So, I’ve got a half-dozen ringmaster bowls made of walnut, rock maple, and cherry (all three in every bowl). I have a half-inch hole in the middle of the bottom of each of them, and I had pondered filling those holes with dyed resin or turquoise and resin. But now I’m thinking wood would be pretty too. But which wood? Citrus? Eucalyptus? Dyed purple curly maple? Katalox?
What do folks think? We’re headed out for dinner now, but I can maybe post some pictures later today.
Here’s the photos. The bowls came out pretty decent. I need to do a bit more sanding on two of them, plus plugging the holes and then finishing the bottom. My thought with using resin was that I could pour that slightly proud, and basically be done. Unless of course it gets dust or bubbles in there that I have to touch up. But a wooden plug in wood is pretty easy to finish, I think.
And here’s the purple tiger maple. It’s kinda pretty, and the bulk of it is going to make handles for my favorite ice cream spoons (they originally came with plastic handles, which have gotten brittle in the past 40 years, so I’ll be fixing them), but I figure there’s enough spare to plug the holes in these six bowls if I don’t go crazy.
That came from curlymaplewood.com which has pretty stuff. They ain’t cheap, but as I haven’t yet set up my stabilizing rig and I’ve used up most of the stabilized wood I have, I figured I’d get a few treats.
The bowls are identical, Eric. ;-) I cut six boards into three rings each, two boards of walnut, two rock maple, and two curly cherry. Then stacked them up in all six permutations (I was a math major for one of my sophomore years in college). Figured it was meant to be, as the dining room table is six-sided, so when we have neighbors over for dinner, it’s never more than two other couples.
I think the purple will be pretty, but the turquoise and resin would kinda pop, too. Oh well. I’ll sleep on it.
I usually just use wood plugs. I usually just try to match the wood grain. On the bottom as close as possible. A couple of times the bottom piece was not turned on the ringmaster so it doesn’t have a hole to plug.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
Yeah, I ought about matching, Nathan, but then decided I might contrast, and if I use the same purple that’s going to be the spoon handles, the bowls and spoons will “match” which would be neat. So I’m going to measure again later this morning and make sure I have enough for all six spoons and six bowls before I start with the plug-cutter…
Petey, it’s from CurlyMapleWood.com. My process was give them money. I think it was the violet, but it’s stabilized and dyed, rather than just dyed. That makes a huge difference, in my experience.
You could always go for some coins as an easy application. Size depends on your budget however!
I like the look of your "purple heart" nice figure but you'll loose that detail with small cutoffs. I tried dyeing maple veneer by soaking it in transtint for a few hours, but only penetrated the surface and sanded mostly away. Been thinking of doing the same except with the stablizing technique (vacuum) in a chamber, but me thinks the alcohol will "boil" off under the vacuum? That detail aside, I'm hoping the penetration would be 100%, heck it's only 1/40" thick maple.
