I think we are all familiar with, and have experienced, that old chestnut. But in this case, as in so many others, it ain’t necessarily bad. In fact, here it turned out to be great. (I think. Durn, there I go hurting myself again)
Last spring, early summer, something like that, I decided to cut some bowl blanks. Among them was this nice size, about 11” x 6.5”, blank of “catalpa”. Anyhow, some of these were put in plastic bags and then put on the shelf. Last week I decided that this “catalpa” blank would make a nice, carved (probably fluted) bowl. I put it on the lathe and it seemed very heavy. However, I didn’t give it much thought and started roughing it out. Since I was going to flute it, I thought I’d give it a nice upper rim and a balloon shape. As I was roughing it out, all the time trying to hold the lathe in place at the same time, I thought that it was pretty hard. Also, I didn’t notice the vinegary smell I usually associate with catalpa. I stopped the lathe to look at the piece and noticed some really deep cracks and a lot of worm holes. Since the cracks were so deep, I filled them with turquoise enhanced epoxy but left the worm holes alone as they were still filled with sawdust. I didn’t want to take a chance on blowing this bowl up with a monster catch. I was going to finish shaping the outside of the bowl before making a final decision to carve it. I felt I could still carve the bowl by just working though the filled cracks. Whatever worm holes remained could be filled prior to carving if they were going to be filled at all.
In any event, I finished shaping the bowl and noticed that it was turning much, much smoother than a piece of catalpa would. I took a closer look at it, notice again how very hard this wood was and came to the realization that it wasn’t catalpa at all but what I determined to be a chunk of curly maple. I’M HOPING THAT SOME OF YOU WOOD GURUS CAN CONFIRM THAT FOR ME OR, IF I AM WRONG, TO SET ME STRAIGHT. At this point I decided that no way I was going to carve this. It didn’t occur to me, at this time, to change the shape so now it is still where it was when I was going to carve the bowl. Had I given it more timely thought I would have put the down curve at a higher point and given it a smaller foot. But, I didn’t, but I am still fairly pleased with the shape.
The final result is a diameter of 10” by 6” high. It is sanded to 600 grit and finished with 6 coats of natural danish oil applied while spinning on the lathe.
If you want to blast me on the shape, I don't care. Go ahead, I can take it and you won't hurt my feelings. Like I mentioned above, I wish I had put a smaller foot on it.
Wolf
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Originally Posted by Dave Arbuckle
One thing I know, it *ain't Catalpa! As you say, you'd have been able to tell right away from the "aroma" (yucko!) and Catalpa is anything BUT hard! I too believe it is some flavor of Maple and an absolutely gorgeous hunk of it, at that! Plus, if for *whatever* reason you don't like the shape of the bowl, I'll drop you my mailing address post-haste and take it off your hands! Heck, I'd even kick in for the S/H! 
