I'm PUNKY Too

[John Walls]

Some pics of a very punky Box Elder burl. This piece was so punky it was a fight to keep on the lathe at first. The inside of the bowl has some bark inclusion, the outside has a lot of defects going for it. I decided to leave the defects in as well and as much of the inclusion as possible. I wanted to go thinner on the walls but I would have on the outside lost too much of the defect, from the inside I feared it would have become a 3 sided bowl. I absolutely love the red mixed in with the burl. It will be given to a friend of mine that loves this, he's a retired artist/farmer. If you look close you can find a little bit of tear-out and some spots that show my rookie experience. I put 5 coats of 50/50 sealcoat and dna. Sanded down to bare wood then used spray on shellac, did 3 coats, sand down 2, another 3-4 coats, sand-sand-sand. It sits with 2 more coats, sanded back. I still need to sand down the center/inside to remove a darn run but might be a couple days. Wife is not feeling good so I'm in the house taking care of my better half. Life's a work in progress.



With the shellac sprayed on and not sanded down, the red stands out like a fire, really bright!
Let me know if there's anything I can do to improve on my cuts and what I can do to make this bowl pop more. Thanks y'all!

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I absolutely love the red mixed in with the burl.

That red is the beginnings of rot and I don't know of any way to keep it from turning that dull tan color other then keeping it out of the light. The photo is from the 1992 issue 10 of the British magazine Woodturning in an article about the 1992 AAW symposium in Provo Utah. I still have the bowl and it has not had the vivid reds for about 25 years, just a dull tan.

 

[John Walls]

I understand the red will eventually fade but the burl/wild grain patters will remain. I cut some for firewood and left outside. Only took a few days for the red to disappear. I've been searching for some UV blocker. I'd like to find some to mix in with the shellac to slow or stop it, or even as a couple coats. I have some red pieces that have retained color, mostly but I keep them out of direct sunlight. Any ideas?
The plug is from Purple Heart. I am told it will also fade to a grey with sunlight?

 

[John Walls]

I have some huge chunks of Box Elder burl. I'm wondering if I can bleach a piece then dye with red spirit stain. Would this help the red stay longer or just sand off?

 

[hockenbery]

I have some huge chunks of Box Elder burl. I'm wondering if I can bleach a piece then dye with red spirit stain. Would this help the red stay longer or just sand off?

Bleach leaves the red and may make it more vivid.

You can color the red areas with airbrush paint or spirit stains. The airbrush paint is on top and will not be affected very much by the color of the wood. The sprit stain penetrates a bit and is More affected by the color of the wood.
It will keep it more red.

both are difficult to keep over the red.

I did see Binh Pho airbrush over the red of a box elder piece in a demo. Let’s just say I cannot do what Binh could.
Applying spirit stains with small makeup sponges is not too difficult but takes a long time.

spirit stains will blead if the surface is wet with anything that dissolves the stain.
A first coat of finish need to be light.

 

[John Walls]

How would the bleach affect the bark? I want the bark to stay normal as well as the defect like I have on this bowl's side. I would not want to lighten either one of those.

 

[hockenbery]

How would the bleach affect the bark? I want the bark to stay normal as well as the defect like I have on this bowl's side. I would not want to lighten either one of those.

I mix the two part bleach. Let it sit for a few minutes and paint it on with a disposable foam brush.

if you can use gravity and a small amount of bleach on the brush to paint up to the defect.
same for the bark.

Usually bleach won’t affect those dark spots- It leaves black lines in spalted wood.
If you really want that black defect black don’t bleach it unless you have a piece to test the bleach on.

 

[John Walls]

If you really want that black defect black don’t bleach it unless you have a piece to test the bleach on.

I will turn up a couple small NE pieces with red. I will make these to experiment with, I'm not going to attempt it on this bowl, it's almost finished.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I understand the red will eventually fade but the burl/wild grain patters will remain. I cut some for firewood and left outside. Only took a few days for the red to disappear. I've been searching for some UV blocker. I'd like to find some to mix in with the shellac to slow or stop it, or even as a couple coats. I have some red pieces that have retained color, mostly but I keep them out of direct sunlight. Any ideas?
The plug is from Purple Heart. I am told it will also fade to a grey with sunlight?

For the last 25 years that I have followed the subject many people have talked about methods to preserve the red but no one I know of has followed up with a positive solution, but if anyone has a solution I am sure every one would like to hear it.