Here is a piece of Desert Ironwood I had turned to round Friday, and it was so hard I had to sharpen my chisels twice just to get it round. I set it aside and turned another blank, much easier turning and made that into a trumpet for Dylan. I turned mouthpieces, ferrules etc for other trumpets I was working on , finshed those up and called it a day. Yesterday morning, this piece of Ironwood was still on the bench and I decided to give it another go. It had a lot of burly figuring in it so was tough turning and I had to keep sharpening the chisels to prevent tearout. After something like 5 or 6 hours of painstaking turning, I was finally able to start sanding it through the grits to 1500 grit with the grain, and then an old piece of crocus cloth. It began to shine, and then I began applying the finish. I couldn't believe the figure in this, and the chatoyance which looks like panned gold flakes in the sunlight.
I love figuring and burl woods, this was a jewel in the rough, I had no idea what was inside even though I had high hopes.
Thanks for looking, Dave
