Woodturning Experiment Part 2 - Can This Bowl Be Saved?

So I started roughing this bowl out. It was a crotch piece, oak. And, uh, after I thought about it, I said, huh, why not start filming it? Give these guys an extra video. So I'm not sure exactly what this is going to be yet, but, uh, welcome and I hope you enjoy the ride. All right, after all that, we have circled back around to what I originally was planning on doing with this bowl was ebonizing it. My ebonizing solution has turned kind of red. I really don't care about why aren't you absorbing into my brush? I assume this is red oak as well, which doesn't seem to ebonize quite as nicely as white oak. But again, we're just going to do it and see. Worst case scenario, scrape it and take it off, right? All right, we're going to let it sit there, soak in and dry. I don't know what it's going to do because normally it would be black by now. So, all right, so after some thought, it's got to be the shellac. The shellac I put on there probably penetrated deep enough. Not a good enough reason to use the word penetrate. And of course, it's going to repel anything from absorbing. So I actually had to wipe it down with paper towel to get some of the excess off, which is abnormal. That being said, I absolutely love what we got going here. We have just a range of amber tones, some black deeper in the grain. It's perfect. I love it. I'm not going to mess with it anymore. I'm going to let it dry a little bit longer, flip it around, and hollow this sucker. I just want to point out the steady rest here. Really nice. Also comes with a small one in the set and a 12-inch round bar. I cut down to 6 inches because I already had a 12-inch one. Really affordable set. I think it was from PSI. I don't know. I'll link it in the description because 1-inch post, there's not really many affordable options out there other than making them yourself. So you wouldn't believe how much this really comes in handy when you got a lot of reach. On your tool, getting it this close, that deep, takes out a lot of vibration. Yeah, that's really all I got to say. So I'll bring you back when it's time to sand. All right, here we go. 80. All right, we're sanded to 240. Now I have a tongue oil and mineral spirit mix. I diluted it with mineral spirits just to allow for better penetration. I want some good oil penetration to try to highlight. Got a little bit of flame right here from the crotch. Not much. Not much at all, but a little bit. So on the inside, I would get to see tongue oil, then shellac, then sanding paste. And on the outside, I'll get to see shellac, tongue oil, and sanding paste. So yeah, a little experiment. I guess I get bored doing the same thing all the time. And when applying any kind of oil finish, if you see any dry spots start to form, you just re-oil them. So this is what I'm seeing. Lots of different tones on the outside, which I really like. Lots of movement there. Got some of the flame happening here, right there. And then the inside just left natural. You know, honestly, I'm not a huge fan of oak. Oh, lookie there. The turquoise on the rim. God, man, this is... Talk about some happy accidents. We don't make mistakes. We have happy accidents. That might be the title of this video. Happy accidents. I have an old woodworking buddy I've learned a lot from that lives near me that told me something that stuck with me a long time ago. The finish is what can turn a $50 bowl into a $500 bowl. You can't rush it. You got to take your time and you got to do it right. So I'm going to put some latex gloves on because we're going to wipe it down with a scotch brite pad. Then sanding paste. And of course, we're going to use nothing other than my homemade sanding paste. I've got a video about this and my tongue wax. I'll put a card up for it. I'll link it in the description and I'll also link my Etsy store if you're interested in it. And then something new for you. All right, so we're off lathe and that's fine. I really like it. I hit all the cracks with compressed air and then wiped down what blew off. And so there might still be a little bit of abrasive paste and some cracks or some paper towel, but that's not a big deal because I'm going to finish this with the wax anyways. And the wax I'm going to use is my brand new penetrating tongue wax. A lot more gooey than the typical tongue wax. And yes, I know it needs a new name. I don't think many people are going to want to buy something that has penetrating and tongue in the same sentence. So I just apply this with the paintbrush off lathe. I will let it sit and soak in, absorb, do its thing for probably 24 hours. I've left it longer, you know, just because I haven't been able to get back to projects, but it's an off lathe finish. I've got to get a baby rattle on this lathe and get it turned and sent out within a day or so. So I don't have time and I really don't want to wait for tongue wax to get on there. And plus with it being natural edge, it's hard to get a good heat built up on the rim. So sometimes you end up with a more glossy finish down here at the base and a little more matte finish here. This will give you a super matte finish, so it's definitely not going to be glossy, but I don't want glossy. This is a very unique piece. I think just a natural protective finish is going to look just fine. And so I'll bring you back when it's completely finished a few days after I remove the penetrating tongue wax because I want to show you how well it keeps its color and the low luster sheen and also tell you about a few changes that have kind of occurred lately. All right. Well, that was Brad from the past, and this is present day or future Brad. And I've got some bad news for you guys. That bowl that you saw me screwing up over and over again sold immediately. Like three days after I finished, I went to a craft show, had it up there, and it sold fast. I mean, it was a pretty cool bowl, had a lot of cool features within it, but I don't actually have it to show you anymore. I do have some pictures I'm going to pop up, but really the final product of that bowl wasn't the point of me putting out this video because a lot of turners can make that exact bowl. It was more about trying new things, showing you techniques, and not giving up because I screwed that bowl up. I don't know how many times you just start over and you try something new. You try something new till you find something that works. I would love to see some people experiment with adding some color to shellac. You could even add it to lacquer. I really think there's something there. I just don't have the time to dedicate to nailing it just yet. But just keep it in the back of your old brain stem there. If you have a piece of wood come up your turner where that might be an option to try. But really, I hope you at least enjoyed the journey to this video. I appreciate y'all sticking around to the end. Please feel free to hit the subscribe button. So please hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, and we'll holler at you next time. I gotta come up with a new woodturning outro. How about just later?