Experiment with Black Gum

[Dennis Ford]

I have seen and admired this shape bowl before but have not tried to make one until now. My first time to work with Black Gum; it is a little bland but is very nice to carve. It warped only a little and appears very crack resistant. The sapwood changes from cream to gray while wet. Once dry it appears to stay pale if the gray is removed. My only complaint on the wood is that it smells BAD (worse than elm IMO) while wet.

I did too much of the carving while it was wet, and wound up with a lot of discoloration where the final sanding removed some but not all of the gray.

Any opinions on this shape with 3 carved feet?

[Baxter Smith]

Looks great as is but I can see three carved feet making it exceptional at both top and bottom. Having never seen a bowl like this, I would love to see a picture if you have one of what it looked like when you stopped the turning and started the carving. Very unique!

[David E Keller]

Very cool... I think Baxter's idea about adding feet is interesting. I'd love to see a pictorial of the process involved in the carving.

[Sean Hughto]

Very neat. Did it take a long time to do that much carving? What tools did you use?

[Cathy Schaewe]

That's really neat. I just tried my first carving, and it's not easy. I'm very impressed with what you've done -

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is just a cool looking bowl. I agree with Baxter and the feet. I haven't done any carving yet.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wow - that's nice! Great form! Carved feet would probably work but I think you would have to make sure to place them so that they line up with the rim carving - else it would look out of balance - in my opinion.