Woodbox 23

I had this block of 2″-3″ Maple I found in the bin at Woodcraft. They get these cuts form a local instrument shop, these are the off cuts, or flawed pieces that they can’t use. It’s a pretty good deal, since the wood is sold by the pound. The block I had was 13″ by 10″ I think? And pretty thick solid, good color. The only flaw was this small dark spot. It runs through the wood at a shallow angle. I cut out two chunks about 6.5″ in diameter, and chucked one up this weekend.

Here is the result:

It’s my largest bowl yet. And the most functional. This is before I’ve put any finish on it, so it’s currently untreated. I have, buried somewhere in my shop, a can of Salad Bowl Finish by General Finish that I want to try out, since I intend to actually USE this bowl as a real bowl. I have another chunk of the same maple I’m going to make a matching bowl for my wife with. That will be an interesting challenge, to replicate the same form and feel.

Here are the steps I took.

• Cut the square blank out of the large chunk.
• Cut it roughly round on the band saw. The blade I have right now is pretty wide so I couldn’t get a perfect round, but I was able to remove most of the wood, and rough it out pretty well.
• Pinch it up on the lathe between centers, and turn it a bit more round.
• I also carved a dove tailed inset into the bottom with my diamond scraper.
• Using a small parting tool I cut away most of the bottom portion, and left only a nub that I would chisel off later.
• Removed the blank from between the centers.
• Replaced spur drive with four jaw chuck
• Chucked up the blank in the inset dove tail, and checked it’s balance manually.
• Using a roughing gouge I turned the outside true and gave it some shape. I was a bit out of practice and it caught a lot. I’m still working on my form here.
• Once it was roughly shaped, I popped the whole chuck off, with bowl, and set it my vise. I then drilled a 1″ hole in it middle with a Fornster bit. I should have done this before, but oh well.
• Back on the lathe to start hollowing out the bowl.
• Using a combination of bowl gouge with Irish Grind, and the Diamond Scraper I cut away most of the material. My grind needs touching up on my gouge, but I have no jig for grinding it, so that’s why the combination of tools.
• using a round nosed scraped I finished the inside shape
• using a bunch of a different sandpapers, and attempts I got the inside mostly smooth, with some minor tear out rough spots, but much better than my last bowl.
• Sanding the outside to finish it up and off the chuck it comes.

Over all I’m quite pleased with it. It’s a sturdy bowl, probably a little thick on the bottom, but I had cut in too much when cutting the bottom, so I was a little cautious about that. It feels good in the hand, a good shape for holding in your hands and eating from, which is what I was going for.