Stump

After I had finished my bench, I decided that I needed a little practice with my gouge work. Testing differing cuts, and woods, and grain. During one of these practice sessions a few weeks ago, Mark approached me. We talked a little about the bench, and gouges, and hand tools. He was telling me about his recent trip to Thailand, and how since it is illegal to harvest teak, the locals are starting to uproot the teak stumps, and carve beautiful things out of them. Single piece dining chairs, and sculpture and such. And then he stated that I needed a stump, and that he'd bring me one.

Mark is the qualifications director at work. He's the one who is writing the blog for work. At times he can be an odd duck (such as informing someone that they'll receive a stump), but since he lives out in the country on such-and-such acres of land, he has various oak stumps lying around his property.

I naturally accepted, because: why not? I'd be more than happy to beat on a stump, and today he brought one in. It is either, red oak or chestnut oak. Mark was uncertain, but those are the two most prevalent trees on his land.

I just spent the last hour or so (I guess I was wrong about it being 'not quite outdoor weather' yet) washing off a bit of the dirt, and hacking away that protruding root.

I also used the gouge to cut away the center mound, in order to turn it into a stable base. However, this lead to the problem of liking both the root as the base, as well as the trunk for the base.

So, next step is to figure out which way I want it to sit. After that will come the problem of figuring out what it will be.