Yew Bottle

 I was given a piece of Yew last weekend and was asked to make something from it for the guy that had given it to me. It wasn't very wide, infact it was a five inch wide branch,felled a decade ago, bone dry but full of cracks. To be honest its not a piece of timber I would have bothered with if it wasn't 'given' to me but I said I would make him something and so did.
 I decided to make him a 'bottle form' from it, and I must say despite the cracks it is quite an attractive piece of timber. I have hollowed it down to a thickness of around half an inch as there are many cracks and I didn't think it would take being any thinner without exploding on the lathe. The stopper is made from Oak, a small piece that was laying on the bench left over from another job. It is fifteen inches tall and finished by sanding with boiled linseed on the paper to try and fill the cracks and a hand buffed wax over that.