Firewood Art?

[Larry Rose]

Three yrs. ago we went to Boone for a weekend in a friends cabin. I picked up this pc of what I think is mountain laurel out of his fire wood pile. Not knowing what else to do with it, I finally planned it down to about 2" thick and hollowed it out. Two coats of Minwax Antique Oil is the finish. The pic doesn't do the color of the wood justice. Any one else use this stuff?

 

[CaptnA]

nice piece and that is some pretty wood
I've used moutain laurel, rhodendron, and azalea and found nice surprises in all of them.
lots of people use them for walking sticks, and they carve nicely as well.
as always free wood is probably my favorite species - especially when it turns out so nicely

 

[mshel]

Larry,

Very pretty wood. Have heard about mountain laurel but have never seen it. Got a question; My wife has been after me to make her a dough bowl (old timey looking) and I was wondering what would be the best type of wood to use. Any suggestions?

Mike

 

[Trent Mason]

That looks great Larry. :icon_thum I am constantly looking through woodpiles for turning blanks, but so far, I've struck out as they have all been cracked. :BangHead: I was in Laurinburg doing a job last week and the client had about 50 pieces of wood, various species, all cut into squares about 4 or 5 inches thick. Unfortunately, they were all cracked. :no: Nice find and a great piece. :thumbs_up:thumbs_up

 

[Mike Davis]

Mike.

Traditional dough bowls were almost always made of poplar. I have seen hundreds and only one was made of sycamore. Poplar is very easy to carve, relatively stable, adds little to the taste of the food, less expensive and easy to find in large pieces.

 

[Larry Rose]

Larry,

Very pretty wood. Have heard about mountain laurel but have never seen it. Got a question; My wife has been after me to make her a dough bowl (old timey looking) and I was wondering what would be the best type of wood to use. Any suggestions?

Mike

As Mike Davis said try poplar. I've used it before and it works pretty good. If you just want it for looks cypress might work as it's soft and should carve easy.

 

[mshel]

As Mike Davis said try poplar. I've used it before and it works pretty good. If you just want it for looks cypress might work as it's soft and should carve easy.

Thanks Guys,

Now I'll have to try and find some 16/4 poplar to try it on. Anyone got any?

Mike

 

[RobS.]

I've made several dough bowls out of poplar and still have 2 slabs. I've also made some other bowls out of walnut, beech and maple. You're not very far from me - about 25 minutes - if you'd like to see some of my wood or if you'd just like to see a couple of my bowls and the tools I use.

 

[RobS.]

Back to the original thread... firewood is what got me started carving spoons and bowls. I heated with firewood for about 10 years. I just kept thinking it was a shame to burn some of that wood so I started setting pieces of it aside. I use a hatchet, broken machete, draw knife, rasp to hack spoons out of kindling. Sometimes shrubby species like memosa, ironwood, and myrtle yield beautiful wood. One of my favorite spoons was carved out of solid pine light wood.

 

[merrill77]

Traditional dough bowls were almost always made of poplar. I have seen hundreds and only one was made of sycamore. Poplar is very easy to carve, relatively stable, adds little to the taste of the food, less expensive and easy to find in large pieces.

Curious - are you referring to a true poplar, or our local yellow "poplar"?