This is to help defray FTB’s legal debts from Richard Carrier’s defamation lawsuit. Details and rules are below:

Note: NEW RULES

BIDDING CLOSED at $151

You can bid in the comments, or bid by emailing me [link]; it may take a while for an email bid to register because I check my email only once or twice a day.

Whoever bids the most wins. The final price is (winner decides) between $1 more than the second highest bidder, and what they bid. So, if someone bids $50 and you bid $100 and that’s the final bid, you pay whatever you want between $51 and $100. Please do not “auction snipe” with last-minute bids. This is more like a silent auction than Ebay. Pay Here: [paypal]

Auction Closes Monday March 22, 2021 at 10:00am EST

Shredded

I keep looking at this one trying to decide if I want to keep it (I have noplace to put it) or what. It’s a … thing. It is very heavy, I will ship it internationally if I must, but be forewarned that it’ll cost me a lot and customs tends to open heavy boxes.

This is a piece of oak heart-burl that is old, dry, and cracking. So, to make it more cracked, I whacked it with a hammer, then pushed it back together, put it in a bucket of resin, and sucked the air out. There is a bit of pearl flake in the resin for texture and I think it works. Some spots on this bowl, the light shines through. Others, it doesn’t.

As I was turning it, I decided to try a different shape than I usually do, and it went surprisingly well. Let me confess something: compared to grinding a knife blade, woodturning is pretty easy. Part of me keeps thinking I should turn the materials thinner, but I like the thickness if I am doing resin inserts – I enjoy seeing the raw edges hidden in the epoxy. So, this thing weighs a lot. It’s about 10″ across and 4″ high. I don’t think it would make a good yarn bowl. I do think it would make a great murder weapon.

I love the way the light peeps through some of the holes. And the grain on the oak in the bottom is exquisite.

Unrelated: tomorrow (with luck) we’re moving my forging press to the new location, and I’m going to use that as an impetus to stop making bowls for a while and get busy finishing wiring the shop and setting up the forge. I’ve been relaxing and kicking back doing bowls because of the recent political stress and some other crap that’s been going on in my life.

I currently owe: a nakiri/cleaver, a pimped wok, and a puuko knife. I think that is my shop work-queue. If I have forgotten something, please ping me. When I get the shop back on its feet I will be working those projects aggressively, although the wok project involves me completing my vacuum casting table, which is a bit more involved.

Thank you for bearing with me, those of you who have greased your bearings and borne with me. I really appreciate it and I swear I will not let you down. Unlike the F-35 programme, I will not spiral the costs of the project – but there are some teething delays as we mumble mumble logistics software data fusion something something.