Maple bowl with handles

[Hayes Rutherford]

I recently tried leaving some handles on a few salad bowls and this is one variation. I trued up the previously roughed out bowl from each direction and left a band. Then wired burned on each side, laid out a handle on each end grain and removed the wood in between with an arbortech with 2" wheel. I simply hooked the arbortech over the tool rest so I could pivot and get a fine cut while manually rotating the bowl in the lathe. I quickly hand sanded the rough band, burned lines across, and colored the sections with dyed thin shellac. I wasn't particularly happy with the coloring, it reminds me of crude pumpkin carving.

C&C welcome, especially ideas on removing the band to leave handles

Silver maple, 12" diam., walnut oil.

[John Keeton]

Hayes, I actually like the band, and the color. The wood is very nice and the form is great. Handles....they don't do much for me. They seem to disrupt the flow of an otherwise very nice bowl, but I bet I am in the minority on this one!;)

[Bill Embrey]

As much as it pains me, I have to disagree with John... I like the handles... I've been on a handles binge for a while now. I love the bowl and I really like where you're going with banding and coloring, the part that doesn't do it for me though is that the pattern seems so random. I think one of the things I like about turning is the symmetry and pattern in the banding throws that off... my 2 cents worth... I'll huddle back in the corner now :)

[Prashun Patel]

I love the handles and will try these myself. Lately I've liked carved features on bowls. I appreciate the complexity and effort this involves. Nicely done!

[Jim Burr]

I like the color band...adds a little "bang" factor. Handles could come or go.

[Greg Just]

I like the bowl and the band. I'm indifferent with the handles and actually think they need to be bigger on a bowl this size. Just my 2 cents.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Hayes that is a nice bowl. I do like the band and my wife likes the handles.

[Steve Vaughan]

I like the bowl. Very nice, and the handles are good too, as is the painting/color choice. It's a design you can do all sorts of things with as far as color selection and layout for paint. I recently did a large maple bowl with similar handles. It's gonna be a while before I finish it. The whole thing will be painted:eek: but it was so boring natural. Gonna paint it with some sort of July 4th theme.

Here's what I did for the handles - My handles are flush with the top edge and stick out about 1/2". That meant I had a rim around the entire piece. I marked out where to place the handles (on the end grain), took a pencil and ran a line all the way around the bowl under the lip, using my finger as the guide. Then took it over to the bandsaw, placed it upside down, and cut along the line, finish shaping with a file and sanding, turned out great. I see nothing wrong with how you got your handles though either.

[Hayes Rutherford]

John, good point about the handles. I'm always concerned if there is added value and the handles do add considerable time to the piece but maybe nothing to the final value.

Bill, you are right about the pattern, there was no attempt at layout. Strictly random. The size of the handles was determined by how out of round the rough turned bowl was. Once it was round, I went no further but think they could be bigger as Greg suggested.

Steve, a light bulb went off when you said you used your bandsaw, now I have to try again!! I'm sure thats how smart people do it. Way safer than using the Arbortech with one hand. I failed to mention I screwed a few up with the Arbortech and went on to plan "B" (no handles). Thanks so much for the comments.

[Dennis Ford]

The bowl is very nice, I love the decorative band. I have done several utility bowls with handles and a lot of people like them. I usually use a coping saw to remove most of the waste before carving and sanding.

[David E Keller]

Pretty cool, Hayes! I like the handles, but for me, they seem a bit 'timid'... I suppose I'd like to see them stick out a touch more. That bandsaw idea is a good one... If you didn't want the handles at the top of the form, you could just leave them at the widest point and then make the top of the bowl curve back in... Sort of a slightly enclosed form. I think the band works well, and the decorative possibilities are endless.