Dave wanted a challenge.

Dave who is one of my regular students said he wanted to make something that was a bit of a challenge and he wife Lynn also wanted a waterproof flower vase and was it possible to combine the two.
I just happened to have a very nice Holly log that Mark Baker gave me about four years ago and he said he had it about ten years so it was absolutly dry.
Because it had been drying for a long time it was as hard as flint so I thought this would be ideal to satisfy both criteria.
As you can see the log has loads of knots and they are as hard as bullets.

This is what Dave started with

 A piece cut off on the bandsaw about 18" long

 Mounted on the Nova lathe it looks quite impressive

The blank is mounted in 4" gripper jaws ready to be hollowed with the Crown Revolution after drilling with a 2" forsener bit

 They end result is a very nice vase that has been waterproofed with two coats of Treetex

Because of the hardness of the wood this was far from easy for Dave and I think this is a great result