Making a turned box, from a strange beautiful wood

I found this piece of wood and I figured that it had pretty awesome grain patterns.

I decided to make a wood box with it and see how it responded on the lathe.

First of all I cut it in half on the bandsaw.

Then I used my draw knife to rough flatten one side. I finished the job, with a hand plane.

With one side flat I screwed the face plate in place.

I mounted it on the lathe and used a round chisel as a roughing gouge to round over the side. To flatten the front I used my skew chisel.

I used my bowl gouge to establish the outer shape of my box. I used a flat chisel and a skew to shape the bottom. To the bottom I also made a tenon so I can reverse the box on my chuck.

I sanded the outer side using 100 grit sand paper. I gradually moved to 500 grit. I finished the piece by wet sanding it at 500 girt with mineral oil.

I also found a crack during the process. I filled it with super glue and sanded over it, to fill it with dust.

I reversed the piece using my chuck. I drilled a starting hole with a forstner bit on the lathe.

I started hollowing using the bowl gouge. I then moved to a spindle gouge and finished a few difficult areas with my swan neck curved scraper.

I made the cap of the box using a flat chisel and a skew. I measured the boxe’s opening with a caliper in order to create a tenon on the cap that fitted snuggly.

I am pretty happy with the way it came out. I really like that wood, even though I don't know what it is!