Spalted White Birch Bowl

[Steve Schlumpf]

Found a bunch of rough outs that I had stashed in the far corner of my shop and forgotten about. This one was roughed out in August of 2006! I need to look around the shop a little more often! :rolleyes:

Spalted White Birch, 9 3/4" diameter x 4 1/2" high x 1/4" thick. Sanded to 320 grit and finished with multiple coats of Minwax Wipe-On Gloss Poly.
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As always, your comments, opinions and critiques are welcome!

Thanks for looking!

[Tom Henry]

Very nice work! One day I will grow up and turn like Steve...:D

[David Walser]

Steve,

That's a wonderful bowl. Wish we had more spalted birch around here. For that matter, wish we had more trees around here...

[Ray Binnicker]

Great looking bowl, Steve...The only birch we have here in SC is the River Birch. Don't know if it spalts or not. I was going to kid you about forgetting you had it, and then a mental picture of my shop came to mind. I've got 2 out-building full of wood and I'm sure I can find something out there I've forgotten about. Always a pleasure to see your work........
Ray Binnicker

[Tony De Masi]

Very nice job Steve. It appears that you are beginning to find some old rough outs to finish, does this mean you are out of maple for your hollow forms?

Tony

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nope - got some wild maple on the lathe as we speak! Hope to have something to show in a couple of days!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking bowl Steve and nice find in the corner.

[alex carey]

thats a beauty, love the grain/spalting.

[Dolan Brown]

Another nice bowl. You just keep "turning" them out. Do you have shop elves helping you?:D

[David E Keller]

Very nice... I like the shape. Wonder if you could show the foot or a photo of the bowl upside down. I like the way the bowl seems to have an entirely round bottom although I don't think it does. Thanks for sharing

[Steve Schlumpf]

David,

I usually recess the foot area of my bowls and hollow forms. I just like the look!

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[David E Keller]

Thanks Steve. I like that look as well. Very nice piece.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Nice find in the shop Steve; must have been a real surprise. Love that wood! I think I'll copy that shape if you don't mind. :)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Steve....great form, finish and I love that wood! Lots of character in that wood......well centered within the grain of the wood and the basic form allows the wood to do the talking. Nicely done Steve!

[ROY DICK]

Steve,
I can't say enough about your turnings.
Thanks for sharing another true winner.

Roy

[Jeff Nicol]

Steve, Each of your pieces have great care put into them to bring the most out of the wood! I need to put up some pictures of some of the stuff I have finished, but so far no luck! Thanks for sharing your work and keeping us driving forward in our turning endeavors!

Jeff

[Curt Fuller]

Steve, you could write the book on bowls. I don't know how you do it but each different bowl form you do is unique. Everything about this bowl is just really nice!

[mike fuson]

Nice looking bowl there Steve.

[Rob Cunningham]

Another nice one Steve.
Could you give a brief description of your process for turning the outside? Did you hold the bowl with a recess or tenon? I assume you did the bottom holding it in a doughnut chuck. Thanks.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Rob,

When I go to finish a bowl, I use my Talon chuck as a jam chuck. By that I mean, I open the #2 jaws to the max and bring up the tailstock to push and hold the roughed out bowl blank in place. I use tenons on all of my bowls and hollow forms - so the first thing I do is true up the tenon. Then I shape and sand the outside of the bowl so that when I take it off the jam chuck - that portion of the bowl is totally finished. I then reverse the bowl and finish/sand the interior.

To remove the tenon - for most bowls I use my vacuum chuck because it is fast to set up and allows me access to the entire outside of the bowl. There are some bowls/hollow forms that the vacuum chuck does not work - those with voids or holes - and for those I use the donut chuck. I know you can tape over the holes or use plastic wrap to prevent loss of vacuum but then you lose access to the entire bowl. At that point might as well go to the donut chuck.

Hope that helps.

[George Morris]

Steve very nice! Was the spalted bow very punkey? Turned out great! You have to look thru the shop better from time to time!

[Rob Cunningham]

Yes, that helps a lot. Thanks Steve