Two broken burs today, so I'm taking a break....

I'm about 1/3 of the way around the vessel in terms of doing the rough shaping. Unfortunately, I broke the last two of my drill saw burs - both on the same cell. There must be a very hard spot in that part of the wood.

These drill saw burs are cheaply made, and I just ordered some more. I was dismayed to see the price had about doubled since the last time I ordered. I need to do some research to find a less expensive source now.

The diagram on my bench is from a micrograph of Sequoia wood anatomy - a cross-section of the stem. Each cell is four to six-sided, and the final shaping will reflect this for the most part. It's slow going, for sure, and I'm using the Foredom tool for the drill saw burs. The vibration beats up my hands, but I can't risk my NSK handpiece for this stage of the work.