A Short Story About a Pine Bowl
I will begin at the beginning. I sawed down my neighbor’s white pine tree. Boy was he surprised.
I dropped that tree by myself.
I carefully sawed pieces out of the log. My objective was to cut short sections of the log where the branch nodes were formed.
I took my dogs over to the site. They were not impressed. But you can see where I made some of the cuts.
I sawed some plain blanks, too. This bowl sold quickly to a longtime friend - she grabbed it up and would not set it down.
But back to the nodes - I have seen bowls made out of Norfolk Island pine - they are attractive and popular. Since I don’t
live on Norfolk Island I decided to use a local tree as an able substitute - I think having the branches grow out on from the
same point on the pith of the log is the key to their esthetics. Here are some pictures:
The bowl started out looking like this.
But as I sanded it I discovered that the sap had not set, despite having spent a year drying in the bowl room. Hmm.
What to do? I read up a bit and learn that heat can help set the sap. So I pop the bowl in my oven and turn the temperature
up to 140 degrees. A few hours ought to do it, right?
Wrongo! When I put it back on the lathe and resumed sanding it still completely gummed up the sandpaper.
Back in the oven with you, bowl!
More hours. Ten, twelve, then eventually a whole day. I tested it intermittently and while I was getting there,
it was still too sticky to sand properly.
More time, more heat! Surely this will work. Cue Leslie Nielsen. The final formula was three days at a bit over 200 degrees.
Toasty!
The results were worth it. The wood gained a great color and the appearance of the branches became more pronounced.
Another view:
Here another piece I made out of that log:
But back to the baking - an added benefit of cooking a big chunk of white pine in my oven was that the sap ran out and
coated the inside of the oven. Due to how the range was vented when I turned on a surface burner the wonderful smell
of pine sap wafted up from the oven into the kitchen. It’s as if the house became piney fresh time after time.
Sadly, after close to 70 years of use the drop-in stove broke down beyond repair - I replaced it and when it departed
took the pine scent with it.
I’ll close with Bou and my bird bowl.
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