I loaded up the lathe with the block of Osage Orange that Scott sent meand after making a huge pile of orange shavings, this is what was left!
It's 10 1/2" x 4" with a coat of walnut oil. This was an absolute pleasure to turn! It cut very nice and sanded to a beatiful finish. The pics don't do the color justice, fresh cuts are bright yellow and with the oil it just glows. Thanks again Scott! I can see why your so fond or osage aka hedge!
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1 down, 199 to go!
Had a little time left after the osage, so I cut a blank from a log of what I think is Austrailan Bottle tree (brachychiton populneus) which is widely planted around here as a landscape tree. The log was about 5 1/2" diameter and it's been sitting on my woodpile for about 9 months. In that time it looks like its developed a little spalting, which is strange since I've yet to see anything spalt in this hot, dry climate and the log was sitting on top of some others, so not near the ground and not protected from the sun.
It's just 5" x 2" and I turned it in 1 hour 10 minutes beginning from when I started cutting the log and ending when I wiped it down after applying BLO. So I figure in a little over 200 hours I'll be done. Actually, I think they'll go a little faster once I start cranking them out.
If you ever get a chance to turn some of this, do it! This stuff turns like butter and sands to a beautiful finish. The color and grain might not be anything special, but I coulda peeled ribbons off this until there was nothing left lol.
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Thanks for looking!
As always comments and critiques are welcome.
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