Richard Findley tackles natural edge work. What is natural edge work? Natural edge work, sometimes called live edge, refers to turning where the bark or the natural profile of the outer edge of the tree is visible on the finished item. The only natural edge work I’ve ever done is turning yew (Taxus baccata) mushrooms, leaving a ring of bark around the foot and edge of the cap, but I have never tried anything bigger. As I’m sure most readers will be aware, there are two ways of mounting any piece of timber on a lathe, either in a spindle type orientation, where the grain runs with the bed bars of the lathe, or cross grain, where the grain runs across the bed bars. In both cases, natural edge vessels can be turned. The editor challenged me to make something natural edged in both orientations. Challenge set, I went to