First Bowl

A first test with mystery wood

I've read the books, watched the videos, and attended some meetings of the Presque Isle Woodturner's (which is an awesome group, by the way), but I hadn't turned my first bowl. I've turned other items, like dowels, knobs, and even a pair of drum sticks, but not a bowl. In my defense, I didn't own a bowl gouge until recently, and I didn't even have a round carbide tool, so I wasn't exactly well-equipped for turning bowls.

Since I recently was fortunate enough to obtain both a round carbide tool and a bowl gouge, I wanted to give it a try. I quickly discovered that my new bowl gouge was not properly ground or sharpened, and it simply wouldn't do the job, and I had no way of regrinding it in my shop. So, plan B was the carbide tool.

We have a wood-burning stove in our den, and we discovered a place in town that builds shipping pallets and sells the wood cutoffs by the truck load. These are blocks of hard wood sized about 3" x 6" and vary in length from about 8" to 24".

Block of wood from pallet cut-offs, normally used for firewood.

I found a piece that looked reasonably solid, cut a square chunk off, and got to work. I really wasn't worried much about quality because I assumed I would end up botching it anyway.

I used a woodworm screw to mount it on my chuck, then shaped the bottom and outside of the bowl. Shaping with the carbide tool was surprisingly easy, but I did choose to use straight shapes so I could use my tool rest as a straight guide instead of having to worry about getting nice curves. I like geometric styles anyway.

I made a tenon on the bottom, which I mounted in the chuck to hollow the inside. As expected, hollowing the inside was a bit more work, and a bit more precarious with the carbide tool. I was fighting tear-out, but eventually got it to what I felt was acceptable for a first test piece.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised with what I ended up with, not only with the pleasant shape and decent finish, but with the attractive wood. I don't know what kind of wood it is, but I got quite lucky with the beautiful color and curve of the grain. Most importantly, I can put candy in it now.