I turned a small buckthorn crotch along the axis of the log, or end grain, to give an unusual bowl shape, and to hopefully show the interesting wood grain in a crotch. The following images show the crotch attached to my lathe using a small two prong drive and a live center in the tail stock. The image to the right shows why this is called an end grain turning. Turning end grain is slow going since you are always cutting along the end of the grain direction. You only get wood

A friend brought me some European Buckthorn to see how it turns. I have wanted some of this wood for some time but it is difficult finding large diameter pieces. The wood is very dense and beautifully colored. I selected a crotch shown in the photo below. I cut the wood approximately as shown by the inscribed circle and attached it to my Stubby 1000 lathe. The wood already shows nice colors and figuring. (click on an image to enlarge it) This is one of many ways to turn a cro