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Spalted Porcupine
Thomas Stegall

Spalted Porcupine

"And now for something completely different." Trying something new. Uprights are South African Porcupine quills. (NO PORCUPINES WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS VESSEL, WOODTURNERS ON THE OTHER HAND...) I think the wood is Hickory? I was helping Binh clean out a storage space and this piece of wood had been "drying" for the past 15 years. He gave it to me with a few other pieces in payment for being his mule for the day. I thought it would be too punky to turn and almost tossed it in the garbage.

I originally drew this with seven quills mounted closer to the bottom with the bottom ends pointing inward. This would have made it less stable and would take up more space. Since I was not confident in my efforts to mount them I ended up with this simpler design.

With the orignial design in my head I am having trouble seeing this piece objectively so your objective comments and critiques are much appreciated. The quills are 10" high, vessel is approx 5" dia by 6" tall.
The wood appears to be Spalted Maple, but I could be mistaken. Your work looks excellent. How did you attach the quills?
 
It has an open/ring porus grain like Siberian elm or hickory etc. The piece was turned with the pith at the opening and at the center point on the bottom. So you can see some of the rings on the bottom curve. Thanks for the compliment. The quills were attached by cutting and grinding nails, placing them inside the vessel through the opening and then I used a suringe to put epoxy on the inside of the vessel around the head of the nails for rigidity. The nails were painted to match the quills. The quills were then carefully drilled to 3/32 depth and glued.
 

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