1st natural edge or ???

[Troy Donson]

Hey folks, I seem to have a bit of a issue here...

I tried my hand at my first natural edge bowl after being side-lined for a while with an umbilical hernia my surgeon said was "probably the worst I have ever seen in 25 years!!!"

Things went about as I figured: moments of blind panic followed by numerous cuts and contusions as I slowly got comfortable at the lathe again. Thankfully no sub-orbital launches, though.

Anyway, I sanded to 600, and shot 5 coats of rattlecan lacquer and hand buffed. Friends at work asked what I had been doing and were quite pleased with the "bowl" as they had never seen a "Natural Edge" before.

That is until one especially creative friend "tried it on!!"

Now with the popularity of turned cowboy hats, I am thinking of going into the turned "helmet" business. :rolleyes::eek:

Wha d'ya think??

[Bernie Weishapl]

Troy I think ya did good. That is a good looking NE for a first.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Glad to see you are doing better and getting back into turning!

Good looking bowl - great job on keeping all the bark! I've been turning for a while now but haven't tried a NE with bark yet. When I do - I hope it turns out as nice as this one!

[Maria Alvarado]

Hmmm. A chinstrap and a finial, and you're in business! ;)
But it looks just great as a "plain" old bowl.

[Chris Rae]

Great looking bowl! Not bad as a helmet either, I agree with Maria, a chin strap and a finial is all you need :D

[Don Orr]

Hey is that on OSHA approved hardhat ? :eek::D;)

Nice bowl-good job !

[Troy Donson]

I really appriciate the replies and kind words from you all.

The guys I work with are all gearheads (and nutjobs ) at heart and I have recieved quite a few requests for turned bowls from their wives and girlfriends. I brought this bowl in to show them some other styles that are possible. I figured I could maybe get a couple commissions. It seemed like after the shock of realizing that turning a bowl with the bark on was possible, everyone in the shop "tried in on"... I currently have 6 requests for "one of them there wooden helmet thingies."

So all that being said, I would like to thank all of you for being there for me when I needed help. I would also like to thank Keith for all his work keeping this wonderland going.

And looking things over I see I need to contribute again - ON THE WAAAAAAYYY!!!!!

[Phil Labowski]

Very nice! Your friends at work seem to be a great bunch of guys/gals too:)

[Ron Lynch]

While your friend's head does give a nice sense of scale to the bowl, I think it would look better on a table.