If at first you don't succeed

After blowing through the bottom a second time, trying to salvage the bit of remaining bowl leftover from the first blowout, I decided to give it one more go from scratch, with what was left of this beautiful chunck of wood.  After all, third time is a charm, right?

This time I pulled it off.  And good thing, too, after all this is a beautiful piece of wood:  Spalted, Curly Japanese Maple.  Say that three times fast.  And to think that it was headed for the garbage.  

Ya can't win 'em all

I suppose it had to happen sooner or later.  I only recently started making these thin-walled goblets, and I got through the first four without a hitch.  I also have come dangerously close to blowing through the bottom of a bowl on several occasions, but always seem to manage to get through it. 

Not this time.

My neighbor was tearing out his dead Japanese Maple last Saturday, and I was thinking Maple plus dead equals spalting.  Sure enough it was indeed spalted.

I figured this piece of wood would make a great goblet, so I chucked it up and went to work.  I knew that I was getting thin on the bowl, so I setup my 500 watt shop light to monitor the thickness, but for some reason, this wood was not a very good conductor of light.  I thought I still had a lot of room, and then Bam!

I guess it had to happen sooner or later.  Hopefully I can still salvage the piece for another, albeit smaller, goblet, or for some other project.