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Thread: A Couple of Mallee Burl Caps

  1. #1

    A Couple of Mallee Burl Caps

    Here are two mallee burl caps that I just completed. The first is brown mallee burl with an ebonized cherry stand. It is 12 3/4" L x 8 3/4" W x 4" H. The second one is red mallee burl and is 12 3/4" L x 8" W x 1 7/8" H. Both were dipped in oil and Beale buffed. I'm displaying the first one at an angle, as it appears in the picture, so the viewer gets a clear view of the turned surface. C& C welcomed.
    IMG_6009.jpg IMG_6006.jpg IMG_6003.jpg IMG_6004.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    Very nice pieces and the variety of cuts is very timely. Been afraid to tackle one about that size in my shop.--it's hard wood yeah. Any recommendations on tools or procedures.

  3. #3
    Steve, very nice. I'd like to see shots of the bottom of these. How did you mount them on the lathe? I've turned two and have a half dozen more and so far I've turned a tenon or mortise on the back to mount them in the chuck while I turned the face, then carved feet into the base to hide the mortise.

    The way you turned the right hand one is something I hadn't thought of, quite effective!
    ~ Don't worry about what people think. They don't do it that often.

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  4. #4
    Robert, you are correct, it is very hard wood. I was at the grinder quite frequently. I did not show the "bottom" of the first one but the cap has no marks or holes from turning. I used a donut chuck to hold the cap in order to hollow out the bowl. I used a belt sander to flatten the top. On the second one, I made a tenon on the bottom to hollow out the top. I then had to make a jam chuck and wrap shrink wrap around it so I could then remove the tenon. I thought that it might have been easier to do a recess, but not sure with the wood as hard as it is. HTH
    Steve

  5. #5
    Kelvin & Robert, here are pictures of the bottoms of each of the turnings. The left one is the brown mallee and the right one is the red mallee.

    IMG_6012.jpg IMG_6005.jpg

  6. Steve, these are both beautiful pieces of wood, and are both very well done, I have a preference for the red mallee, it is just so striking. I wonder if you turned the red malee like a natural edge bowl if it wouldn't display even more of the great looking burl that is such an eye catcher.

  7. #7
    Jerry, you are probably right about a natural edge bowl showing off more of the red mallee then what the present turning was able to do. However, I had three different mallee burl caps and wanted to do something completely different with each one. Each piece had a different shape so I tried to fit my design as best as possible to the shape. My goal in designing and turning each cap was to expose the beauty of the burl figure with a smooth surface while keeping as much of the spiky outer surface as possible to create an nice contrast. The first piece above (which was the second one turned) was thicker at the one end and gave me the idea of kind of a sliced avocado. The second one above (which was the third one turned) was much thinner and I wanted it to lay flat on the surface. The first one I turned in pictured below and is a very thick natural edge bowl. It was more round and I thought it would look the best in this configuration. Hope that give you some idea of my thought process and why I turned them the way I did.
    Steve
    1242.jpg

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