Live Edge, Live Oak bowl

I named this the “Live Bowl” since not only is it a live-edge bowl, but also it is made from Live Oak. It is made from the crotch of a large branch that broke off a tree next the office at my day job. The crotch gives it its three wings, as opposed to the usual two wings. This is the first bowl that I dried using alcohol soaking. It took about two weeks to stabilize, but I let it sit for a third week just to be safe. Live edge bowls are tricky. With those wings spinning around, one spends a lot of time cutting air. And the wings tend to hurt one’s fingers when you have a habit of feeling the surface for smoothness. Then, I had to figure out how to finish the bottom: I could not just remount the bowl on cole jaws. All good stuff, though, pushing the limits of one’s skill. One thing I noticed regarding the figure in this wood is that it lost some chatoyance at some point. I suspect that this is because I sanded to a fine grit and then burnished it with a brown paper bag. This, perhaps, kept the finish from penetrating as deep as it could have. This would also explain why I only needed two coats of wipe-on poly, instead of the usual three to four.