Hi All,
Here is another project for a lovely late summer afternoon: turning a bowl from a laminated turning block.
Solid wood bowls are lovely to make and to look at but solid wood blanks that are deep enough for a bowl are expensive and unless a wood turner has the ability and the tools to core out the center of the bowl, most of the wood that makes up the blank will wind up being turned off--essentially you will wind up with a big pile of wood shavings.
An alternative to some of this (it doesnt solve the wood shaving problem) is to use laminated turning  blocks. These blocks are made up of different colored woods, usually scrap lumber left from some other project, and that are glued together into a block which can be sawed into a round shape and turned on the lathe:

There are some disadvantages to this type of blank: you have to be careful in gluing up the pieces. You must be sure to coat the surfaces of the boards completely with a good quality glue and clamp them securely for at least 24 hours. The direction of the grain needs to run in the same direction and you do need to use wood types that are similar in hardness. Using soft and hardwoods together isnt a good idea as the softwood will cut more quickly than its harder neighbors. This results in a very uneven surface.  The other major drawback is the resulting bowl wont have the beautiful grain patterns that you can only find in a solid block of wood.
But there are advantages. Using kiln dried dressed lumber reduces the problems with cracking and warpage that you can have with a solid block. Also you can greatly affect the final appearance of a turned piece by using laminated lumber. And you can use up small pieces of wood so this cuts down on waste and expense.
Lets take our above block and do a little turning:

You can see the outside beginning to take shape and Ive also cut a foot into the bottom. Since youve seen me turn many bowls, Im going to dispense with all the in between photos and show you the finished bowl:
Here is the finished bowl next to a similar block:

This turned very well. I used maple and walnut together and they turned well together and these two woods also give a good color contrast next to each other.
Im going to take the bowl upstairs and apply a food safe finish to it and then tomorrow Ill place it back on the lathe, and polish it with beeswax.
See you tomorrow,
VW

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Black ash and Brazilian cherry bowl finished and the next set of bowls

Hi Everyone,
Well, I guess summer is going out with a bang here in the northern mid west and weve got fall colors all over the place. I love autumn--its my favorite time of the year.
Ok, back to business. I took the black ash bowl from last time down to the workshop and began hollowing it out. Here you can see the Brazilian cherry layer begin cut down:

And here you can see how Ive cut through the red colored wood and down into the black ash layer:

This bowl turned out remarkably well. I completely hollowed it out and I left the walls a little thicker than usual. I think the bowl works well with thicker bowls both from an esthetic point of view and for practical reasons too. I think a heavier bowl with a broad foot is more stable to work with if the bowl will be used for cooking or displaying food. And after all thats what were here for--kitchenware.

Here is the bowl hollowed out and sanded smooth:

This only took about an hour to smooth and you can see how polished it looks. That piece of ash wood was amazing and it produced several bowls and plates and all of them came out beautifully.

Here are a couple more pictures:

And finally here it is with its first layer of finish:

This is going to be a really nice piece of work. Ill post more photos when its done. 

Now back to the walnut bowl....

I have several large bowls from solid blocks of wood coming up that have to be turned and are going to require more work than the more shallow bowls and platters Ive been working on of late. On Saturday Im going to begin working on a salad bowl from a solid block of cherry and next week, Ill start another bowl out of white ash and mahogany. Since the cherry bowl is a secret Christmas present for a dear friend, Im not going to post those photos until Christmas day. But the ash bowl photos I will be posting  and commenting on so stay tuned and be sure and join me for more adventures in the wood shop.

As always thanks for dropping by and have a good rest of the day.

Best

VW

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Next Project The Drinking Bowl Discussion and Plans

Hi Everyone,
As I mentioned in my earlier post, our next project will be a drinking bowl.
Now, what is a drinking bowl?
In the Middle Ages and probably earlier, Northern Europe and the British Isles made their kitchenware out of wood and it seems from relics that have been recovered, most people used bowls for eating and drinking. These areas also had a long tradition of wood turning on pole lathes, a lathe that utilized the natural springiness of tree saplings to power a lathe (there are many pole turners on the Internet and one of the better known is a gentleman named Robin Wood, who is located in the UK. He makes a living turning bowls and plates and other stuff with a pole lathe and you can see how he does this by going to YouTube and searching for Robin Wood Bowls. He has a series of videos that show how this is done). Since very few people owned tables at this point most bowls had a very rounded shape so people could hold them comfortably in their hands. Contrast this with bowls that are produced in contemporary times- these bowls have a much flatter shape with a wide foot. This is because these modern bowls are designed to be used on a table.
See this photo:

The dark blue bowl has a much wider foot than the light blue bowl and its the design of the light blue bowl that were going to try to emulate:

So heres what were going to do: Well go down to the workshop and get some scrap red birch and some scrap mahogany and mark it for cutting:

Since our light blue bowl is about 5 inches in diameter, well cut out our blanks about 6 inches in diameter:

Next, well coat them well with Titebond glue and stack them together. Im going to place the mahogany blank on the top so the bowl will have a dark red rim:

And lastly well clamp them together:

Hmmmm.....this looks like a large wood cookie with glue for icing.
The label on the glue bottle says to leave this clamped for 24 hours so well come back tomorrow evening and take the clamps off and see how were doing. If all is well well place it on the lathe and begin turning a small drinking bowl similar to the light blue bowl in the photo. Red birch and mahogany both turn very cleanly so Im anticipating a nice present for my friend.
See you tomorrow,
VW

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