Is This an Ogee?

[Nate Davey]

I pulled a piece of Pecan off the shelf today with the intention of doing an ogee curved bowl. As I got into it, I found I had some cracks and wasn't real impressed with the wood. At this point I still had some bark on either side so decided I'd do a Curt Fuller inspired "rusticated" piece. My alternate title was "New York Opera in a Dodge Duelly".

Anyways, need some design critique, I think I got the curve right but would like some expert opinions

Thanks for looking,

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[Roger Chandler]

Nate,

Your form is on the way to being an ogee............a bit more of an inward curve, then a more pronounced hump in the middle and another curve off that to the bottom and you would have been there. If you have an ogee router bit, take it and hold it up to a light colored background and you will see what I am referring to.

That is quite a piece of pecan there..............I like your rim on it.........would have been nice to see the figure on the grain and inside form as well from a top view.

[David E Keller]

You got an ogee there, Nate. Typically, you'd try to balance the concave and convex curves so that they are of equal size... That's the hardest part for me. That's a great looking piece of wood, and I like the bark inclusion.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nate - looks good to me! Really like the wood! I agree with David in that you usually want to try and balance the 2 halves of the ogee curve but as your bowl proves - doesn't have to be perfect to look good! Nice work!

[Michael James]

Methinks you achieved your "rusticated" goal nicely. There are some good ideas here, and as a guy that's working on develop "forms" myself, I would just suggest looking at the siloutte line on the left from top to bottom and compare that to a "textbook" ogee.... the difference is your goal on the next one. Thanks for posting.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Looks like a ogee to me. Really nice rustic piece.

[John Keeton]

Nate, ogees are difficult! Period! The first attempts I did at them were horrible, but I have been intrigued by them. I have tried various forms with ogees in order to achieve some level of consistency, but it is still a challenge!

This is a nice looking bowl - beautiful wood with a lot of character, and you have done a good job with the foot on this one. And, what you have is an ogee, but there are endless variations on the ogee curve. The true ogee, as David says, has equal, but opposing curves that cross at a midpoint that is in line with the beginning and ending of the drawn curve.

If one looks at Raffan's book, one finds that most pleasing ogee bowls permit a straight line touching the foot, the rim and also touch the belly at a point about 1/4 up from the base - what would seemingly be a violation of the rule of thirds, but it seems to work.

Writing the words, and talking about it is easy - getting it to happen with a piece of wood - not so easy!

I have posted a pic with some alteration on the left side to give one possibility - though still not one that permits the straight edge test. It is still a little full in the belly for a true ogee. Maybe on the next one, this will give you something else to try. Enjoy the ogee ride - it is a long one! Everytime I do a form with ogees, it is a challenge.

[Curt Fuller]

Nate, that's a beautiful bowl. Just the kind of bowl I like best. And I like the "opera' title.

[bob svoboda]

Ogees are tough-I think you did well and I really like your bowl.