A Bunch of Salad Bowls

[mike ash]

It's been quite awhile since I've personally posted, but I've never stopped admiring some of the great work you all have been doing. My turning time these past few months has concentrated on completing a number of salad bowls a HS classmate asked me to make for Christmas presents. She wanted them on the larger size, so these range from 13" to 17" diameter. All bowls sanded to 400 and finished with Bees Oil.

Top row first..........
#1 - Sycamore I cut green in February and is 13" dia with some pyro and carving embelishments.
#2 - Silver maple also cut green in February and is 13" dia
#3 - Big Leaf Maple from a log that has been down 3 years! 17" dia.

Second Row...
#1 - Madrone that was boiled per the Dale Larsen method, but still wanted to crack around the pith (yes, I had read a warning about that!), but I did a bit of butterflying and used some colored epoxy. 16" dia.
#2 - Big Leaf Maple from same log as #3 above. 17" dia.
#3 - This one is my favorite! Redwood burl pulled out of a barn that had been sitting there for 50+ yrs. This guy is 17" dia....and I have 3 more pieces to work on later!


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[Hayes Rutherford]

Great job on these, a nice tribute to the beauty of wood.

[Ted Calver]

Nice job Mike. I like the butterfly, and that redwood is really nice....all are very well done. Those will be great presents.

[Marc Himes]

Those are all really great looking salad bowls, Mike. I like them all very much. Some people are going to be very happy this Christmas.

[Allan Ferguson]

a great array of bowls.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice work Mike! Love the large sizes! Pretty woods! Your customer is going to love these!

[Jeremy Leasure]

Fantastic work. I in particular have soft spot for butterfly inlays and stone inlay so guess which one is my favorite :) I've never actually done a butterfly on a bowl, though. Any words on the process?

[Nate Davey]

Spectacular work Mike. I've got to say, the Madrone with the turquoise and butterfly is my favorite!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking bowls and love the sizes of them.

[mike ash]

Jeremy asked about my technique on the butterfly. There are undoubtedly folks far more talented than I at this.....but here is my technique!!
Basically I start with a template and my router. The trick is to immobilize the bowl, and construct a framework to hold the template in place and flush with the spot where the butterfly is to go. I end up with some very intersting "scafolding" to hold the template sometimes!!! The mechanism I have is from Whiteside (I believe) and it only cuts maybe 5/16" into the wood. So, you can figure that on a curved surface and depending on the bowl diameter, the inset is pretty shallow near the ends. Out come the sharp chisels and I carefully finish the cut to the depth I want. The template is also used to cut the inlay piece. Where a thicker inlay is needed, I start with a thicker blank and finish to the edges I want by using my sander and "handfitting". I've been doing quite a few of these as I have some blanks that need a bit of help and I don't want to waste the wood.....some of them are full-depth butterflies and they take a bit of finese to keep from chipping the inside of the bowl. I usually try to put in a full depth butterfly prior to cutting to final surface.

Hope that helps Jeremy!

[Kathy Marshall]

Those are all Very nice Mike! Nice assortment of forms and some great looking wood, and really nice job on the butterfly! I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite and your customer should be very happy with them.

[Mike Cruz]

Mike, all are nice. The fifth is my favorite. I love it when beautiful wood speaks for itself. Great job.

[Michelle Rich]

great christmas gifts..my fav is #2 just because of the color variations

[Pat Scott]

A man after my own heart! Nothing I love making or looking at than a nice salad bowl. Let the simple shape and feel of the wood do all the talking. No need for fancy decorations, there's something beautiful about a bowl just like these.

My favorites are #2, #3, and #5. The butterfly is a nice touch but it's too big. If it were smaller or thinner in the middle I think it would look better. Besides it's hiding too much of the colored epoxy which is stunning. What did you use to color the epoxy?

The bowls that are from green wood cut in February - what did you do to get the wood to dry so quickly? A 13" diameter bowl means the roughout should be about 1.25" thick (if you go by the normal 10% rule), which means it should air dry over a year. Were they dry? Nice job on all of them.

[Jim Burr]

Not a dull bowl in the bunch Mike! Very well done sir.

[mike ash]

Pat - on drying, I know the common rule, however I do a bit of checking with some baby scales!!! I have the scale positioned immediately by the blanks, and occasionally I will put the blank on the scale and record the date and the weight. When the bowl stops losing weight, I figure that the moisture content has stabilized. I was concerned with warping and cracking on the sycamore and silver maple, and turned them a bit thinner than the rule and boiled to see if I could keep the warping to a minimum. Either the boiling worked, or the woods were not prone to warping, because I got very little warp.

[Baxter Smith]

Great bowls and great variety Mike! All of them are very pretty to look at!

[Pat Scott]

Boiling is something I want to try someday. Mike what did you use to color the epoxy? I love the bright color!

[Jeremy Leasure]

Thanks for the rundown on the butterfly process. I'd thought of trying the template and Whiteside inlay kit before but the fixturing seemed daunting enough that I thought it wouldn't work.

[wes murphy]

Nice set of bowls, Mike