| ion_start --> | | | | gave him the wood. The person tells a friend who has |
| For most wood workers, the next project begins with | | | | just had a tree knocked down in the front yard |
| the plan and follows with the lumber merchant. | | | | because the poor old birch got salt from one too |
| Especially for the cabinet maker, a plan determines the | | | | many winters and finally died. It had been a play place |
| board feet needed of specialized, cut and planed, air or | | | | for the kids and flowers had grown around it and there |
| kiln dried boards. Careful sorting determines the very | | | | were too many memories for it to be burned or |
| finest to be purchased with the best grain for strength | | | | chipped. A phone call goes to the turner. Would he like |
| and beauty. Of course all this means a premium price | | | | it? Could he use it? Does he want to come and get it? |
| coupled with the anxiety of making a bad cut or being | | | | Of course. |
| wary of a glue spill along with a host of other | | | | The turner knows a buddy who has a chain saw so |
| concerns that might mar a fine finish to an expensive | | | | they arrive the next evening with a van that has only |
| board. | | | | carried groceries and hockey gear. Soon the back is |
| At the other end of the wood working lives the wood | | | | filled with birch logs. Who knew there could be so |
| turner. A chain saw becomes an essential tool as the | | | | much wood in one tree? The lathe is in for a work out. |
| turner of wood becomes a seeker of material to turn. | | | | Many bowls come from the birch and they are getting |
| Not for him the fancy boards from the hardwood | | | | better and prettier now. Our turner is wondering just |
| specialist. Instead he looks for the nearest tree that will | | | | how beautiful a bowl he can make. Each cut is little |
| yield its own section for turning. | | | | better and the finish a little finer. One bowl full of |
| You see, most cabinets start with material less than | | | | memories is given to the person who first gave the old |
| three quarters of an inch thick while the turner looks | | | | birch. Word gets around after one of the neighbors |
| for wood at least three inches through. Most pieces | | | | sees the bowl and hears the story. Another phone call |
| will be less than a foot long. Log sections start to look | | | | comes and bud vases start to come from a small oak |
| like prime material. So a mystery begins. | | | | that had to be cut. |
| The turner gets a bit of firewood, perhaps from his | | | | Soon the turner is looking for trees that need to come |
| own pile or maybe by borrowing from a friend. Then | | | | down for one reason or another. He starts to haunt |
| the questions start to flow. | | | | the phone crews who need to clear power lines. Now |
| Why do you need the log? You don't burn wood. | | | | he has his own chain saw and people call him to clear |
| What are you going to do with it? What do mean | | | | a tree that blew down in the last storm. He sees the |
| make a bowl? | | | | tree as a series of bowls. When he returns home |
| So a piece of wood goes on the lathe and shavings | | | | from work, logs have mysteriously appeared in the |
| start to fly. Mysteriously a bowl begins to form from | | | | driveway. No names have been left; no one has seen |
| that piece of cast off maple or oak. When it begins to | | | | anyone arrive with the log, but bowls await. Maybe a |
| look like a bowl for certain, the sanding commences | | | | lamp or a set of table legs. |
| until the wood looks like glass. Then a finish is applied | | | | The wood is almost free. It is too good to be burned, |
| and magic happens as the wood leaps to color and | | | | but no one else wants it. Some hard work and it is on |
| shimmer like the living thing it once was. The turner is | | | | the lathe. Some pleasant time and wonderful work and |
| hooked and so will be his friends. | | | | a new piece is admired. |
| For he takes the bowl and shows it to the person who | | | | |