jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 19, 2014 12:13:40 GMT -5
This is the junction of the tree trunk and the top of the root ball. The root balls average 3-5 feet in diameter. These junctions often rot away from the root ball and can be found washed up on the shores of Lake George Florida. My friend turned it on his bowl machine about 15 years ago.    |
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rockroller
spending too much on rocks
Be excellent to each other.
Member since October 2013
Posts: 359 
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Post by rockroller on Feb 19, 2014 16:50:01 GMT -5
That is really nice! But is there a hole in the bottom of that bowl? Love that closeup of the pattern.
~Roland
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Fossilman
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Member since January 2009
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Post by Fossilman on Feb 19, 2014 17:43:44 GMT -5
Awesome James...Is that your cereal bowl..LOL
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 19, 2014 18:55:53 GMT -5
Awesome James...Is that your cereal bowl..LOL For Wheaties only Micheal. Breakfast of champions. |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 19, 2014 18:57:47 GMT -5
That is really nice! But is there a hole in the bottom of that bowl? Love that closeup of the pattern. ~Roland No holes Roland. But tumbled around in the rough wave action and rot had a toll on it. Do need to do a water test though. |
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Post by Tonyterner on Feb 20, 2014 12:18:09 GMT -5
That's a very nice bowl and it certainly took a lot of skill to turn that on a lathe. I've turned palm and its not really a wood, more of a grass so the grain tends to tear out quite a bit. Quite frankly its a PIA to turn. The natural lip also added a lot of difficulty to that piece. I'm not sure if it will hold water. It all depends if any pores go through to the bottom. Since its not a wood I don't really have a guess.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 20, 2014 13:31:25 GMT -5
I have bought him a lot of palm Tony. He says the same thing. It also plugs up a chain saw like a giant ball of twine.
He may have used a cutting wax or additive. A lot of bowls are sold in Costa Rica. They are either coated with epoxy like
coating or vacuum impregnated at the very final cut. Sealed to a fine finish. Maybe sabel palm cuts different. Are sabels the type you turned?
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Post by Tonyterner on Feb 21, 2014 8:46:39 GMT -5
The palm I have turned was labeled as "black" and "red". I bought it from a woodturning shop so I didn't really have an accurate ID. I can imagine that would be a nightmare with a chainsaw, they can clog up easily with real wood. There are lots of techniques for cutting difficult wood, I've used tung oil on a lot of pieces to get a nice smooth final cut. I'll be in Florida next week for work. Maybe I'll comb the beach looking for some palm.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Feb 21, 2014 11:12:51 GMT -5
A great lake is Lake Rodman just above Ocala(Fort McCoy). When they dammed it wood in the peat 25 feet deep floated up. Old,old wood. Mostly cypress. Some with 100 growth rings per inch. Mostly cypress. But it is on the south shore and blows up in log jams. I have a lot on the lake at optimum wood piles if you need GPS coordinates. But you kinda need 4 wheel drive to get down to the lake there.
I could steer you to other areas though.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 21, 2014 11:20:30 GMT -5
The palm I have turned was labeled as "black" and "red". I bought it from a woodturning shop so I didn't really have an accurate ID. I can imagine that would be a nightmare with a chainsaw, they can clog up easily with real wood. There are lots of techniques for cutting difficult wood, I've used tung oil on a lot of pieces to get a nice smooth final cut. I'll be in Florida next week for work. Maybe I'll comb the beach looking for some palm. Cut this burl maple up after it fell. It was 3 times fatter than it should be due to burls. My buddy is getting it. His name is Bill Benzur and can be seen on Facebook(Benzur Bowls I think).  |
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Post by 150FromFundy on Feb 21, 2014 20:04:23 GMT -5
Cool. So if you bury that out back and wait 10,000 years, will you be able to make a cab out of Florida palm wood? I've seen similar bowls out of eastern white cedar, which is common in these parts. Pure artistry.
Darryl.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2014 8:23:34 GMT -5
Cool. So if you bury that out back and wait 10,000 years, will you be able to make a cab out of Florida palm wood? I've seen similar bowls out of eastern white cedar, which is common in these parts. Pure artistry. Darryl. That palm is found the same St John's river that old sunken timber logs are being recovered as seen on TV Daryl. I can idle along in my little boat and drag a conduit on the flat sandy bottom and feel logs and sunken drift wood that are very old. Preserved by the acid water and sterile sand. This cypress has floated up out of the dammed up Lake Rodman. It is probably a section of a branch. I estimate the live age was 500 years just by counting the growth rings. But was buried in the peat for no telling how long. Some logs are floating up 8 feet in diameter with growth rings 1/64 of an inch apart and closer. That is 64 years per inch.  A mix of pine heart, Live Oak, and cypress. I have cut sections of ancient logs for bowl makers. There is a big problem though. They are packed w/silica sand from wave action. Dulling the chain quickly and reaping havoc on the bowl turners expensive chisels. The clay up in Georgia has little abrasive effects on chain saw chains. I take the chains i use in Florida to be sharpened in Georgia. They are 2 inches longer and have to have links removed to shorten them to fit the saw. The shop owner was totally mystified that i could change the 'pitch' of the chain.  |
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Post by 150FromFundy on Feb 22, 2014 12:01:42 GMT -5
Whoa! Like I said, pure artistry. Thanks for the reply and thanks for sharing the photos. Member will go GAW!
I haven't seen the show that your referenced, but I have seen a Doc on harvesting old growth forest under water. They came up with a submersible that would balloon a trunk, cut the trunk, then inflate the balloon to float it to the surface. It's amazing what is hiding out there. Keep on searching.
Darryl.
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grayfingers
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Member since November 2007
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Post by grayfingers on Feb 22, 2014 12:51:48 GMT -5
Wild how close the patterns and colors are to some of the fossil palm. That is a neat (driftwood?) display. The rivers and lakes here get hunted for pieces for mounting trout on.
Love burls, Knew an old gentleman that had a antique pipe collection. They were all made from rare old burls of great beauty, full of eyes.
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Post by Tonyterner on Feb 22, 2014 13:17:53 GMT -5
James,
Unfortunately I'm only in Florida about 24 hours so I really won't be able to make any side trips. I've turned quite a bit of maple burl, we have a lot of maples here in PA, and its one of my favorites. I LOVE the submerged wood that you find. The anaerobic atmosphere below water really helps to preserve wood. In your case its added tons of character.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,612
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2014 15:30:05 GMT -5
The lake property i have at Lake Rodman fronts on a slight cove. As the wood floats up out of the submersed peat they get blown into this cove. The log float is 50-100 feet out into the lake. From under water it looks like a ceiling as the water feeding the lake is crystal clear from Silver Springs. I collect this old wood from a boat. Used to snorkel and swim it back to shore. One day i started paying attention to the bottom and noticed several 7-10 foot gators sitting on the bottom. That's when i started using a boat. I should have known better. Because birds land on the floating logs and feed. I have observed many get snatched by gators from between the logs. Then it struck me that the floating logs were a serious feeding grounds for the gators. In about 1970 Rodman was built. The welded two D12 caterpillar doziers together to drive over the stumps to pack them into the peat for open boating water. Then they flooded the lake. And then they lower it every year to kill aquatic vegetation(and let me collect wood and artifacts). The big machine damaged the peat and over the years many ancient forest layers have floated up from the deep peat. Law enforcement had to stop people from hauling the giant cypress logs in to saw mills. They were sawing the pecky cypress into lumber and table tops. But they let us burn it. Just can't sell it... So instead of those tree diggers having to pull the logs up, they are floating up on there own. And these logs are way before the ax was ever invented. I have seen cypress stumps in 20 feet of water that are over 20 feet in diameter. Of course they taper quickly, they are still amazing. And i find a lot of cypress logs with a pyramid cut out of it to check to see if it was solid or pecky. In the early days the solid trees were sought after. So the ax men would do about an 8" x 8" cut about 4 inches deep to see if it is solid. The limb section in the photo above is infected with the pecky virus. peckyfurniture.com |
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