Neil Farrer
Established Member
Found a rather interesting crotch piece of Robinia in my wood pile, which of this species is quite large, about four and a half tons to be precise but decreasing rapidly. There's a bit of history to the wood which dates back to the Victorians obsession with ornamental gardens and the LNER line that was pushed through my home town in about the 1850s. As recompense for cutting swathes of chalk from the local scenery and digging up all the local grazing ground the railway company gave to the town, and planted up an ornamental park. Thi ornamental park now has a range of vey mature trees, some of which are coming to the end of their lives, as were two very large Robinia trees, that I felt it was my obligation to remove free of charge from the park, which I did, around twenty five seven seater car loads (with out the seats!)
Anyway here's the bowl I made recently, Its sanded with wet and dry using blo as a lubricant. It was turned and finished wet and as with all the robinia I have turned from these two trees, it hasn't shifted a mill. Sanded, burnished with a thin coat of blo, left for 24 hours and then waxed and buffed. Its around 3mm thick, undercut rim to around 15mm and is 4mm throughout +/- 0.5mm. Its 6 inches wide and 2 and a half deep.
All criticisms welcome, some may be ignored, particularly if the author comes from Lesmahgow, be as critical as you like as he who never made mistakes never made anything!
