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Turning of the Week for September 5, 2022

Bill Boehme

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My selection for the turning of the week of September 5, 2022, is "White Oak Jar" by John Jordan. John certainly eased my task of selecting the turning of the week. While many woodturners shy away from turning oak, white oak is one of my favorite woods, possibly because I live in the middle of the Post Oak Savannah in Texas. I was really attracted to the simple but elegant clean form and yet there is so much to see when you take a closer look. I love the Lissajous-like patterns created by the intersections of the medullary rays and the annular growth rings, both of which are so prominent in white oak and further enhanced by the fuming. The beautiful hammered metalwork adds the perfect finishing touch to John Jordan's White Oak Jar.



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A very nice piece. I am puzzled by the seemingly impossible grain pattern on the left front of the piece. Are the whorls on the left natural or created by embossing?
 
That is an incredibly handsome piece, all around. (And thanks to Bill, I learned a new word, Lissajous .) Quarter sawn white oak is what I used to make the furniture in my house, all of it stained by fuming, much of it displaying Lissajous like features.

What I can not wrap my head around is how Mr. Jordan got those handle nipples incorporated so seamlessly. . . very impressive.
 
A very nice piece. I am puzzled by the seemingly impossible grain pattern on the left front of the piece. Are the whorls on the left natural or created by embossing?
You will always get that pattern in the oaks-it's the medullary rays. Cut through the plane with a curved surface, you'll get circular patterns.

John
 
What I can not wrap my head around is how Mr. Jordan got those handle nipples incorporated so seamlessly. . . very impressive.
Ditto!

Beautiful piece though... only oak I have to work with though is 3/4 inch thick so unless I do segmenting, I don't get to turn much of it..

but, Love to know how those handle nipples were done (I can only guess they were carved, in which case that'd be beyond my skill set..)
 
I absolutely have to agree that this is absolutely exceptional!
Probably 60% of the turning that I've done has been with white and red oak, simply because that's what was mostly available to me for free, so it was an easy wood to learn with. The downside is that I'm SO tired of turning oak, but projects like this give such a fresh take on a relatively average wood!
Great pick, Bill, and excellent work, John!
 
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