Last week I processed a couple more of the rough turned Sycamore I mentioned in Log to Bowl, Wood Unknown. There are so many interesting grain patterns here, I’m a little sad I don’t have that many more pieces left.
Tag: bowl turning
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Curly Walnut
Following up on Logs to Bowls, here is a pair of bowls made from some figured walnut I received in log form earlier this year.
This one has the best looking figure, but I did end up accidentally leaving some tool marks, much to my disappointment. The walls were already too thin for me to make one more pass to try and clean them up, so I’ve just resigned myself to being OK with it. That said, this is my favorite of the two.
The other has a nice knot in the middle, which adds to its overall apperance. As simple as it is, I like the shape of this one better.
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Logs to Bowls
Earlier this year I was given several logs from which to make bowls. This includes several varieties: cherry; walnut; bradford pear; honey locust; and others.
I don’t have a sophisticated setup, and have never processed logs on my own so it was a learning experience.
I ended up with far too much waste, but I did also end up with a good set of bowl blanks which I then took the time to rough turn on the lathe to cut down some of the weight and help the drying process.
After the initial roughing out, I weighed each blank and placed them into a paper bag with some of their shavings. Every 4-6 weeks I re-weighed and recorded the info on the bag. Once I see the weight loss has stabilized, I know they’re ready to be finally turned into bowls.
Now I have a good stash to make it through the winter.
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Natural Edge Bowl
I have now had my lathe for a year. When I first starting using it, my goal was to be able to make some simple things by the end of the first year. I was able to achieve this, and even start turning some basic bowls.
Last week I decided to try a more ambitious bowl – one starting from a far more raw form than the “blanks” I’ve been using, and much larger.
Enter this nice piece of cherry, which only barely fit on my lathe. This tool can handle up to 12″ round, this one clocked in at 11 1/2″. It’s also the heaviest thing I’ve tried on this machine.
It was rough starting out. I initially had the lathe set to the lowest speed in the High range, and boy did it complain. It was slow to start, quick to slow down under pressure, and had just enough vibration to make cutting a struggle.
Once I got smart and changed the belts to Low mode, things went much better and progress much quicker.
It wasn’t too long until it actually started to look like a bowl – at least on the outside.
I had every intention of making a live edge bowl – meaning the bark remains along the rim. It started out well, but eventually enough came off that I decided to strip all of it and end up with a natural edge bowl instead.
After the main portion of the bowl was complete, I made my first jam chuck and turned the bowl around (with some quilting batting from Ana) so that I could complete the bottom. 4 months ago, the thought of having to first turn a jam chuck on the lathe before using it was daunting. Now? Not so much. Progress.
After turning and applying some tung oil, the bowl was complete. There are still some tool marks in the bowls I make, and this one is no exception. I am, however, improving with each one I make. I’ve also made some great strides with regards to sharpening, which helps tremendously.
Here’s the final product! I don’t know what we’ll do with it, but it feels like a bit of a milestone I’m proud of.
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Lidded Bowl
Furthering my effort to chronicle my projects and progress with a woodworking lathe, here’s my latest creation. My first bowl with a lid.
Using Kent Weakley’s great tutorials and videos at https://turnawoodbowl.com, this was a breeze. Since I really only have small stock available, the results are quite a bit smaller than I’ve seen elsewhere but I’m still learning the basics.
This one is made out of two pieces of spalted maple.
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Maple Candy Dish
To get some woodturning practice in this afternoon, I turned a small piece of maple (6″x6″x2″ I believe) into what I’m calling a candy dish.
It isn’t a regular bowl shape. Rather, there’s a small base upon which the dish sits and the sides of the dish have more character than a simple bowl shape.
A maple “candy dish” Looking at it now after a few hours, I can see the base could use a little shaping itself and possibly be made a little shorter. I find it funny that I’ve seen bowls and dishes my whole life but it isn’t easy to come up with pleasing shapes when turning. This is close, I think, but could benefit from some tweaks.
Two other new things for me in this piece are: 1) the black groove, burned in with wire, and 2) the use of friction polish to give it it’s glossy finish.
I bought this wood as cheap practice blanks but, wow, I really like how they look.
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