cedar bowl

[Duff Bement]

Cedar bowl from a pice I found in the ditch after the power company came thru and trimmed under the power lines.
8"x3" with 3 coats of tung oil and I will probably give it 2 more but I couldn't wait to post the pictures. With out a doubt the prettiest piece of wood I've turned but not the easiest. Let me know what you think, and be honest please.

[Jim Kountz]

Hey someone took a bite out of the rim on your bowl!! Oh no!! LOL
Nice job, love the colors and the grain!!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Looks pretty good Duff! Really like the colors and the curl! Cedar is fairly soft wood and you really have to have sharp tools to prevent tear out. I'm just taking a guess that was the difficulty.

[John Frigillana]

:confused:Work looks great with the natural bark and inclusions. Does the cedar smell weaken after awhile and does it have a strong scent while turning. I'm working on a piece of Lebanon cedar. I turn in my garage and leave the automatic door raised. The smell is very strong. I left it outside in my courtyard after roughing it and sealing it with Anchor Seal and the scent is still strong. Has anyone ever turned this wood before?

[Dewey Torres]

I bet that one made the shop smell good! :D

[Duff Bement]

The shop does smell great and I did have to go the #80 gouge more than I would have liked to. There are still a couple of small spots that could have been a little better but over all my work about a 7 and the beauty of the the wood a 9.5.

[Jeff Nicol]

Duff, Red Cedar has some great qualities and some that are not so great! THe great ones are that is sands nice and has a great smell while turning it! The bad ones are that it is usully full of knots and cracks and is brittle so it will chip out easily. I can see in the bottom of the bowl there are some tool marks left and that is at the end grain. This is one of the other bad things is that the fibers of the wood are most allways pulled up at the end grain. I will make the last few cuts very fine and at the highest speed I feel comfortable with, or use a very sharp scraper to take some very light cuts to remove the tool mark. Most times I will put a very thinned out shellac on the bowl and let it dry before I make the final cuts and then sand after that. With all woods they have their pros and cons, so you will learn them as you go.

Great shape and you can't beat the varitions in color of red cedar! I was going over to Rochester to Mayo clinic a couple weeks ago and there was tons of red cedar laying along the highway, I had to stop and pick a few chunks up myself!

Keep on turning,

Jeff

[Ron Erickson]

Duff The bowl is very nice. Sounds like you want advice on how to improve so her goes. To me the line I see at the bottom inside is not the nicest look. To get the inside one smooth curve try making the base smaller, say 1/3 or less than the diameter of the bowl. That smooth curve is what I have trouble with. Hope this helps. Ron

[Duff Bement]

Thanks for the tips, that is eaxctly what I need is help with the finer points. i will try the suggestions on the next one. I think I have 3 or 4 more blanks ready to go.
Duff

[David Christopher]

Duff, that is a very nice looking bowl.....love all the color variations

[Steve Campbell]

I love the looks of that. I sure do like working with Cedar. It makes the shop smell so nice. It is hard to beat the color too..
Nice job

Steve