Learning Bowl Turning

At art shows, I always stop at the bowl turners' booths to marvel at their mysterious and beautiful work. I've always wondered how they do it and recently I've taken a plunge into the fabulous world of face plate mounting or end grain turning.

This bowl turning stuff has really started to appeal to me. Or as Melissa puts it, I'm obsessed. After spending 6 months making my walnut coffee table (seen in previous posts), it's refreshing to know I can finish a bowl the same day I start it. Weird. Sure, it's not woodworking by most definitions, but it is working with wood, right? In fact, turning has brought me much closer to wood and I appreciate its beauty, smell, variety, movement, and texture so much more.

Here is my second bowl...made from an unknown blank I found on the clearance shelf at Highland Hardware. Cherry maybe?



Here's another...Maple. Its got some interesting holes in it, probably bored by some insect.

The shavings...you can't beat the feeling of being covered in all those warm wet shavings that fly all over you.


I'm still wasting tons of time experimenting with different styles of grinds on my tools. I have a crumby 6" grinding wheel with vibration problems. I'm also still learning how to use my tools, which tools to use, and which grind to give them.


In addition, I'm still trying to master all the basic stuff like how to safely hold my work, which speeds to use. And since my lathe is my Shopsmith, I'm also learning on a "stick shift"...nothing is rigid or solid. The Shopsmith walks all over the driveway if anything is slightly off balance. Someday I'll buy a real lathe!


Yesterday I made my first bowl good enough to become my personal salad bowl; Tulip Poplar. I put a rim that allows one to hook their thumb on it and tried the get the dimensions perfect for my nightly salads. We'll see how it does. I'm a little concerned I made it too thin for abuse.


I've always thought natural edge bowls (i.e. the bark is still attached to the edge) were impractical. After making one, I've changed my mind. It's way too cool. It allows one to really enjoy a tree long after it's gone and it still can hold stuff just as well. The most thrilling part is that I was able to turn this Oak log (found on the curb a block from my house after a storm):

into this: