I’m back! It has been a long time, about nine months, since I last posted and that can be explained.
I last posted in June of 2020 and part of the reason for that is the climate here in my location. Summers are brutally hot, continuously in the triple digits for months. The problem with that is that while my shop has air conditioning, in the worst of the heat the shop remains around 90+ degrees even with the AC on full power. That’s pretty hot for working with the lathe so the summer is often a time off.
But clearly we have had months of winter weather between November and today, and yet no new work. Part of that time was given over to a COVID-19 infection that lasted 6 weekes!
The rest of that gap is due to my recurrent periods of major depression during which I have little to no motivation to do much of anything optional. Thankfully, I am in a period of remission from the depression with a new medication and lots of experimentation. Fingers crossed that this regimen proves to be the one. In the meantime, I plan on producing as much as I can while I am in a good head space.
Enough story time!
To get started back in the lathe business I had LOTS of blanks to choose from 78 that were planed and joined last spring. Based only on how they were stacked, I chose a blank that was labelled “Imbuia?”. To be clear, I do label all of my wood blanks but sometimes labels fall off due to not sticking well to a waxed blank and I end up with mystery woods. This is one of those situations. I don’t think this blank really is Imbuia as I turned some known Imbuia at the same time and it just doesn’t look identical.
Mystery Bowl
The piece has a good amount of swirling figure with some reddish streaks that are hard to see in this photo. The wood was quite hard and it cut very cleanly on the Robust lathe using Easy Wood tools. There was a slightly spicy and sweet scent, consistent with Imbuia, but less pronounced than what I am used to with Imbuia. The wood was stored with the Central/South American woods, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
So here is the challenge: Any guesses as to what this wood might be? All suggestions are welcome.