After ebonizing the piece of cedar, I suddenly had the urge to see what the process would do to other kinds of wood.  I found the last piece of willow that I had in the shop.  Willow is either the easiest wood to turn that yeilds a pattern kinda like an ambrosia maple, or it’s an absolutely nasty, chippy, cracky, punky, poor excuse for firewood.

I tossed it in the pot, added the fluid and put it under pressure.  After three days, it too looked like a lump of charcoal.  After a week in the kiln, I took it down to the shop and started turning.  Turns out that willow doesn’t really suck up the ebonizing fluid like I thought it would, so I put it back in the vacuum chamber, let it soak for three days, then left it for another three days under pressure.  When I re-turned it, I realized the color had indeed gone through the rest of the blank.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that a series of cracks developed on one side of the bowl that my mentor said was “un-fixable”.  I was left with designer firewood.

After staring at the piece for a couple of days, I decided to mix up some black epoxy putty and fill the holes.  At worst, the piece would fly apart on the lathe at some point, but that could be fixed by wearing a face mask and being a little less aggressive with my cuts.  At best, I’d end with a piece that showed off the sudden color changes, with the filled cracks “blending in” with the overall look of the bowl.

Here’s what came out of the process.  I’m extremely pleased with this one!  Not enough to go looking for another chunk of willow to turn, but enough to start looking for more wood that can be ebonized and turned.