A Slight Detour

I started a new job recently and much to my pleasant surprise, I am right next door to a high end custom millwork shop. They make custom staircases and use a lot of Sapele and Teak for their handrails. The majority being Sapele which is similar to Mahogany. Anything in the dumpster is fair game for the taking. This wood is too beautiful to see go in a landfill and I'm not too proud to let it go to the landfill. The image below is my first project from this wood. It was from a slab of wood 20 1/2 inches long 11 1/2 inches wide and 4 inches thick. Most people wood look at that and say what would you do with that? Why, make 2 bowls out of it of course!

It measures 9 3/4 inches wide outside diameter and probably 3 1/2 inches deep.

Here is a side view still mounted in the lathe chuck. This hasn't even been hit with sandpaper at this point and the grain pattern is already pronounced. This is the same wood Cadillac boasts that their dashboards are trimmed out with. I cant wait to see it finished. Not bad for an otherwise piece of garbage in my opinion. Don't mind the table cloth.