Ambrosia maple is regular maple, left moist and warm and exposed to the elements after the tree dies, so that the ambrosia beetle can attack the tree. The beetle bores into the tree, bringing ambrosia fungus spores with it. The fungus attacks and stains the tree and then the beetle can eat the fungus as it reporduces. The net result: Beautifully figured wood.
So here it is - I'm finally satisfied with it. This is the first bowl I turned, made from Ambrosia Maple. For those fellow turners out there, I started it when I had only a face plate, then when I got my chuck including cole jaws, I decided to improve it - it was thick and clunky because I was afraid of hitting the screws in the faceplate setup, and it was rough with torn endgrain and tool marks. Not very impressive. So I turned a recess in the base and mounted it in the chuck.
I worked on it some more, thinning it out, improving the form, cleaning up torn endgrain. I brought it to work and put it on my desk. Then every time I was waiting for AutoCAD to do its thing, I picked up the bowl and over time noticed more and more I wanted to improve, but I was afraid of making it too thin and breaking it. Then my dad gave me a set of bowl calipers so I could check the thickness everywhere, and so I mounted it again.
I really like it now. The ambrosia beetle worked a pretty nice job on this piece, and left a few holes to show he had been there. I kept this bowl on my desk for a long time till the Farmers' Market this summer where I sold it to this sweet old lady. I missed it though, so I bought another piece of ambrosia maple and made this next bowl:
Price for a similar bowl: $12 plus wood. (6"x2")
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