Preface: I live in San Jose, California - the city described as a place with no There there.
The definition of an optimist is - One who, when place in a room full of horse manure, will assume there's a pony in there somewhere and then spend hours trying to find it.
I'm an optimistic woodworker. Give me a piece of wood and I'll look for the pony hidden in it. So, being one who will try finding Something in Anything wood I've once again turned something into nothing.
The Something in this case was a 10" 5x7 oval branch of a deodor cedar that had been sitting for several years. Whoever cut it didn't undercut the branch first so it had splintered a bit - and deep splintered to boot. But it was cedar - and free.
Bandsawed to get most of the bark off and get an approximately hexagonal blank to turn - splinters and all included.
Got it round and CN glued the cracks and splits as bess I could, waited an hour then went hunting for sound wood with a roughing gouge followed by a skew. Rough, skew, check for sound wood. Nope. Rough, skew, check for sound wood. Kept this up 'til I was approaching No. 2 pencil size before giving up. Never found sound wood.
Like dirt from a hole, turning seems to create far more shavings than could possibly be in the origianl piece of wood.
But the optimist in me notes that I've got a hell of a supply of cedar chips for a Sh*t Load of sachets! Not as aromatic as Spanish cedar but close enough.
Now I must sharpen the roughing gouge and skew, THEN try the next chunk of wood in my "Gotta Be A Pony In This One" pile. Maybe I should play the lottery instead. Nah.
With time, does this Pony In There Somewhere thing wear off?
charlie b