This walnut burl piece is 13" by 3½". I was fortunate to find the wood at a local Windsor plywood store, but it cost me a fortune. A friend saw this bowl, which my wife has claimed, and I turned a similar bowl for him. The bowl is finished with 3 coats of Danish oil and waxed

This is a wall hanging created from a 100-pound slab chain sawed off a root burl from a Russian olive tree that grew on the grounds of the Legislative Buildings in Winnipeg. It's about 26" across. I turned it green and left it in a warm basement over the winter. By spring it had cracked and twisted, so I drove some screws into the edge of the crack, clamped the twist straight and poured resin (tinted blue with artist's acrylic paint) into the crack. When it hardened I re-turned the piece. The disk in the center is red resin, with some blue swirled in it, and poured into a margarine container mold. When it hardened I simply popped it out of the margarine container and glued it on. The wood is finished with 2 coats of tung oil and waxed, and the resin has several coats of clear lacquer.

This purpleheart bowl is one of several I've made the same way, laminating either brass or aluminum with the wood. I prefer the brass, but it's pretty tricky to turn. Your chisels need to be very sharp to get a clean cut. It's made easier due to the density of the purpleheart, but even so, keep your sharpener close by. My dear wife quickly claimed this bowl, which is finished with my own concoction of varnish, linseed oil and turpentine with a bit of drier added. It's also been waxed.

This is one of a pair of walnut planters in my office. I designed and built them with three laminated, curved legs so they would be rock stable. I think if I were to build them again I'd make them with four legs; they would look better. The sides of the planters were glued up in a hexagon, then turned and glued into a groove in the base. They are finished with three coats of varnish, then rubbed out with 600 and 1000 grit wet-dry paper using soapy water as a lubricant.

This bowl is from a maple burl I found on a week long wood hunting trip with my buddy, Clem. I found the burl at Garland Miller's place in Wakefield, Michigan. The natural edged bowl is 16½" across and 6½" deep. I turned that burl over and over and set it aside again a hundred times before I decided to start cutting into it. It ended up in just one big bowl, with very little waste on the outside. The burl was very old and brittle, and very, very difficult to turn. I used four coats of tung oil on it, and now wish I hadn't, as it darkened up more than I wanted. It may have been better to use one or two coats of water based varathane and then rubbed them out. It's still a very attractive bowl that caught the attention of one of my wife's co-workers who bought it. Karen will never forgive me for letting it go.

This is the first "hollow type" form I tried. It is made of Manitoba maple, which is really a box elder. On a drive through town, I spotted a giant root burl stump sticking out of the ground about 1½ feet. It was about 5 feet across. I went to the door and asked if I could have it. They said OK, and when I went back a couple of days later to cut it out his neighbor had already cut it up for me. The color and grain of this wood is incredible, and my wife has threatened me with dire consequences if I even think of selling this vase. It's about 9" tall and 4" in diameter. The only finish is several coats of wax.

I've made a lot of these little vases, using the most peculiar wood I can find and test tubes bought from the University store. It's a good way to use some of the outer parts of the tree. The combination of rough bark and polished wood finish gets a lot of attention. This vase was made from the Manitoba maple burl described above, and like the vase is finished only with wax.

It's hard to find a prettier wood than pink ivory. It comes from Botswana and South Africa, and is called the "Royal wood of the Zulu's". The chief's son had to fell a tree and make a spear of this wood in order to reach manhood. Only Zulu royalty was allowed to possess this wood - anyone else caught with the wood was put to death. The cost of the wood reflects its rarity and beauty. At it's price, it takes real nerve to start cutting into it. All I could think of was "what can I do with these beautiful pink shavings?" The wood is very hard, but surprisingly easy to turn. It takes on a polish like no wood I've ever seen. All this 8" x 2" bowl has on it is a coat of wax.

We looked and looked for a lamp to match all the walnut furniture I'd made for our living room. However, everything we saw was brass and aluminum and ugly. So, we ordered a glass dome that we liked and I made the rest. The base was glued up and turned separately from the main post. It's quite heavy, since we also wanted the lamp taller than normal. It stands about 6½ feet. The cradle for the glass was also turned separately and glued on. It was quite interesting to mount the entire lamp on the lathe to sand the glue joints smooth. I turned the headstock on the lathe so the top of the lamp stuck out into the room, and my wife held the end of it and let it turn in her hand as I did the sanding. The lamp is finished with three coats of varnish, rubbed out and waxed.

This is a set of cherry bowls about 9½" across and 3" deep. They are finished with my own concoction of varnish, linseed oil and turpentine, and waxed.

A cherry burl I found in Michigan yielded several nice pieces, but I'm especially fond of this bowl, about 11" by 4". The bowl is finished with two rubbed out coats of water based varathane and carnauba wax on top of that.

The same cherry burl had this vase inside of it. As you can see, it has voids on both sides, and I knew it would fly apart on the lathe. So, before I turned it I added a collar of purpleheart. This vase gets a lot of attention and I'm especially fond of it. The burl was very soft in places, and required liberal doses of "Hot Stuff" to secure it. I managed to get the walls down to slightly less than ¼". It stands about 9½" tall and is about 4½" across. This piece is also finished with two rubbed out coats of water based varathane and then waxed.