Hollow form beginner

[Prashun Patel]

I'm venturing into the world of hollow forms - nothing fancy, just closed form pots or bowls. What tool is best for hollowing - especially the blindspot under the rim?

[Tim Rinehart]

If hand held or captured, a hook tool is needed to get under the rim. Sorby Ultima and others have some articulated heads on some of their tools that allow a myriad of configurations for getting under the rim and into the first transition till a straight tool will suffice.
A good tool for initial hollowing I like is the Sorby Hollowmaster. It has a flat on bottom at the toolrest that helps keep it planted from rotating.

[David E Keller]

I've got a Sorby swan neck midi hollowmaster, and I like it... I seem to be in the minority on that topic, but I use it a lot near the opening of forms. I'd suggest looking into some homemade tooling initially. Some 1/2" cold rolled steel, a few HSS bits, and a MAPP torch is all you need to make a multitude of hollowing tools... Vaughn McMillan has a nice article about making your own on WTA and also on familywoodworking. I think he drilled and tapped for set screws which I've also done, but Ellsworth just uses superglue to hold his cutting tips in place... A little heat will loosen the bits for replacement. With a straight bit, a 45 degree bit, and a little swan neck, you can do just about anything.

You're gonna blow a few up... That's just part of the process. I'd recommend starting with smaller forms and larger openings initially, and then move in whatever direction you find interesting. For deeper and wider forms, you'll need larger diameter bars, but you can do 4 or 5 inch pieces comfortable with the 1/2 bars.

[Eric Holmquist]

From your description, you might not need a hollowing setup if I understand correctly. If you are just doing closed forms, they can be done with a bowl gouge, you can get an amazing degree of undercut with a bowl gouge before you need to switch to a hollowing setup.

[Prashun Patel]

THanks for the advice so far. Yes, I've been making do with bowl gouges. I think I've gotten the most undercut I can.

[Paul Heely]

If you do start doing HFs, head the advice to start with a larger opening. Here's one I did tonight to practice my freehand hollowing. It has a bigger opening than I like, but it let me stop and look at what happening. When you do blow up a piece don't just toss it. Cut it in half and take a look at how even the wall was and how thick it was. Here's one I cracked while turning off the foot.
206999 207000

Good luck.
Paul

[Tim Rinehart]

One more suggestion, and all so far have been good...draw out your forms as best you can on a piece of paper, full size, and verify you have a tool to reach in and do the cut. I've done a couple that had a shoulder I couldn't reach and ended up interrupting the project to get a tool made or bought for the job. Ok...the good news was I used it as an excuse to get a Hunter swan neck tool...