I picked up a couple of interesting logs while visiting the Dulzura Winery and Vineyards. I don't know when they had been cut but they looked good with nice bark - might have been western oak. One interesting log appeared to have had a branch growing out of it that had either been broken off or burned. I got quite a surprise when I got it on the lathe and found a bunch of hitch hikers. The wood was totally infested with woodworms. I did some preliminary turning to get a smooth shape but worms would occasionally come flying out of new hole. After giving it some thought, I decided to put a layer of epoxy over the finished turning figuring that would kill off any remaining intruders. I took the wood off the lathe, covered it in clear epoxy and let it sit for about a week. When I came back a week later, I found fine sawdust around the piece on my bench. Undeterred, I put the piece backup on the lathe and decided that I was no longer going turn a bowl, I was going to create an "art piece." (and in the process defeat the worms) I turned all of the epoxy off and worked to a shape I liked. I decided not to turn the interior at all since it was coal black, hard as a rock and looked like the inside of a barracudas mouth. I decided on a volcanic theme. I spent several days turning and picking worms out of the holes with a dentist's tool. I would take tiny balls of cotton wet with a tiny bit of organic pest control liquid and force it deep into the burrows. Then I filled the burrows with blue or green tinted epoxy. I coated the interior with green, blue and clear epoxy. And finally, the entire exterior with clear epoxy. Months later, no worms have escaped this volcanic tomb.
