
The first of the bowls is the one on the bottom right. It is rather small at 7.75″ x 2″ and compared to the others rather plain in appearance although it does have good color and several knots add interest, unless you are a person who thinks a knot ruins a bowl. Personally I like the knots and I am pleased they didn’t fall out.
Claro Walnut Shallow Dish 1
The second bowl is bottom left. This piece measures 7″ x 2.5″ and it was labeled as being a burl piece. I can easily believe that it was a burl piece because the figure is absolutely wild with swirls and ribbons plus a large inclusion of rather plain wood as well, much lighter in color, that still has swirling grain. This piece is very dark in coloration and no color was added in the finish.
Claro Walnut Burl 2
The third bowl is bottom center and it represents something of a tragedy. The wood is, and was, beautiful with a very strong ribbon, or flame, figure present throughout. The finished piece is 8.5 x 3.5″. This is one of the rare cases when I know what I paid for a blank since it was written on the wood: $50. I noted on the outside edge what appeared to be a small check. Because of its location, I chose to put it on the bottom since it would cut out easily when I sloped the bottom of the bowl to make it stack. However, the check was only a very small indication of a much bigger problem that revealed itself as I cut.
Claro Walnut Cracked Bowl Interior
The small check was the outside of a very large interior crack that I couldn’t see or predict. Had I known the severity of the defect I would have made the top the bottom in which case the damage would have been cut out with the exception of maybe a small crack on the rim. It might not have been perfect but it would have been less devastating than the damage that remains. I debated about tossing this bowl in the recycle bin but I thought to myself that this is sometimes the reality of working with a natural product such as wood. The damage was internal and natural; it wasn’t caused by me. Lacking x-ray vision I couldn’t have known what was on the inside so that I could change my approach. Sometimes bowls are just like this and sometimes we can still find the beauty in the finished product that is less than picture perfect. And the wood itself is still amazing.
Claro Walnut Cracked Bowl Reverse
The next bowl has a figure that I call “crotch flower” because it looks like rays of a flower blooming up into plain wood. This is most often seen in crotch wood which is wood that is at the conjunction of a major branch or where the trunk splits in two. It could also be a graft point between the Claro Walnut root stock and the Juglans regia, or English Walnut producing section. However it formed the conjunction of the bloom with the fairly plain wood is very interesting and striking. This bowl also has a tiny knot of the rim edge that is interesting and I was surprised it survived. The bowl measures 9″ x 3″.