Learning to turn a wooden bowl
In my Art class this quarter, we’ve been given an amazing syllabus of projects and asked to choose a set which we’ll complete this quarter. One of the options is to create a wooden bowl, whether turned on a lathe, carved, or created through some other means (I’ve heard some people in the past have burned out the inside). Having become fascinated with the wood lathe from an attempt at a different project in the Fall, I decided to focus on bettering my turning skills.
I’ve heard rumors that turning a bowl isn’t nearly as easy as it sounds, so I decided to start with a test piece. I bought scrap piece of poplar, cut it up, and glued the pieces together to create a block.
Some seriously clamped wood
Once dry, I rounded out the block on the band saw and circular sander to create an appropriately shaped blank and mounted it in the lathe (don’t worry about the chunk missing at the end… it’ll work itself out).
Wood blank mounted on the lathe
I then began to navigate the set of tools at my disposal to see if I could turn this rounded block into more of a bowl-like shape. You’ll notice in the picture below that I’m actually using the wrong tool. It took me a while to start to understand the difference between gouges, scrapers, and the like. I still feel like I have a lot to learn, but with the help of Richard Raffan‘s timeless wisdom, I’m beginning to get there.
Shaping the outside of the bowl
So far, my test piece has served as a great way to learn about the importance of tool sharpness, the characteristics of wood (poplar’s softness and long grain have led to some interesting results so far), and proper stance for tool stability. No wonder it takes so much experience to become a true craftsman. My next plan is to try again with a bit of a harder wood, perhaps teak, to see how it behaves.
Leave a Reply