First (real) Bowl!

[Rob Price]

Okay, I made a doll stand for my mother a few months ago that technically was a bowl. I have roughed out a couple of bowls, and they are sitting drying, but this is my first finished bowl. I had some 16/4 African Mahogany drops from the legs that I made for my end table. I was cleaning up around the shop and saw the drops and decided it would make a great bowl. Plus it's kiln dried so I don't have to wait months for it to dry. Photo setup is a sheet over a chair in my kitchen- I'll work on my photography once I get better at turning.

Right now it just has BLO on it, I'm gonna let it dry and then lacquer it up (I think). But I couldn't wait to post the results.

I put a foot/ogee on the bottom of it, I know a lot of you guys don't like feet. You can only see it when you're at eye level anyways. I really didn't have any preconceived ideas about a shape, I just wanted a bowl. It's big and stocky like me.

Its 7 3/8" by 3 5/8", the rim is a hair over 1/4. It started feeling too delicate for my hands at that point.

Anyways, enjoy, feel free to comment/critique.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-iypLf-68Ngc/T0_yAAUGiwI/AAAAAAAABo4/XSt2250_FTc/s800/IMG_1834.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9J_i7Q982AM/T0_yA-n70JI/AAAAAAAABpA/FB49ywHli5M/s800/IMG_1837.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Cp0JPGM585k/T0_yBhyqagI/AAAAAAAABpI/cIgfQWRCkBo/s800/IMG_1838.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-d7KsWEz1DSo/T0_yCsT7-pI/AAAAAAAABpQ/QBGMenLPrL8/s800/IMG_1839.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-4g6Idx4lKVY/T0_yDQf9HdI/AAAAAAAABpY/UyRlO0RBxH4/s800/IMG_1841.JPG

[Tim Rinehart]

Rob...very nice bowl. I have no issues myself with a foot, especially a larger one to enhance a bowl/platter's usefullness. This looks well formed and finished. I'd say by looks of it...you have your tools kept nice and sharp!

[robert raess]

Beautiful!! I wouldn't change a thing.Photo #1 is my pick: i like the grain orientation,great shape, and the foot lifts it just the right amt. for viewing.

[Bill Bolen]

Great bowl Rob...you have a lot to be proud of with this one.

[Deane Allinson]

Great bowl!,,,whether it is the 1st or 50th. nice shape and wood. Good photos too. I have to stop my I-phone photos in the back yard one of these days. How does it turn? It doesn't seem to tear-out much.
We just got a few bundles of African Mahogany at work, mostly 8/4, but some 12/4. I will have to give it a try. Some of boards are so wide that I hate to cut them up.
Deane

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Wow, What a great first effort. Beautiful piece if mahogany and wonderful shape.
faust

[Matt Winterowd]

It's beautiful. I think you nailed the shape - not stocky at all. Who cares if some people don't like feet, if you feel like a piece should have a foot, then put a foot on it. :)

[Roger Chandler]

nice work Rob.........i love working with mahogany.

[Doug W Swanson]

Nice looking bowl. Be sure you sign AND date it!

[Tom Winship]

Nice one, Rob! Wish my first one had been so good!

[Bill Hensley]

No critique here, that is a fine looking bowl. Like the shape.

[Josh Bowman]

Very nice job. Wish my first also looked 1/2 this good. Mine was a funnel.

[Kathy Marshall]

Very nice job Rob! You've got a real nice shape on that one and nothing wrong with the foot, it's sized very proportionately for the bowl. Nice job on the finish too. I did some peppermills from mahogany and really like how nice it sanded up.

[Harvey Ghesser]

A most beautiful bowl, Rob! Definitely something to be proud of:D:D
P.S. I love the foot!

[James Roberts]

Great first Rob, wish all mine looked that good.

[Steve Vaughan]

Yup, that really nice looking and I'm glad you posted this. I've got some 16/4 laying around that I'm needing to turn a couple things out of and I was wondering how it looks as a bowl. Very, very nice indeed!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking first bowl. I like a bigger foot as if it is used it has more stability.

[Baxter Smith]

Congrats on the nice looking bowl! Being the first makes it even better!

[Rob Price]

Thanks to all for the kind words. I wish I could say it was designed on purpose, but the foot gives it great stability- it rolls back upright from any position except upside down, so that's a win. I think we'll use it as a fruit bowl, too big for ice cream (maybe). Maybe a salad bowl, who knows. I have one more chunk the exact same size, it will either be another bowl or some pepper mills. Next up is a 10x10x4 chunk of dried walnut I picked up.

As far as working it, besides pens all I've really turned dry is mahogany- a couple of cake pedestals, the end table legs, and this- so I have nothing to compare to. The end grain was trying to tear out a bit. For the final pass I soaked it with BLO and then took very light cuts with a scraper. then I sanded with abranet 100-600 grit. The feel of the bOwl right now is great, I'm not sure I want a film finish on it or not. Maybe I'll lacquer this one and use walnut oil or something similar on the next one.

Thanks again for the feedback and help along the way. You guys/gals are great.

[Thomas Canfield]

Nice 1st Rob. Did you use a glue block so that you could end up with 3 5/8" height? The 1/4" thickness is not a problem and comfort and ending up with a nice finish bowl is a lot better than having a thin funnel or some other display item. You have a nice insice curve which is harder to do at start with the deeper bowl. Keep at it.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Congrats on your first 'real' bowl Rob! Nice work! I sure like the wood!

[John Keeton]

Excellent work, Rob!! Very nice piece of wood, too. I am a foot guy, so I find it very appealing.

[Rob Price]

Nice 1st Rob. Did you use a glue block so that you could end up with 3 5/8" height?

I used a tenon and chuck to turn it. I have a buddy who swears the only way is with a glue block because he doesn't like the way chucked feet look, so I tried to go for a glue block look just to mess with him. The sequence was: screw chuck-turned a tenon-gripped in jaws-cole chuck to finish the bottom. The finished foot was the shoulder of the tenon, I ended up turning the whole tenon away which is where I lost the 1/4 or so of height. I took this pic as an example of the 'one more pass' syndrome trying to clean up the upper bowl and had a catch, but you can see the foot/tenon.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SsUnzcGH3xM/T1DMekXc1mI/AAAAAAAABpk/Qe_FQn5jNX4/s640/photo.JPG

That way too I could true up the foot, sand and finish the whole bugger once I turned it around. I knew the bowl was going to be fairly tall for it's width so I figured it could loose a little height. I was using 100mm jaws which is part of why the foot is so big. I didn't feel comfortable with a little 2" tenon with my 50mm jaws- at least for now while catches are more common for me. I did have a catch on the bottom which sent the nearly finished bowl flying :eek: but luckily only minor damage was done.

Thanks again for the comments.

[Rob Price]

I decided I wanted a film finish on the bowl. It had two coats of BLO, and I wanted to try General WTF on it, so I hit it with a coat of shellac sealer. After reading Keeton's post about WTF maybe I should have done a few more coats of shellac. I used BLO to help pop the grain- my previous experience with WTF on a mahogany cake platter was a rather flat looking finish with little depth. Maybe next time shellac for depth and then WTF and skip the oil?

I really like how the grain catches light as you rotate the bowl. This has much more of that 'lacquer' look than the flat water based poly look I had on my cake platter. Up close you can see the pores, but at arms length you really don't notice them. Sorry if this is too much of a re-post, but I thought I'd post the 'finished' piece.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-gJwIaWiy54s/T2oIqCo2sGI/AAAAAAAABqk/1wdLfP9v9Mw/s800/IMG_1880.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-i44x5tOZfk8/T2oIrADum1I/AAAAAAAABqs/HyOJ4IgHOC0/s800/IMG_1881.JPG
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https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9e3D3YgHJZ4/T2oIwCK135I/AAAAAAAABrM/9r3CRttB-w0/s800/IMG_1887.JPG

[Scott Hackler]

Very nice work. That bowl has a nice smooth flow that screams to be held. Save this one for yourself and as a measure of your progress down the road. Although from the good looks of this one, I don't know if there will be much difference ...down the road!

[Prashun Patel]

Very nice work. No tearout and the xition from wall to bottom is a smooth, natural curve. Can't wait to see more from you.

As for the finish - and I think it's really great the way it is - you can improve it EVEN more by leveling the surface with some very fine spaper and then giving it one or two more coats of finish. This makes a difference for me, and I believe was the key to JK's finish on that Claro piece.

[Roland Martin]

That's an amazing first "real" bowl, Rob. I like the shape, the wood and yes, the foot. Nice job.

[John Keeton]

Rob, mahogany is one of the most open grained woods I have used. You did a fine job with this one, for sure. Glad you enjoyed the General WTF, and what may have worked to your advantage was to wet sand the bowl with BLO prior to a few coats of shellac. Even now, you could probably sand it back some and apply a few more coats of WTF.

[John Aspinall]

Very pleasing to look at, both shape and color. Love the bottom treatment; I'll have to imitate that.

[Rob Price]

Thanks again for the encouragement. I feel like I'm starting (just barely) to get the hang of this.

John, I'm interested in how you sanded it back, after the initial 5 or 6 coats, I let it dry for a week and then went to rub it out with steel wool and it seemed like I got some ghosting of the finish- like maybe I cut through in spots. I put another coat on and they are less apparent ut still there. I wonder if it isn't some incompatibility between the blo and wtf. Either way I was scared to hit it with sandpaper after the final coat.

[John Keeton]

Rob, I have not used WTF with BLO, but I guess there could be a compatibility issue. Sounds like an experiment is in order! I will have to check that out. In either event, 2-3 good coats of shellac should act as a good barrier. It is possible you sanded through - I used 1200 grit and it would take a lot of sanding to cut through with that grit.

[Scott Lux]

That is an amazing first bowl. It does scream to be held. I'm very impressed. I too find that first pic the best. Just beautiful.