I had a very nice crotch from some Osage Orange that I was building up to turning — after I had plenty of practice. I want to tell you this is some hard wood – especially where you have 3 branches merging. I got the outside done without incident and was liking it quite a bit. The problems emerged when I started hollowing it. You can see I got pretty far down into it before hitting the heart wood junction. It was still quite heavy (like a nine-pin bowing ball if you remember those!) I had to sharpen my gouge every 2-3 minutes — like I said this is some hard wood. All of a sudden I got a catch and it came flying off the lathe at about 2200 rpm’s and hit me in the wrist. My initial thought was “oh, that’s gonna leave a break”. Fortunately, it only hurt (and left quite the mark). Being the manly man I am, I just rechucked it and went again. It flew off 3 times that day when I decide to leave it for later. Maybe it will be finished one day, maybe not. You can see the glue line where the upper corner broke off during it’s last flight.
This project has been updated.
Pingback: Overcoming Problems | Willow Wood Works
Pingback: BOW | Dickerson Boatyard Blog