Hi All,
Well, I went downstairs and beginning at 6:30 this morning and until 10:30 I worked on various bowls. Ill talk about them one at a time:
Ive thinned out the Blue House bowl quite a bit:
and I think it still needs more hollowing out. It does look much better than last night and Im happy with the inside slope of the bowl. But a little more would be better. Im going to bring the bowl inside and let the wood fibers settle down for a few days and Ill re-turn it next week. So far so good on the bowl.
Next, I took a look at the other two bowls in the drying box. The sycamore bowl from last week dried but is some what misshapen and has a crack. So I put it on the lathe and hollowed it out to almost its ultimate shape and here it is:
As you can see this bowl has some really wild, irregular grain patterns and this plus all the water and tree sap in it has probably contributed to this crack. I am going to keep the bowl and place it back in drying box for a week and see how it does. Im going to keep working on it despite the crack.
I also took a look at a cherry wood bowl that Ive been working on and as this is a gift, Im not going to post those pictures right now. But it is drying nicely and Ill get up super early on Monday and hollow that out. Its a lovely shade of apricot pink.
I also ordered and received several bowl blanks this week.
The above two blanks are both 10 inches in diameter and 3 inches thick and will make lovely bowls. The top one is hickory and the bottom one is red elm. Even covered in wax and in a rough state, you can see the beauty of the grain in the wood.
I also received 3 smaller blanks that are 8 inches wide and 3 inches deep:
From left to right they are honey locust, sassafras, and beech. These are hard dense woods that will turn well.
I decided to turn the hickory blank above and so Ive started on it today:
Ive reached my limit of photos for this blog posting so Im going to stop and Ill post more photos later today of this bowl.
Ive got a busy autumn here in the SWW workshop and well see how to deal with the sycamore bowl and youll also see the Blue House Bowl when its finished. So we have more adventures ahead us and as always, thanks for stopping by.
Time for some coffee,
VW
Now for the finish: I make a lot of kitchenware for food preparation and those items always get a food safe varnish or mineral oil and beeswax but for other items, like this plate which is not going to be used for food preparation, I like to use Danish oil. This oil really brings out the grain patterns in wood so a dull looking piece of lumber can often times be spectacular when its oiled and Ive gone ahead and applied a preliminary coat of oil to the top of the plate:
This will take approximately 7-10 hours to dry and then Ill flip it over and oil the backside and then let the whole plate dry for 48 hours. This allows the oil to dry completely and harden. Then Ill place it back on the lathe and polish it and give it a very light coat of beeswax and buff it.
These are sharp on both edges and are used for general hollowing out. So Ill work on the mahogany on first. Here it is after about 10 minutes of carving:
Hmmm....looks like a wooden lollypop...
Heres the spoon after about 15 minutes more carving. Ive placed my wedding band inside so you can judge the depth:
Walnut can be a devil to finish (cherry is another difficult customer) as scratches from turning show up like headlights on a car. They stand out quite readily and have to be sanded away and that can take quite a bit of time. I use sanding stars and a drill to get the scratches sanded out of the piece. I use an 80 grit and 100 grit stars to accomplish that. Then I use sanding sponges, which are sponges with sanding grit bonded to the surface, to finish the sanding. I go all the way to 400 grit and by then the piece Im working on will begin to look polished. And thats what I have planned for this particular piece. Ive also rounded the rim a bit to give it a more finished look and Ive thinned the sides and the bottom a little. I think this will look quite nice when Im done.
And its raining too which is nice. I love cool weather and I also enjoy winter here but if we dont have a winter like last year, I wont be disappointed. In fact if it doesnt begin snowing until a week before Christmas, Ill be really happy!
I turned on the lathe and proceeded to smooth off the out side of the bowl and turn it round again:
The outside is cleaning up very well and the wood feels dry to the touch. Next Ill have to level off the rim of the bowl and then turn the inside of the bowl round and that is going to be a big challenge. Ill be working on this over the weekend and Ill keep you updated.
It hollowed out very well.
I then cut out the lid on the bandsaw and placed it on the lathe:
The blank needed to be trued up and flattened on the bottom and it also needed a tenon (the slot in the picture) cut for later attachment to the lathe:
Now the hard part: I have to cut a lip along the edge of the lid so the whole thing will fit snugly on top of the bowl. Yesterday I cut a lip onto the top edge of the bowl that is 5mm wide so we need to cut a lip about 6-7mm wide so it will fit. Heres the photo:
After I cut the lip, it had to be hand fitted just a tiny bit and viola-it worked:
The next step involves placing this whole unit back on the lathe and turning them together so I can true up the side and make the diameters of both match:
The last step involved shaping the top of the lid and cutting out the knob and smoothing the whole thing down:
And here is the finished box:
It needs a considerable amount of sanding which Ill do over the next couple of days. Ill post a final photo when it is done.
The photos dont really do justice here...