Project Information
Like the previous project I posted, this closed form bowl is turned from a piece of heavily spalted Alaskan birch burl. The wood was cut green and allowed to dry outside in the damp and cool south central Alaskan environment for about two years. Then I coated it in black leaf mold from my compost heap, wrapped it in plastic and allowed it to spalt for another year. The blank was then dried in the shop for another year or so until it was down to about 12% moisture. The wood was very soft and a bowl gouge would only tear the wood, I used scrapers with a pronounced burr spun at low speed. The bowl was turned to rough, allowed to dry for another month or so, then turned to finish. I saturated it in repeated coats of sanding sealer to harden the wood and then sanded it down to 1200grit and finished it with ten coats of wipe-on satin poly. It's about 12" in diameter at the shoulder.
