Turned Bowls

 

Here are some early bowls, made from apple, bubinga, walnut, mahogany, and ash.


Here are some newer bowls. Top right is from a cherry burl; front right is birdseye maple, with square edges. Top left is poplar, with a fringe of holes carved into the edge. The mahogany bowl in the center was made by making orthogonal cuts, to form a grid pattern.


More recent bowls, made from ash, apple, and maple.


I have made many dozens of turned wood bowls. It is a good way to use up odd-shaped scraps, and in fact some of my nicest came from downed trees and burls. We used to sell some at local craft stores (again a money-losing proposition), but lately I have been getting tired of making bowls (to say nothing of the piles of them I have sitting around). I started using a lathe when I was about 16, when I bought a Sears Craftsman lathe for about $40. I got it because it was about the only power tool my parents would let me use, for fear I would cut off a body part (In fact, my father had a nice table saw when I was little, and I believe he sold when he thought I was big enough to actually try using it myself - which probably would have been around nine years old.) It was not a bad tool to start out on, but when I got more seriously into woodworking I sold it and got a Rockwell. Used that for several years, then got a Jet. The Jet lathe has a rotating headstock which is very useful for bowl work. I also have a Nova chuck that goes with it. Around 1989 I took a two-day lathe course from Russ Zimmerman in Vermont, which was very useful.