Who would suspect that a ghostly figure was hiding inside this large sugar maple burl. The full 17" diameter burl is shown to the left above. The burl wrapped about 85% around its log, so I cut it in the center perpendicular to the axis of the log to give two halves. Top views of these two pieces are shown in the second image. The one to the right was attached to a lathe as shown in the image to the right as a side view. This piece is set up for an end-grain turning. These pi

The Hovland Arts Festival will happen this year. Last year's festival was cancelled due to the pandemic so we are happy to return to a new normal and hold this very local community arts festival with outdoor and indoor vendors. The poster is presented below. Please feel free to share this page to help promote the festival.

I often get contacted by a person with a load of wood for turning. These calls seem to come at perfect times when I need new wood, magically out of the blue. I love box elder wood with some red staining. Here are images of some of the logs and a great piece cut from just above the root. The logs were marked by Greg from Chisago Center, MN, showing me the wood before I saw it in person. That helped deciding on which logs to get when I make the 250 mile drive from my home. To g

I have not had any aspen burls for over a year. These are my favorite burls to turn and unfortunately the pandemic has made it difficult for me an my burl sources to get these very rare and beautiful burls. The next best thing to a burl is a crotch. Crotches often have beautiful grain figuring in the area where the branches intersect. My latest turning (yesterday) was a very large aspen crotch. Old and large aspen trees are a hazard when they grow near roads and homes. They t