Walnut Pedestal Bowl ...

[Ron Smith ... Richmond, VA]

This actually started out to be a larger hollow form, at least the largest I've tried to do on this ShopSmith lathe. It was a piece of Walnut log I cut down three weeks ago on our property near Lake Anna, in Hanover County at Beaverdam. I managed to get the outside turned fairly well and started to hollow it out. Since it's a fairly large piece of wood and I was hollowing from the end, I left it on center until I could rough some of it out. The problem occurred when I took it off the live center and was just using the faceplate to hold it. I was thinning the inside and going along well, when I got a catch and cracked the side, about 1/3 of the way up. It wouldn't have been too bad to fix, if there hadn't been a large knot come out, too. So I cut down the height and this nutbowl emerged (7 1/2" X 5" tall). Still pretty, but I want to do a large vase, still. I have lots of wood, so I'll tackle it soon. Thanks for looking and happy turning.

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

Cool Bowl, Ron. Not a bad recovery effort.
I like the pedestal turnings, they just look elegant. The Walnut sure makes nice bowls. I don't turn..............yet.............but it must just about kill you when all is going along smoothly and then the dreaded catch. I guess the recovery from the disaster is where the real talent comes in. Great job, even though it turned out differently that you anticipated. Thanks for sharing the photo!

[Jason Roehl]

Looks great, Ron! Keep posting pics of your work so that us others can continue to have at least one source of inspiration.

[John Miliunas]

Cool looking bowl, Ron. Donchya' just "love" it when you get a catch at the worst possible time?! Especially in Walnut, you're lucky the thing didn't blow up on ya'. Yeah, Walnut is such a "joy" to turn, but the results, as your example shows, look elegant. Keep 'em coming....!