House Warming Bowl

[Jerry Wright]

I haven’t posted (or turned) for a while. I was involved in very large flatwork for the past three months – taking up carpet and restoring hardwood floors!! I finally made a bowl to give to my brother and his wife as a housewarming gift for their new retirement home in southern Illinois. The bowl is cherry with the rim and foot decorated with leopard wood and ebony. Size is 15” D x 3-1/2” H. Sanded to 600 grit with Behlen’s Woodturner Finish (shellac and other resins in alcohol), and Johnson’s paste wax.
This bowl also gave me an opportunity to really try out my new long handled Glaser 10V scraper (1-1/2” x 3/8” – 30 inches long), which I gloated about a few months ago. Turning with it was a dream with no vibration and little effort to remove large quantities of wood. Long ribbon chips all the way with no trips to the grinder. It was quite a change from my old “go to” M2, 1-3/8” x 3/8” wooden handled bowl scraper. Mounting, during turning , was with a Glaser screw chuck. It was a pleasure to turn around a bowl with perfect concentricity.
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[Roger Chandler]

That is a good looking bowl, Jerry..........the ring on the rim and foot set it off........no doubt your brother and wife will love this one!

[Prashun Patel]

This is a beauty. Can you post a couple pix showing how to you did the rim and foot? I really like it and would like to try such a technique myself.

[charlie knighton]

pretty piece, i am sure they will treasure it Jerry

[John Keeton]

Nice combination of woods, Jerry!! And, well done on the glue joints, too.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful bowl and especially the rim. They are going to love it.

[Jerry Wright]

231908
This is a beauty. Can you post a couple pix showing how to you did the rim and foot? I really like it and would like to try such a technique myself.
Prashun: Thanks for your interest. Following is my “method of work” on this bowl. Depending on available equipment, you may choose to do it differently. There are lots of ways to get to the same end!!
- Prepare major stock piece: Select the wood and make sure both sides are flat and parallel. This can be done in two ways: 1) surface both sides using a thickness planer, then layout a circle and band saw to a round “cookie”. Or 2) Lay out a circle, band saw to a round,rough “cookie”, then mount on a screw chuck and turn the opposing faces parallel and flat. You can use a straight edge to make sure the sides, especially the area near the outer rim,are flat and parallel.
- Decide on the decorative woods that you would like to use on the rim and foot of the bowl. The rim and foot of this bowl was made of wedge shaped segments of leopard wood, and rectangular segments of ebony. I tend to position the segments so that I am gluing end grain to end grain. I like the way it looks and it turns more easily. . Since the decoration is thin, I have had no problems with differential expansion and contraction relative to the base material. Each segmented circle had 16 sides, so the wedges are cut with an 11.25 degree half angle. I use a table saw with a sliding sled. Make certain that the saw is aligned and square to the table. There are a number of programs online to help you determine the lengths of the segments. You enter diameter, number of segments, and you will get a length. If all of the segments were wedged, this is the length that you would use, but in the case of this bowl, the ebony pieces are merely spacers and you subtract their width from the prescribed length of the leopard wood segments.
- I then glue up the segments, one quarter of the circle at a time. I use a polished marble tile as a substrate since it is very flat. I place a thickness of waxed paper on the marble,then glue on top of that. I use a minimal “skim” coat of yellow glue (Elmer’s Carpenter or TiteBond 1). I simply rub the pieces together and place in final position. I wipe off excess queeze out with a damp cloth, so that I can see the joint, making sure it is tight. After 45 minutes, I peel off the wax paper and wipe the partially dried glue off the bottom with a damp cloth.
- Next I place the glued quarter circles onto the rim of the bowl, to check alignment of the joints. You can easily make small adjustments with a disk sander, to make certain the joints are tight. I then glue the quarters directly to the master wood block, again with a skim coat of glue and sliding the surfaces. No clamping is necessary.
- I then mount the block with a screw chuck in the top side and bring up the tailstock against the bottom. And away we go. Always use a face shield!!! Approach rounding up of the rim and foot with light passes, until they are smooth. I have never had a segment fly off, but again I only turn what I personally glueJ.
- Below are some progress pictures of the bowl blank on the lathe.

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[Rob Price]

great looking bowl-thanks for sharing the process re:the rim and foot. I'll add it to the list of things I want to try some day.

[Rich Aldrich]

I love the form on this bowl. Nice work.

[Kathy Marshall]

Very nice bowl and the rim and base details really set it off nicely!

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks. I will try that. You have patience...

[Greg Just]

Jerry:
Beautiful bowl and accents rings. Nice touch. When I first looked at this I thought about the various grain patterns and future wood movement, especially on the rim. I’m hoping that the cherry was very dry and stable so there are no joint failures in the future. There should be no issues on the base, but I would think the rim would move a bit with changes in humidity. Just my 2 cents. You did a great job with the joints and thanks for sharing,

[Jerry Wright]

Greg - I have done lots of these over the past 10 years, with no issues. Yes, the cherry is very dry. It was kiln dried and has been protected. Remember that a bowl has x-y-z movement, especially up the sides of the bowl. It does not move as a solid, 3" thick, 15" wide hunk. The walls are also capable of flexing. The rim decoration is quite thin. The issues that I worry about in table tops, door panels, etc. relative to grain orientation, I don't worry about here.