Our club president had a very large hackberry tree blow over in a storm and like any good woodturner with this kind of luck, he offered up free wood for anyone who wanted to come harvest some. Yes, only wood turners would consider a storm knocking over a very old and very large tree as good luck… From the initial pictures Roger had posted, it was clear there was going to be a LOT of chainsaw work necessary to clean up the mess. I didn’t really need anymore wood, but Roger’s a good guy, so I figured I could spend an afternoon helping him cut, assuming my back didn’t cut the day short. After a couple hours, the main trunk of the tree was pretty much reduced to workable pieces and several smaller blocks were cut to be made into bowls or platters. When I packed up my saws, I loaded a few pieces of wood into the truck as well, figuring it was less that Roger would have to haul off and maybe some day I’d be able to do something with the wood.
One piece of the hackberry seemed to be baiting me as it sat on the wood pile in the garage. It was about 11″x5″ square, had an extremely consistent grain pattern showing through the edges and sometimes, when the light hit it just right, it seemed to flash a little bit to indicate there was something better hidden in the wood. I resisted for about a week, then cut it round and did the rough turning. Still being green, it turned like an absolute dream! I felt like a pro as long, thick ribbons of wood flew off the end of the gouge and left a wet spot on my shoulder as the wood hit me in mock protest. When it was roughed, I sat it aside to let it finish drying. What I thought would take 6 months or so actually only took much, much less time. When I checked the moisture content last week, it was well within range, so I excitedly put it up on the lathe for the final turning, all the while imagining how striking the grain pattern was going to be.
It wasn’t.
What I ended up with was a incredibly pale bowl, absolutely devoid of color, with growth rings so close together at the top they’re almost imperceptible. Honestly, I didn’t see that coming. I sat it aside for a week, fully understanding that each time I walked past it the wood had gone from baiting me to mocking me. Today, I decided that if the wood didn’t have any color, I’d rectify that little problem. I wiped it down with blue aniline dye, hoping to bring out the grain because of the contrast. All it did was turn it into a splotchy mess, since apparently hackberry doesn’t stain evenly. I’m pretty sure I heard laughter from somewhere. Not being one to admit defeat, I pulled out the airbrush, which allowed me to focus more stain into the areas that were resisting. Once the stain was blended and dry, I added two coats of liming wax, hoping that would accentuate the grain more. For those who’ve never heard of liming wax, it’s like the Desitin lifeguards put on their noses and mom’s put on diaper rashes, only thicker. In theory, it only “sticks” to the growth rings, making them “pop” against the base color. What I was expecting to end up with was a dark blue bowl, with white growth rings standing out. I’ve done this on ash before and the effect is wonderful! For hackberry, since the growth rings were so close together, what I got was this pale blue bowl that only shows the growth rings on the bottom half of the bowl. The more I look at it, the more it reminds me of a pair of blue jeans for some reason.
I still have to let the liming wax finish curing, then I’ll buff on a coat of carnauba wax, but for now, I think I’m going to count this one as a win!
