Maple Burl, Walnut and a little surprise

[Ken Vonk]

Here is my latest hollow form. Let me know what you think. This piece is approximately 10 in diameter and six inches tall without the lid / finial. The finial and lid is almost 5 inches tall. There is a small diamond hidden under the lid similar to what Cindy Drozda might do. This piece is finished with about 10 coats of wipe on gloss poly. The walnut collar just kept soaking up the poly!!

Thanks for you comments and critique.

Ken

[Wally Dickerman]

Looking good Ken. Walls turned to 1/6th inch of course, and sanded to 600 inside? 10 coats? That's a lot.

Wally

[Ken Vonk]

Thanks Wally,

The walls start at about 1/8" and then taper to a little over 1/4" at the bottom for weight. I did get one spot on the wall down to less than 1/32" because of a void....lol

Ken

[David E Keller]

Very pretty piece. The walnut matches the areas of bark inclusion very nicely and the finial seems just right to me.

[Mike Minto]

ken, what tool(s) did you use to hollow something that wide? what is the average wall thinness? mike

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ken that is a pretty piece. Nice form, finish and finial looks really good.

[Curt Fuller]

That's a beautiful piece of work. The form is really nice, the woods look great together and the finial is a knockout.

One suggestion, because you mentioned a critique, would be to try blending the shape of the hollowform into the lid on the next one. The abrupt change where the collar meets body of the HF would look nicer if they flowed together better. But that's just my opinion.

[Ron Bontz]

Just beautiful. That's all I can say about that. What tools did you use?

[Richard Madison]

Nice piece Ken! Very fin thinial there at the top. Can you show us a profile shot?

[Billy Tallant]

Very nice hollow form. Looks like a lot of hard work went into that one.

[alex carey]

Sure is pretty, couldn't critique it if i wanted to.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Ken - sure is a pretty hollow form! Great looking wood! I like your hidden surprise idea - gives it a unique touch! Very nice work on your elongated finial! Would like to see a profile shot of this first - but have to agree with Curt's suggestion of blending the collar into the body of the hollow form a little more. Would add to the curve of the form a little more.

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing!

[Jeff Nicol]

Ken, You have done it with this one! Nice shape, finial and interior suprises! My wife collects old costume jewelry and has hundreds of old rhinestones, so now I have to work some of them into my turnings! When I was at the Rockler store in Maplewood MN they had some boxes with small cut offs in them from lots of different woods. I bought $15 worth of ebony that will make about 30 finials! I had to stop digging through them or I would have bought more more more!! Great job and continue to amaze us!

Jeff

[Rob Cunningham]

Really nice hollow form and finial.

[Ken Vonk]

Thanks for all the complements. As for the tools: I used a drill bit to get the approximate depth and then I used a #3 hunter swan neck and a #4 hunter straight tool. After I got as far as I could with those I switched to the Sorby swan neck hollowing tool. I haven't tried to use a hollow system yet. All the pieces I do are done with hand held tools only. I measure often with my fingers when I can and then with a pair of "figure 8" calipers.

I'd like to thank Wally Dickerman for the lesson I took and for his inspiration. I'd also like to thank Cindy Drozda and all the other exceptional woodturners for their willingness to share.

Ken