Worked on this over a month (off and on) which is longer than my short attention span usually allows. Kind of a bucket list thing to make a very large segmented piece. I had lost of white oak odds and ends so that's what I used.
Here it is on the lathe, had to put the bed extension on to fit.
I decided to fume it with ammonia since that is supposed to bring out the grain in q-sawn white oak, which is what the segments ended up being. Rigged up a tent from a plastic trash can and a big trash bag;
I cooked it too long though, I tried it with a couple of scraps and thought 24 hrs was about right, but the vase darkened more than I wanted, 12 hrs would have been about right I think. another problem was I used wood from a lot of different sources, and it seems some is more reactive than others. One thing I discovered though, that I will be using it again for, is mesquite. I put a small pale boring turning (a lot of the city mesquite around here is Argentine mesquite and it tends to be pale and lack character) in the fumes, it really deepened the color and improved its looks. Here is a picture of it fumed and finished with poly;
notice the walnut accent on top ended up contrasting very little with the oak :( . and a couple of formal portraits;
I'm just happy it's done lol
Here it is on the lathe, had to put the bed extension on to fit.
I decided to fume it with ammonia since that is supposed to bring out the grain in q-sawn white oak, which is what the segments ended up being. Rigged up a tent from a plastic trash can and a big trash bag;
I cooked it too long though, I tried it with a couple of scraps and thought 24 hrs was about right, but the vase darkened more than I wanted, 12 hrs would have been about right I think. another problem was I used wood from a lot of different sources, and it seems some is more reactive than others. One thing I discovered though, that I will be using it again for, is mesquite. I put a small pale boring turning (a lot of the city mesquite around here is Argentine mesquite and it tends to be pale and lack character) in the fumes, it really deepened the color and improved its looks. Here is a picture of it fumed and finished with poly;
notice the walnut accent on top ended up contrasting very little with the oak :( . and a couple of formal portraits;
I'm just happy it's done lol
