# new bowl



## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

I stopped at woodcraft yesterday to use my free $10.00 gift certificate they sent me in the mail. Ended up spending about 75.00. The owner of this particular store has been getting some oddball blanks of wood by the cratefull the last few months. It is parked right in front of the register. So I bought a chunk of coffee burl, and a chunk of ramon burl. I turned the coffee burl today, along with another peppermill. This is the first time I turned the coffee burl. Polishes up pretty nice. Very pretty grain. Here's a few pics.
Mike Hawkins


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Great work Mike!! :thumbsup: When do you get the time to do all of this stuff? :icon_eek:
Ken


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## Mitch Cholewinski (Mar 11, 2007)

Mike
That is a beautiful bowl. super nice to my tired eyes.As is your usual job, it's well done. Mitch


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Kenbo,
I head out to the shop every chance I get. If I am not working, I'm usually out there for awhile.
Mike


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## Barry Ward (Mar 22, 2008)

As allways the peppermill is very nice.I sure wish that our woodcraft would get some burls like that,(that I could afford) :sad: beautifull piece :thumbsup:


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## woodchip (Jan 14, 2008)

AH look at that peppermill burl.:laughing: I say get all of that burl you can because it would make some good pen blanks if nothing else. i wish our woodcraft store had stuff like that..


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

firehawkmph said:


> Kenbo,
> I head out to the shop every chance I get. If I am not working, I'm usually out there for awhile.
> Mike


Sounds a lot like me. Every chance I get. Heck, I don't even have to be working on a project, I just like hanging out in the shop.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Woodsman and Woodchip,
I have seen the coffee burls along with a lot of different others on ebay. Do a search for wood bowls, and/or exotic wood. I have bought wood from a half a dozen different vendors on ebay that have ebay stores setup with a lot of variety at any given time. No complaints. I buy a lot from Gary in North Carolina, his store name is 'NCWOODS'. He probably has around 300 pieces of wood at any given time. He combines purchases for savings on shipping and the box arrives about two days later. Very quick. Nice guy to deal with. 
Mike Hawkins


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## jdixon (Nov 21, 2007)

Mike, that bowl is awesome! That burl is very cool. How big is the bowl and what was the size of the blank to begin with? Again very nice!

John


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## slatron25 (Dec 18, 2007)

Beautiful work Mike. Is it just me that the peppermill looks like a cut away. I'm sure it's an optical illusion but my brain can't put together the top half. Kinda skeletal.


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## sander (Jan 29, 2008)

Did you buy the wood for the peppermill as one piece or did you glue it up?


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

JDixon,
The bowl is about 6" in diameter and 4 1/2" tall. The blank was square on the bottom and only slightly bigger than what the bowl is now. 

Slatron,
It's an optical illusion. The camera also tends to make them look shorter in the pics than what they are. That peppermill is just over 10" tall.

Sander,
I buy the separate pieces of wood, resaw them on the bandsaw to get thinner slices, send them through the planer to get rid of the bandsaw marks, then glue them up. When I do this, I usually make a bunch of blanks at the same time. This time is was thirteen blanks.

Mike Hawkins


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## sander (Jan 29, 2008)

Ok, that's what I have been doing. I was thinking maybe you had found a source for pre glued wood. I don't have a planer so this is a little harder for me.


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## Barry Ward (Mar 22, 2008)

*New bowl*



firehawkmph said:


> Woodsman and Woodchip,
> I have seen the coffee burls along with a lot of different others on ebay. Do a search for wood bowls, and/or exotic wood. I have bought wood from a half a dozen different vendors on ebay that have ebay stores setup with a lot of variety at any given time. No complaints. I buy a lot from Gary in North Carolina, his store name is 'NCWOODS'. He probably has around 300 pieces of wood at any given time. He combines purchases for savings on shipping and the box arrives about two days later. Very quick. Nice guy to deal with.
> Mike Hawkins


Thanks Mike,I have seen his site before.My only concern is that I have known folks that have bought on line and ended up getting uhh shall we say not what was advertised  I would think that this guy would be pretty honest to deal with,your opinion please :yes: Thanks Ken


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Ken,
I have bought an awful lot of wood from Gary at NCWOOD. He is a very good guy to buy from. I have never had a problem with him. The wood I received was always the pieces in the pictures. Now when I order from him he is always throwing in an extra piece or two. He also combines shipping for considerable savings. I use paypal to pay and the box is sitting on my porch in two days normally. I would highly recommend him.
Mike Hawkins:thumbsup:


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## Barry Ward (Mar 22, 2008)

*New bowl*

Thanks Mike,service means a lot to me.
Ken


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## jwcole (Nov 22, 2008)

firehawk I like your bowl, newbie question though what exactly is coffe burl, what part of the tree is it from? And your grinder is awesome. 
I got your Pdf for the grinder and started to make one out of East Indian Rosewood(my wife it picked out). As soon as I turned the wax off it, it split in three places. oh well


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

JW,
I don't know that much about the coffee tree, so I googled it and came up with this:
Kentucky coffeetree - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A burl itself is a growth on the tree, looks like a bump growing on the tree. The grain usually runs in every different direction, which is what makes them interesting. Do a search on ebay for 'exotic wood' and you will find plenty of examples for sale. Normally it is not cheap. 

You say your piece of rosewood split as soon as you started to turn it. Do you mean it developed hairline cracks, or something more severe than that. Something sounds amiss. Even if the wood were moist, it would still turn ok, but develop cracks as it dries in the next couple of days. Maybe you could write back with some details on what happened and where you got the piece of wood. Also, some pictures would help.
Mike Hawkins


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## jwcole (Nov 22, 2008)

I was told if I bought any wood that had been completely coated in wax, to remove the wax and let it breath for a few days, so it didn't really happen as I turned it, but it was overnight. 
I bought the wood from Woodcraft a while back, and stored it in the house in a closet. When I got your Pdf I figured I'ld try it. I turned the wax off it and brought it back inside. The next morning I looke at it and it had 3 small cracks on one end. I was thinking about making it into a 9 or 10 in grinder if the cracks are'nt too deep.
I'm on night shift this week so I can't send pics till maybe Tues.

Jonathan


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## 42Hickorysouth (Nov 24, 2008)

Great job! Very impressive.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Jon,
I would get some thin and medium C/A glue,(available at woodcraft). Take the thin grade first and carefully let it run down into each crack. Don't glue your fingers together.:laughing: Let it dry for an hour or two. Then take the medium and carefully fill each crack. The medium will tend to bridge the gap and fill it. Again, let it sit and dry for awhile. I would then put this blank in a paper shopping bag and store it in away from a heat source, preferably out in the garage, but out of the weather. Let it sit for a couple of months and dry some more. The problem was the wood still had a lot of moisture in it when you removed the wax. This time of year especially, when you bring it inside, the house humidity is going to be less than outside if you have forced air. This caused the blank to try and dry too quickly and shrink, forming the cracks. Once the blank is glued and stabilized, it should be ok to finish turning. When you are done turning it and applying the finish, put it back in the paper bag and leave it out in the shop for another week before you bring it inside. In the meantime, get yourself another blank that is dry and turn a peppermill from it and you shouldn't run into the cracking problem. Anytime you buy wood that is completely waxed, you should assume it was packed when it was green(fresh cut, full of moisture) unless told otherwise. That is one reason I like to make peppermills out of layered up wood of different varieties that I know are dry when I buy them. Good luck, let me know what happens,
Mike Hawkins:smile:


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## jwcole (Nov 22, 2008)

Thank You firehawk, that is one of the last pieces that I bought, completely waxed the last one is Canary wood and it is still waxed. I will take care of the Rosewood Tues. I actually bought some of their(Woodcraft) C/A glue last week, for some pens, used latex gloves, to keep my fingers clean. When I was done, 5 pen and pencil sets, the gloves were stuck to my fingers. 
If I can get a big enough piece of the Spalted Maple I have, that is still in good shape(not cracked) I think I a will try a grinder with it.

Jonathan


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## swampHENcalls (Dec 4, 2008)

nice work firehawk. walking into woodcraft with a $10 gift card, is likeing eating just one pringle!


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Swamp,
Thanks. Last friday I went up to woodcraft again with the old timer buddy around the corner, so he could buy a dewalt planer and a 6" jet standard jointer. I started out with a nice find, 3" x 3" x 12" paduuk blanks for 13.00 each, bought two. The jet and dewalt reps were on hand for some kind of sale. In fact, the dewalt 735 planer was around 535.00 with the mobile stand(179.00) thrown in for free. Pretty good deal. Lowes is getting around 650.00 just for the planer. The 6" jointer was 585.00 minus 100.00 rebate. Not bad either. They had a long bed 6" jet jointer sitting there with the quick change blades. I called the owner back when I got home. It was 809.00 minus 10% (81.00)sale, minus 100.00 rebate. So I orderd one. I wanted one in the boxes so it's easier to get home. Should be here in a few days. That was my early Christmas present.
Mike Hawkins


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