American Elm Oil Lamp

Matt and I were able to get six large burls from the 90 year old elm I mentioned a few post below. Since the original cuts were pretty oblong we had to round them out. This left us with a number of off cuts that could be used for pens, bottle stoppers or oil lamp candles.

The oil lamp shown below was the first piece I turned from the elm. The blank started out as a roughly 3x2in block. I rounded it out between centers and made a small tenon. I then held the block in a chuck and formed the candle from there. When I had the form done I borrowed Matt's step jaws and held the piece by opening the jaws inside the hole for the candle. With the bottom free I was able to remove the tenon and sand the piece. If I had the foresight to borrow the jaws earlier I would have turned the whole piece like that. Finally I gave the piece a lacquer finish. The candle is liquid paraffin.

The figure you get with burls can be quite varied. Sometimes you get swirling grain patterns and striking color changes or sometimes you get nothing. Knowing this I was nervous with the first piece. Luckily the burl has so far been beautifully figured.