Bowling bowls

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stuckinthemud

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Spying the bowling balls thread in the for sale section where these items were turned into rather lovely mallets, it made me wonder, are there other uses for redundant woods?
 
Such as?

Was going to ask if you could elaborate, but I suspect "yes" or perhaps "no" might have been forthcoming ;-D
 
It depends on the timber and the size of the pieces. Lignum vitae is particularly useful for its mechanical toughness and its relative stability. I re-purpose bits of firewood for all sorts of stuff!
 
I have 2 sets of lignum vitae lawn bowls (aka "woods"), 1 set I bought 30 years ago, the other belonged to my dad. Both sets are stamped back to the early 1900s, both sets have lots of sentimental value but are also obsolete, only plastic 'woods' can be used nowadays in competition. Lovely high grade, very heavy lv.
 
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When squaring up the blank for eg a mallet, cut the waste carefully and you'll have pieces you could use as little embellishments, eg cabouchons on box tops, etc
 
I guess what I'm asking is whether their shape and/or material specifically lends itself to certain applications, such as turning for a bowl. I think I once read an engraver used a wood to make an adjustable pin-vice
 
I'd shut a set away and leave them be.
in about 10 more years when they've all been cut up and turned in to other stuff the "vintage lawn bowls association" will start up and be running competitions where the new fangled plastic tat won't be allowed. at which point those chunks you've had hidden away for the past 10 years will be worth a small fortune and you'll be able to move them on for a song.

I've still got my grandads set hidden away somewhere, a let his plastic every day set go to a cousin who insisted they were his best set as he played with them all the time, he had no emotional attachment to either and once asked me to make him a mallet from the lignum set (I didn't because I had a mallet for him already).
 
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