Yesterday, the first of two bowls I would make that day, was of Red Gum, about which I have written before.
The bowl measures 8.5″ x 3″.
This Red Gum was also spalted which adds some interest in terms of various colors such as black and deep reddish orange to the otherwise rather plain wood.
Spalted Red Gum Bowl
Red Gum is a soft wood, well technically a hardwood because the tree looses its leaves in winter, but the wood itself is on the soft side of the scale, so while it turns easily it doesn’t cut cleanly. It is probably the key difference between a harder and a softer wood on the lathe is that a softer wood won’t cut cleanly no matter what you do. It will require a great deal more sanding, which will be easy but time and resource consuming. Believe me, sandpaper gets expensive and these soft woods gum it up quickly.
I used my go to finish, Shellawax but I am not pleased with it. As often seems to happen on softer woods Shellawax did not apply evenly. There were darker areas where the finish first touched the wood and then other areas that remained light no matter how you poured the finish on to the surface. The impact was worse on the outside than the inside but had I cared about the bowl or the wood more than I did I SHOULD have sanded off the Shellawax and used something different. Alas, I didn’t because at that point I was frustrated and just DONE with Red Gum. By the way, it didn’t get any better with the next piece. Somedays it just don’t pay to turn on the lathe.
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 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!