Wood Fruit ??

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Thought about answering Pete's post, but I wanted to show the piece I did many years ago, so decided to make a separate post for it
As I had seen Pete's nice fruit-like turnings and his just finished Banana, I was reflecting on the ones I turned, though never done many as I found the effort in making them not very rewarding, so I turned other things that I find more fun to turn .
But I did turn this Apple like fruit-knife holder some 43 years ago, and it did make the trip over from Holland to Canada, it has been used in our home all these years as a decorative and useful item.
I got the hard tropical wood from my friends sawmill, and it was a very bright yellow then, the sawyer told me it would turn "Coffee brown" and I think he had it pretty close.
It has my first carved piece of wood of the very few I've done to add to a turning, it is the Apple's stem that fits into the opening I drilled to use for making the hand-sawn splits for the fruit-knifes to sit in.
The very low profile saw I also had to make as the opening was 1/2" IIRC, and had to be wide enough to have the knife-blades fit in easily, it was a lot of work holding the apple form and make the 12 slits, sawing them by hand into this hard wood, I was glad and quite proud when I finished it .

[Tom Christie]

Ah, Leo, you're Dutch, it all fits into place now, and I mean that most kindly. The tenacity, sincerity, everything. It's quite wonderful.
The apples are beautiful. Well done. I'll bet they were hard work.

FWIW, and I'm not all that proud of it but it seems only fair to disclose,
I am fifth generation Canadian, originally from Scotland. My Great Great Grandfather moved to Toronto in 1847 and started the Christie cracker business ten years later. Unfortunately, it was sold, with the name, to Nabisco in 1927...

Tom

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Tom, thanks for commenting, apples ??, no just one Tom, that was enough work already , and we surely don't need 24 fruit knives either
A Dutchman, yes I am, born raised and fought for it, just too many bureaucrats and other busybodies over there to my liking so I left , just too find they had them over here also

[jamie crozier]

Looks AWESOME Leo, great work as usual

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Thanks for the comment Jamie

[J.P. Rap]

Cool! It looks so real I want a slice.
Nice looking piece of wood too, whatever it is.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi JP , thanks , yes I don't remember what the woods called, I know the sawyer knew and told me , but.......
I know he had it for the gold smiths, they used it to make the gold rings to size, as it is very dense wood, turned nice even with a scraper, as that's what I used in those days

[Edward G. Burlington]

Leo: I like what you have done! This gives me an idea or two so I am saving the picture in my inspirational folder.

E.G.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Thanks Ed, nothing new under the sun I'd say, just another idea I had, and yes we do like it, looks good works well ;-)))

[astewart]

Might have it wrong but bright yellow wood that turns a beautful brown is mulberry. Have some in the shop but haven't figured out what to do with it.

Beautiful apple by the way! Some year maybe I'll be closer to your league.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi A....???.....Stewart

No you are not wrong about the Mulberry going brown, as does Osage Orange and a few others, however I'm quite familiar with Mulberry and OO and a few other wood types, this was not any of the above, but it was a piece from a imported log specifically for the making of the gold smith tools, and yes I was told the name of the wood at that time I just don't remember it anymore, I did turn a few more pieces from that block, and I still have some of those here in our home.

The Mulberry is very nice wood to turn A...??., but you have to take care drying it, as it is one of my most difficult wood to dry without splitting, so if your Mulberry isn't split yet, maybe you should make something from it before you have nothing but splinters left over

Here's a picture of some Mulberry bowls as they looked new and of one as it looked some years later

[astewart]

Thanks. Nice bowls. I wanted to try something with the Mulberry but can't figure out what yet (and I'm in the Christmas rush to get all the presents done). Don't much care for the yellow color but once it goes golden brown it is a very beautiful wood.

Would it be better kiln dried? I have some black walnut in 14" x 14" x 24" that is checked after 4 years of air drying but still has some nice bowls in it (if I can manage to get them out).

Thanks! Alex

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Alex
You know if you had rough turned some bowls or platters or...., then the pieces would have been dry a long time ago and the wood would not have split/checked, of course we don't always have the time to do that, it is happening all to often over here as well, as there's just tooooo much wood to turn and not enough hours-days-years to do it all , good thing is of course I won't run out of either wood or things to turn