Hi Everyone,
Here is a Silver Maple Fruit Bowl I turned for my Mom as a Mother's Day gift. The wood for this bowl came from a tree her and my Dad planted at their house about 35 years ago. Shortly after he passed away, the tree was deemed a danger to the house and had to be cut down. But I managed to save a couple of choice pieces. Some I made into pens. These I presented to my family 2 years ago at Xmas. The big pieces were roughed out into large bowls and allowed to air dry for several years (yes,....years). This was before I really got into alcohol soaking.
Unless it's spalted, Silver maple normally tends to pretty bland. But this wood was surprisingly figured. As you can see from the overhead shot, it even had a trace of Ambrosia Maple going on.
I posted a question several weeks ago on WoodCentral in which I asked about a "food safe" way to seal end grain. Silver Maple is soft-ish and tends to give me problems with end grain tear-out. Normally I stiffen the fibers with a 50/50 mix of Varnish and Mineral spirits and wet sand. Since this was originally destined to be a salad bowl, I wanted something that would not be picked up by the food.
Russ Fairfield from WoodCentral directed me towards using a 50/50 mix of varnish and a turpentine (which I have been informed, is not quite as bad as mineral spirits). It was later that I learned that just about any finish that is allowed to cure is deemed "food safe". However, due to a good amount of worm holes, and a couple voids I needed to fill with CA glue, this bowl is now destined to hold fruit and not salad.
Overall it worked pretty well. The mix stiffened the end grain nicely and allowed me to get a ultra smooth surface. However, I found that the punky end grain had a habit of hiding until after I had finished. Only after I let it sit for a day would I again find evidence of tear out.Luckily, a few minutes work with some sandpaper took care of it.
Since this was a gift for my Mom, I took some time to add some design elements to this bowl. I added a textured area bordered on each side by a beads. Each bead had a burned ring to "set it off". I also echoed this design on the base. I used Sorby's Texturing tool with the fine toothed wheel for the ribbed texture.
Specs:
Outer dia.: 15 1/4"
Height: 5"
Wall thickness: 3/8"
Base dia.: 4"
Sanding Method: Wet sanded to 1200 grit
Finish: (3) coats of Watco's Danish Oil
Final: Renaissance Wax
Thanks for viewing.
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