Tips for making NE bowls? EDIT: WIP with pics

[Rob Price]

I've got a log of walnut that was given to me by a friend. It's got some great looking grain, but it's about half sapwood across the diameter. It's about 11" in diameter- but only ~6" is heartwood, so I'm thinking it may be better to try some NE bowls vs smaller 6" bowls (I have 6 walnut blanks laying around that are all 5-6" anyways, so I'd like to try something different). The tree was cut down in January, it's been in my shop for about 2 months sealed up, I cut into blanks today. the bark seems to be in good shape.I checked out a video from my local turning club but I can't get it to play in any of my DVD players. I've been looking around on you tube as well, and I think I understand the general steps, but wanted to see if you guys had any specific tips. How many of you rough turn wet and let dry vs turning thin and letting it go wonky on it's own? It seems NE bowls are more art than function anyways.If you do let them dry, what's your method? I do have anchor seal on hand.Any other do's/don'ts before I get started?Sorry if this is too generic of a post.

EDIT: Changed title.

[Dennis Ford]

I always turn natural edge bowls to final thickness, a little warping is not a problem in my opinion. For cross grain bowls the best cut (on the outside) is normally from small diameter to large diameter. I recommend cutting the bark toward the bottom even though this is against the grain of the wood; it will increase the chances of keeping the bark intact. Walnut bark is pretty thick, expect to loose some of the bark on the first few NE bowls that you do.
When shaping the inside, it is tricky to get a clean cut on the parts where you are cutting lots of air. Again, cut through the bark toward the bottom and plan to do some sanding. Use as fast a speed as you are comfortable with and take light cuts on the outer parts. A mentor would be helpful here. Keeping the wall thickness even is important for a good appearance. Once you have turned most of the bowl, do NOT try to go back and clean up the surface of the interrupted cuts. The most important things are: 1. do not bleed on the wood 2. have fun

[Jason Silva]

Dennis gives some good advice here...i would add one tip that works for me. I like to turn the outside of the bowl first obviously and then lay down a thin strip of CA glue along the bark and sapwood line. Wait for it to dry and then finish sand. This seems to help keep the bark throughout the remainder of the turning process.

Happy turning

[Fred Belknap]

Sometimes the bark will come off no matter what you do. If the block has been laying on wet ground for a while the bark is usually loose. Power sand with the lathe going pretty slow. Good luck, walnut makes nice NE bowls.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Rob,
Don't be afraid of including sapwood in your walnut bowls. Personally, I like it as a design element. Walnut is not my favorite wood for NE edge bowls just because the bark is so thick. However, "one man's meat is another man's poison. " Oh shoot, I'm becoming my mother. That is one of her favorite sayings.
faust

[Jamie Donaldson]

The white sapwood of fresh cut walnut really make a nice contrast to the darker heartwood, and retaining ALL the bark it a bonus. Before applying CA to the bark edge, paint or wipe on a coat of thin lacquer to reduce the appearance of CA runs that appear when you're finishing.

[Rob Price]

Thanks for the replies. I've got 4 blanks to try, hopefully one will turn out. Plus i have a big red bud blank I got at our club raffle, it has a thin ring of sapwood as well. I may give it a whirl- although it's big enough to do a full sized regular bowl. At least as full sized as my lathe will go.

[Dan Forman]

One important thing is to be very careful when setting your tool rest position, and ALWAYS keep your fingers behind the tool rest.

Dan

[Bob Rotche]

I think Dennis gave an excellent summary. That is about exactly how I do it. Points I would emphasize are that the hardest part is hollowing the wings where you are turning quite a bit of air. The more speed, the less air. Use a steady hand and light cuts. Turn the lathe off frequently to check for uniform thickness and minimized tool marks. No matter how tempting it is, do NOT go back to touch up the wings once you've gone deeper into the bowl- I guarantee they have moved and you are asking for trouble! When finished, I power sand the bowl with the lathe on until I get to the wings and then do them with the lathe off. Most importantly, have fun and don't be afraid to ruin a few. Its just wood and it actually does grow on trees!

[Rob Price]

Got the outside roughed/lacquered/glued. All the bark is still there. Unfortunately I'm now on daddy duty until tonight. It's wrapped in plastic but I guess the lacquer will keep it from drying too much. Hopefully once the kiddos are down tonight I can finish it. It looks really cool so far.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eOIhA_rqVc8/T1JR5kdTAiI/AAAAAAAABpw/GMSlGprPkxg/s640/photo.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UIntQo19Tfw/T1JR-f-r4OI/AAAAAAAABp4/Oo_3gP8cAYE/s640/photo.JPG

[Rob Price]

Okay, first of all, 'unfortunately' was a poor choice of words. I was bummed that I had to stop, but I do enjoy my kids.

Second of all, when the little ones take naps, daddy sneaks down to the shop:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XC_-heRUj3Y/T1KKk_Sf8HI/AAAAAAAABqE/KfT2Lt_2NOU/s640/photo.JPG
The edges are a hair over 5/16. Then I chickened out. I figured I had all my bark, I didn't want to risk it. Maybe it's too thick? I wiped it down to look for sanding marks/high spots. I did have one bad catch on the outside of one wing. I would have required major reworking of the overall shape, so I left it. It's my first effort, things will improve. Hopefully later tonight I can reverse it and finish the foot. Then what? Pack it away in shavings to dry? Some of the sapwood looks like it's starting to crack. I can wipe it with armor seal but I'm afraid that will mess with the finish. It's already sanded to 600 grit.

[Fred Belknap]

Looks good . If you bury it in the shavings for a few days it might help with the cracks. What it needs is to slow down the drying.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Rude Osolnik was one of the innovators of thin wall turning to reduce cracking of green wood, and he would say that you have enough wood left here to make another bowl! I know this because I heard it from him several times as I was learning, so push yourself on the next piece to get down to about a 3/16" wall thickness throughout, and you will reduce most future losses to cracking. Place this one on a brown paper bag(a Polish kiln!) and keep it in the shop for several weeks to allow it to cure slowly. The more you practice, the luckier you become!

[Rob Price]

thanks again for all the help. This was probably too much to bite off for a newbie, but it's finally done. A few horrific catches trying to clean up the foot and now we have a footless bowl. I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong on the foot. Probably rushing it.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-27hWAMltXaI/T1LO7OeG0gI/AAAAAAAABqQ/UYSwv3tbBNI/s640/photo.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-45xf-4jQ7mA/T1LP5shGe2I/AAAAAAAABqY/woBx1WJC0q4/s640/photo.JPG

It's in a bucket of shavings right now. I'll have to get some paper bags tomorrow. Thanks again. I'll update this post with finished pics hopefully in a few weeks. I have 3 more blanks to practice on.

[Dennis Ford]

That looks great, you did a good job on it. I agree with the paper bag thing although if the humidity is high, you would probably be OK with just leaving it in the shop. I would not pack it in shavings as that might cause the sapwood to discolor some.

[Rick Markham]

It looks really nice! I think natural edge bowls look a little better with some thickness to them, at a certain point of thickness (or lack there of) you lose the depth of the edge. The bottom looks spectacular, you did an excellent job so far... now comes the fun part... trying to turn the tenon off! :) Have fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

[Richard Jones]

The thicker NE bowls sell better at my store than the thinner ones. Could be a demographics thing..................I haven't had much trouble with them cracking, but keeping the sapwood clean looking without discoloration is an ongoing issue.

[Mike Peace]

Looks like you are making excellent progress. One technique when making final cuts on the outside on the bark going from large to small as Dennis suggested: orient your gouge a little further down the bowl just past the bark and barely engage the bevel but without cutting. Then slowly back the gouge bevel along the tool rest up the bowl with a slight ticking noise. When you bring it back past the bark and the ticking stops you will be at the position of easing into the final bark cuts without cutting too much.