What's new

Shape ideas and species help

I was working on a new house project and found myself up late last Friday and got out to the shed to unwind a bit. I spun this up and am looking for some inspiration.

I think I've got enough size to do just about anything and will likely have only the dark heartwood when I'm finished.

Blank.jpg


Also, any help with the species? This was a chunk of firewood that I thought might be walnut so I saved it but I'm not sure. Likely native to somewhere in Minnesota based on the firewood vendor. :)

EndGrain.jpg

This'll be a slow one given the circumstances at home but maybe will get more progress updates that way.
 
When I first saw it I thought is was walnut even before reading your post. The colors of the heartwood and sapwood look spot on to me.
 
Thanks everyone for the help identifying. Consensus seems to be black walnut. The Black Ash suggestion is also appreciated though the grain pattern seems much tighter than what I'm finding online for that as well as other ash that I'm familiar with.

So we know what it is, now I have to figure out what to do with it...

Not that I plan to (or would be capable of) directly copying any of these, but Wolf Whiskers does a fantastic job of showing some really nice shapes:
Wolf Whiskers Shapes
 
Well good news and bad news.

Good is that I got to the brush sooner than I expected to. Bad is that I didn't center it on the pith, trying to maximize the heart wood and on this log it was punky and showed up. When I noticed that I didn't worry too much about how it turned out and just played with shape.

This one is on the left. The right is a prior bush from the same log. It ended up with some sap wood which was punky too.

I've got a couple more pieces of this firewood so I might still get a good one but it's fun trying and practicing anyway.

IMG_20170226_143311.jpg


IMG_20170226_143325.jpg


IMG_20170226_143335.jpg
 
Top Bottom