Dear Diary....

Played double duty today taking the next
steps to prepare my stock for upcoming shows. I finally got the 300 pound flame box elder monster rolled out of my trailer and into the garage. Like you see here, my interest is in the quilted look on the outer surface. I know whatever is going on under there is going to look great as a set of special salad tongs. We also took down this bare Black Locust tree today. Still have not learned my lesson on Black Locust...it dulls everything it touches. Crap is so dense and heavy. But, I love how it looks when it takes that high polish and a beautiful color. Also turners, because it has a dense and heavy feel it can be turned thin for a great look, yet have a deceiving weight when lifted. Killer combination to play around with.

Website Update

Go to www.theurbanturner.com and check out our updates and new look!

Upcoming documentary

Last night we started the documentary. While it is not meant as an instructional it will cover a visual tour of a lot of processes that I go through in The Urban Turner Woodshop. More filming is scheduled for next week. Thanks for all your hard work so far, David! We will keep you updated.

Big flame box elder

Yeah now this is how it's done. Thanks to Limb Walkers out of Mukwanago for giving me a heads up on the flame box. These make excellent table platters because a little bit of the knarley bark remains close to the edge if you cut it correctly.
Bellow is an example of how this looks. If you can find a bit of this bumpy box elder, take it and try wrapping the bark over the edge!

Let's get it going! Hibernation time is over!

Well here we are with our first take of the season for The Urban Turner. We have a push this year to have 100 roughed out blanks by the end of the month. On the first day above 40 degrees out we were taking down this Norway Maple. Excellent tree. Lots of wood yielding about 30 quality bowls blanks 14" to 18" inches. Great start to the year!


I really like the look of wet shavings
all over the shop. It looks like some
sort of rain forest scene (right)....