Bowl from a board

[Chris Colman]

This is my first attempt to make a bowl from a board, coring method.

I kept the grain oriented all the same direction, which shows off the cedar grain.

It is 7-1/2 inches wide and 3 inches tall, with a wall thickness of about 3/16".

You can see the glue line on the bottom two layers, it stayed out in my shop while curing and got well below freezing. It turned the glue (Titebond II) white! Oops!

Anybody else try coring and stacking? I did this on a 45 degree cut. Is it possible to do other angles? Please share your experience.

Comments always welcome.

[Jim Burr]

No experience with coring, yet...but it sure is a nice bowl!!

[James Combs]

Nice wood and nice bowl. What did you use as your finish? Cedar tends to be difficult to finish due to the cedar oils.

[charlie knighton]

very nice....

[Josh Bowman]

Nice bowl and nice finish.

[Chris Colman]

Cedar is a very thirsty wood. I usually seal it with Formby's Tung oil finish, but mine was all gelled up. I applied plenty of sanding sealer until the cedar quit soaking it up. I finished with Minwax WOP.

[Roger Chandler]

Chris,

That is a pretty nice bowl there! Made from a board, I think you did great....love the color, and you did well with the grain orientation, under the circumstances. Good form, and nice finish. You should be proud of this one! :)

[Richard Madden]

Great job Chris. This is one more thing I need to try someday. You really did good!!

[Curt Fuller]

Wow, keeping the grain oriented the same direction made for a stunning bowl. The wood and finish are beautiful.

[Baxter Smith]

Ditto what Curt said. The nicest bowl from a board I can remember seeing!

[David E Keller]

I think you've done a great job with this one. I've never tried the 'bowl from a board' method, but I like the end result. I believe Bob Hamilton has a nice set of videos on his you tube site covering his method for doing this.

[Bob Hamilton]

Very nice looking bowl!

I have found that leaving the base disk larger than you think you should gives some opportunity for shaping since it is solid wood. I added a final segment to my video series showing a second bowl I had turned where I made the base disk bigger and it was a far more pleasing (to me) shape. I have also made a few where I cut full rings from a glued up blank on the lathe using a narrow parting tool and I found it to be easier to keep the rings aligned on those ones than the ones I made by cutting half rings on the band saw.

Here is a link to a .pdf document produced by a very talented gentleman who belongs to the Golden Horseshoe Woodturning Guild in the Toronto, Ontario area: http://www.ghwg.ca/techniques/Bowl%20from%20a%20Board.pdf

Take care
Bob

[Roger Wilson]

Here is a youtube video demonstrating a variation on the bowl from a board. It lets you design the shape of the bowl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_RQGcxQZw