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Woodturning Projects: Bowls

I am really fascinated by woodturning, and I especially like to learn how to turn bowls. My primary references to learn have been the books Turning Wood by Richard Raffan and Turning Green Wood by Michael O’Donnell. This second book has an accompanying video which I borrowed from my local wood turner’s club. I am fascinated by the process of taking a green log from a felled tree and shaping it into a bowl blank, then turning the blank into a bowl. I also got a lot out of watching the DVD Two Ways to Make a Bowl with with Mike Mahoney and Stuart Batty. Of course, I have gotten plenty of individual help through watching some of the guys at the local wood turner’s club. That’s where I learn how things are done in the “real world”.

These are my “first projects”, all turned on my Delta Midi lathe, using my cheap Harbor Freight turning tools.

This is my first turned bowl. I decided to go with the “natural edge” look. I find this look very interesting and wanted to learn how to do this. I attended a meeting of our local wood turners club, where the instructor was Don Geiger. He demonstrated turning a natural edge bowl, and made it look easy. I would highly recommend seeing one of his demonstrations if you can - he shows a slideshow while he is working, and really explains what he is doing very well. I went home after that meeting and turned this bowl from a piece of oak log. Took me about five times as long as Don, though. I was pleased that I was able to maintain a centered concentric grain pattern, but I learned some lessons with this project. One thing I learned is that I needed a good bowl gouge. Don had about 4-5 Ellsworth gouges ready to go at all times, and he demonstrated how to grind and use them.

My second turned bowl. This one is turned from a piece of Maple. I got a Sorby 3/8″ fingernail bowl gouge for this project. I sharpened it and used it “as-is”, but one day I probably will convert it to an Ellsworth-type grind. This bowl started out as a natural edge bowl also, but about half-way through the project I (abruptly) changed my mind and decided to go with this look instead.

I have plenty more wood to work with. Since I started getting interested in turning, I have discovered that “found wood” is all around. One of my neighbors recently cut down three maple trees, and I picked through those trees to find some logs that are appropriate size for me and my midi lathe. I’ll be updating here when I have something else worth posting…