Beautiful Eucalyptus

A couple of years ago a good friend donated a piece of Eucalyptus trunk he'd taken down some while before and had had 'lying around' outdoors for some months. I was unsure what the condition would be internally after time languishing in the English climate, but it was definitely worth a try.

So it came home in the back of the car, and has been laid in the workshop ever since, where it's at least been dry and relatively cool for 18 months plus.

The time had come to cut into it a month or so ago and see what I'd got. So out with the chain saw (well supervised by the 'boss' here, who insists on being present if there's any chance of my losing a digit or a limb) and I was delighted to see that it cut nicely into 4 sections, all of which seemed pretty solid. There were many interesting fissures, which are typical of Eucalyptus I believe, but it looked like it would turn nicely.

The first bowl took a little resin into the fissures for added interest. A pretty piece, and lovely fruit bowl.

The second turned out quite similarly, with some lovely knots running through the piece laterally.

This work also proved a good first canvas for my newly-acquired logo brand.

Then onto the slightly bigger chunks of wood, and the first off was a small 'plant' pot.

And finally onto the biggest bit, and a larger pot, which turned wonderfully well.

The offcuts were then cut appropriately and have been transformed into a small range of corkscrews, bottle openers, letter knives and pens.

And all that was left behind was an enormous pile of wood-shavings, which are very useful as fire-starter material in the cottage's new woodburner.

It's been a busy couple of weeks and a lot of fun working with this piece of Eucalyptus. If I can get hold of any more then I will. Until then, I'll be doing what I can with a 3ft length of Poplar collected on Saturday from another pal. And yesterday's visit to Didcot to see yet another friend (I didn't realise I had so many!!!) and help cut down their old Cherry tree has seen the arrival into the workshop of a large volume of cherry wood.

It'll be a while until it's seasoned and can be turned (measured in terms of years rather than months), and with Cherry so prone to splits then who knows what it'll turn out like by 2024/5, but til then it's stacked in the workshop, though it can't stay where it is now....