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Here is a recently completed southwestern style hollowform turned from post oak burl. I actually have worked on this piece for about eight years (sporadically, no continuously) and decided that it was high time to finish it so that I could use the chuck for something else.
The burl had a natural hole where the top is located and was partially hollow and about as hard as iron. The inside of the burl had lots of hard black pith wood that was full of silica. Conventional HSS tools were no match for this hard wood so I was not able to make any progress until getting a carbide cutter. Even with carbide, I wore out two carbide cutters. The opening at the top was very splintered so that is the reason for the turquoise Inlace around the opening at the top. Then I had the reinforce the underside of the top with epoxy and wood so that I could turn the exterior. After the exterior was finished I as able to hollow out the added wood and epoxy that I had place there for support. There were a number of borer tunnels that I also filled with turquoise Inlace. The piece is bare wood (no varnish, lacquer, shellac, oil, or wax -- just elbow grease :laughing
sanded to very fine grit to give it a satin sheen. Originally I had a foot on the piece, but removed it and made the bottom round to more closely resemble southwestern style pottery.

The burl had a natural hole where the top is located and was partially hollow and about as hard as iron. The inside of the burl had lots of hard black pith wood that was full of silica. Conventional HSS tools were no match for this hard wood so I was not able to make any progress until getting a carbide cutter. Even with carbide, I wore out two carbide cutters. The opening at the top was very splintered so that is the reason for the turquoise Inlace around the opening at the top. Then I had the reinforce the underside of the top with epoxy and wood so that I could turn the exterior. After the exterior was finished I as able to hollow out the added wood and epoxy that I had place there for support. There were a number of borer tunnels that I also filled with turquoise Inlace. The piece is bare wood (no varnish, lacquer, shellac, oil, or wax -- just elbow grease :laughing