Hawaiian Norfolk Pine vase's

[Kalai]

Hi everyone, sorry I have not posted very much recently but since I am a fulltime woodworker I get busy sometimes, I have been working on a order of 50 Koa bowls, I have about another week of work and then they should be done but I had to take a break from the bowls and I turned 6 Norfolk Pine vases and this is 3 of them, the other 3 are almost done. the tallest vase is 8 inches tall and 5 inches in diameter. When I do vases with Norfolk Pine I use a gloss polyurethane finish on them to bring out the color, I will be doing some bowls out of Norfolk Pine and I will be soaking them to make them translucent and I will post pics of those too. Well back to work, aloha.

Chris Kalai Allen:icon_thum

 

[TracyP]

Awesome as always!!:notworthy::notworthy:

 

[Mike Davis]

That wood has some striking figure!

Is Norfolk Pine soft? And then the knots are very hard?

Must be very difficult to turn well?

 

[erasmussen]

There all great, but the middle one is really beautiful:icon_thum

 

[woodArtz]

Beautiful work Kalai! The Norfolk Pine is some pretty wood!

 

[JackLeg]

Beautiful work, Bro. You have the touch!!:icon_thum:icon_thum:icon_thum

 

[ScottM]

Chris those are beautiful. :thumbs_up You have a gift my friend.

 

[skeeter]

Great looking vases. The Norfork pine is awesome. I haven't tried mine yet, (chicken) but the blank is really nice.

 

[PChristy]

Chris, great job:icon_thum - with the knots the middle one is awesome - keep up the good work and I can't wait to see what you do next

Phillip

 

[Kalai]

Hi guys thanks for the comments, Norfolk Pine is not a hard wood but it is not a soft wood either, kinda in the med. range, the knots are rock hard but with a good sharp tool you can gut it like butter. The Norfolk Pine is white when you cut it down but if you let it sit outside for a few months the wood will get color from a mold that feeds on the sugars in the tree sap, the color you get will depend on the ammount of mold and where the mold was, that is why you get such variation in the color of the wood. When I am done finishing the Norfolk I will either soak it in poly or I will pour several coats on it like I did with these vases, this will change the white color to the nice golden orange color you see, the black, blue and sometimes greenish colors comes from the mold and it is darkend with the finish too so it all looks different after I put the poly finish on. The vase in the center was turned side ways and the other 2 were turned log wise that is why the knots get the different effect with the knots looking like eyes, like the center vase.
Let me know if you have any questions on the way I finish. I also sell Hawaiian woods but I do not know if it would be against the rules to post a link to my website here or not. Aloha .

Chris Kalai

 

[DaveO]

I also sell Hawaiian woods but I do not know if it would be against the rules to post a link to my website here or not. Aloha .

Chris Kalai

Not against the rules at all, actually encouraged. We have a listing of members commercial websites in the top brown menu under Members Web Sites :icon_thum:icon_thum


Dave

 

[SteveColes]

...... I also sell Hawaiian woods but I do not know if it would be against the rules to post a link to my website here or not....

Please feel free to post a link. Also, you can add a link to the link library under member commercial sites.

And finally, we have a list of wood suppliers. This list has been of NC suppliers, but I think we could see our way to adding a Hawaii region:swoon:.:gar-La;

It would be nice, but not necessary, if you could find a place on your site to add a link to us.

In fact that goes for any of you who are running a web site, a link to us would be very helpful.

 

[Kalai]

Hi Dave and Steve, thanks for letting me know about the link, I will add a link to this site in my wesite also that is no problem at all.
Here is my website, www.koawoodhawaii.com .
Talk to you guys later, aloha.

Chris Kalai

 

[LeftyTom]

:icon_thum I do like the colors that finish gives the mold.

 

[Robert Arrowood]

Chris you do great work.Checked out your site dude thats some fine looking wood.I'm just starting to turn When I grow up I've got to get some of that.

 

[DavidF]

Hi guys thanks for the comments, Norfolk Pine is not a hard wood but it is not a soft wood either, kinda in the med. range, the knots are rock hard but with a good sharp tool you can gut it like butter. The Norfolk Pine is white when you cut it down but if you let it sit outside for a few months the wood will get color from a mold that feeds on the sugars in the tree sap, the color you get will depend on the ammount of mold and where the mold was, that is why you get such variation in the color of the wood. When I am done finishing the Norfolk I will either soak it in poly or I will pour several coats on it like I did with these vases, this will change the white color to the nice golden orange color you see, the black, blue and sometimes greenish colors comes from the mold and it is darkend with the finish too so it all looks different after I put the poly finish on. The vase in the center was turned side ways and the other 2 were turned log wise that is why the knots get the different effect with the knots looking like eyes, like the center vase.
Let me know if you have any questions on the way I finish. I also sell Hawaiian woods but I do not know if it would be against the rules to post a link to my website here or not. Aloha .

Chris Kalai

Hi Chris,

When you say "soak it in poly" do you really do that; IE immerse it in a bucket of poly? When these are finished are they in anyway waterproof enough for real flowers etc or would you still fit an insert if that was the final purpose?

Thanks.

 

[Kalai]

Hi David, yes I immerse the entire piece for 24 hrs or more and sometimes I will soak it and dry it and soak it again, it just depends on how it looks, by soaking it the wood becomes translucent, and it does soak up the poly and becomes waterproof. I have found this only works with Norfolk Pine wood but there might be a wood out there that does the same thing, I only tried Hawaiian woods.
I do not soak the vases but if I make a turning thin then I soak that, the wood will only become translucent at a certain thickness like about 1/4 inch, the thicker pieces like the vases you saw in this post just becomes darker and more colorfull, let me know if you have any questions on doing this finishing process, aloha.

Chris Kalai
www.koawoodhawaii.com

 

[DavidF]

Thanks Chris, very interesting info

 

[Trent Mason]

Excellent work Chris! :icon_thum That is some beautiful wood! Also, thanks for the info on your finishing.

Cheers, ccasion1

Trent

 

[sawduster]

Wow , wow and WOW !!

That is some purdy work bro :icon_thum :notworthy: