Umm... well don't get too excited...

[David DeCristoforo]

This has been one "doozie" of a week. Started out with a spalted maple piece that was going to be a vase. Got it turned down to the shape I wanted but found that a large area of the wood was so punky that there was no saving it. But then I got the idea to dremmel out the really bad parts and fill them with epoxy paste. We'll see how that one goes…

Next I "turned" my attention to a piece of funky Aussie wood I got off a guy on ebay. It was supposed to be another vase with a small opening and a fairly tall ebony collar. Had it down to a bit over an eighth thick because I wanted to be able to see through the voids in the wood. But there was this little ridge on the inside that you could feel with your finger and it was really bugging me. In the process of trying to get rid of it, I got the top way too thin. A light pull and off it came and none too cleanly either. So then I thought "what the heck" and took my gouge to the "rim" thinking I could still get a bowl like thing out of it. That didn't work out too bad. But then when I started to sand the inside, the pad popped off the shank of my little disk sander and knocked the "bowl" into three pieces. OK, out comes the epoxy. I actually managed to get the thing glued back together and I offer it here not as an example of fine lathe work but more as a testament to stubbornness...
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[Brendan Stemp]

Well worth the adventure David, A good looking bowl.

[Baxter Smith]

Challenges are half the fun! I have several of those things that ended up quite different in appearance than planned(there was enough wood left to make something and I refused to admit defeat!) Looks pretty good!

[Thomas Canfield]

Perserverance is often the name of the game and it looks like this was one of those. Good looking save.

[Richard Madison]

And a fine testament it is.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Since it doesn't hold soup, it's got to be art

Stubborn isn't a bad thing David, but I don't understand why you had to try to make all these other forms first, while this is what the wood was made for

I do like what I see, nice

[Ken Fitzgerald]

David,

Just look at this as design opportunities provided by circumstance.

Nice set of recoveries BTW.

[Karl Card]

David,

I had one of those days here about a month or so ago... mine didnt turn out near as nice as yours did...

I had 3 broke bowls, 1 broke large gouge, and one broke bandsaw...
If I hadnt left the shop when I did I had a feeling something else was going to break and for a split second I think the tools were tougher than me so I left...

[John Keeton]

David, I kind of like this piece! And, I kind of agree with Leo - this is what that piece of wood is meant to be. Perhaps the wood was stubborn, and you were compliant?!? Well.....no, that couldn't be - not with Double D!

On another point, that is interesting wood - no idea what it is?

[Roland Martin]

Best laid plans of mice & men.... Nice save!

[John Hart]

Yep...no doubt that perserverance was the name of the game here. And I have little doubt that you have that same drive in everything else you do. You are a fine human.

Nice work.

[David E Keller]

I think the end result looks pretty good, but the process sounds like a character building exercise(Those are the ones where I exercise my vocal cords with words of the four letter variety).

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking piece David and nice save. Sometimes design opportunities are fun.

[David DeCristoforo]

I guess one could say that this piece of wood did not want to be a vase with an ebony collar!

I have a friend who is a shrink and she says she is always telling people how whatever is "going wrong" in their lives should be looked at as an "opportunity". One time she said that to a client and they replied "Oh great... just what I need... another effing opportunity."