This was my mystery burl from the guessing game back on day 295. I decided to rough turn it this evening while the weather was cooler than normal. I thought I was going to be disappointed with this piece as it didn't contain any heartwood.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a fair amount of color inside, but it's not heartwood. I think it's a stain, possibly a form of spalting.
Alternate view. The wood is Olive so that means checks. It's pretty much impossible to dry olive without it checking badly, this is particularly true of reaction wood and burls.
Roughed and cored. They're now bagged and on the shelf to dry.
Bottom view. I'm hoping they don't crack too bad during the drying process. I'll probably end up filling cracks with either epoxy and coffee grounds or epoxy and crushed turquoise. I'm thinking that the Turquoise will contrast with the darker heartwood more than coffee grounds will.
Both the Aspen and spalted maple hollow forms got some additional finishing done today.
The Aspen has a
The spalted maple was turned again to reduce the wall thickness and the overall weight before being sanded top to bottom. It's significantly lighter now than it was last night. It also received 2 coats of oil today and had the larger bug holes cleaned of the frass (the politically correct term for bug poop).
Turned 4 simple pens this morning, these will be donated to Packages from Home to be sent to the troops overseas. Coffee Tree, Walnut, Maple, and Mulberry.
After last night's success I decided to go for broke and pulled a very nice piece of Spalted Maple off the shelf. 12" long and 4 1/4" square. 
Finished turning, stands 11" tall and 4" diameter. The bottom was left a little thick so it is stable when standing.
