Today’s bowls are River Birch and Butternut.
Birch of any type is a relatively plain wood but I bought these blanks because, at the time, I lived on River Birch Drive in Georgia so I thought it would be neat to have samples of the wood for which my street was named. Birch isn’t my favorite turning wood in any event but I think this will find a nice home with former neighbors who still live on River Birch Drive.
River Birch 9 x 3.5
This Butternut seemed more realistic in its behavior when compared to published accounts. It was quite soft and didn’t cut at all cleanly but it sanded out with relative ease compared to my first experience with it as reported above.
Butternut 11 x 2.5
All major cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool system on my Robust American Beauty lathe, although I do use Robert Sorby bowl gouges for light final passes before sanding. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws and the Big Easy Jaws from Easy Wood Tools for the oversized Butternut piece. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks. Final finish is Shellawax.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever your wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!