I am in love with Claro Walnut. Even the most simple of pieces seem to have lots of movement and interest in the grain patterns and other figure. The not so rare highly figured pieces are little short of amazing. This ~6″ x 3″ bowl isn’t what I would call highly figured but it still looks really great in comparison to plainer woods.
Claro Walnut Bowl Sideview
Not only is Claro Walnut beautiful, it seems made for the lathe. It isn’t exceptionally hard but it cleans super clean, and I mean clean to the point that applying sandpaper seems like a crime. No fuzzing as is common with softer woods and zero end grain tear out that is common, and exceptionally hard to remove, with harder woods.
Claro Walnut Bowl Interior
I made three bowls this day and I chose to end with the Claro Walnut because I knew it would be the most joyous to turn. I wasn’t wrong.
All cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool system on my Robust American Beauty lathe. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks. Final finish is Watco Danish Oil in Natural.
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!