In December I had a wonderful opportunity - I was commissioned to turn a bowl from a many-years-old redwood lace burl blank. The blank had belonged to my client's late father-in-law, and for years had served chiefly as a base upon which to display other art. My client had seen my work at the Olbrich Gardens show. The burl was identified as redwood lace by Binh Pho and several members of my turning group at the class discussed in my November 22, 2008 post.
The burl was extremely dry and dusty to turn, but for all that it turned and sanded very easily. I finished it with several hand-rubbed coats of Butcher Block Oil. The client was quite happy with the result (and so was I).
I also turned a wine bottle stopper for them from one of the scraps of burl.
