30,40, or so year old roughed bowls

[Curt Fuller]

Last weekend I got a call from a guy, kind of a friend of a friend type deal. He said he had a box of rough turned bowls and wondered if I was interested in them. I drove to his house and he told me the story behind them. His father had been a woodturner years ago. He had a stroke in the early 90's and died a few years later. The guys daughter was married to a guy that was a wood worker and he took all his stuff, including these bowls. He never did anything on the lathe and they think he either gave the lathe away, junked it, or something but no one knows where it is anymore. Then this guy died a while back. So the guy I know, who is the brother-inlaw to the last owner of the bowls was helping clean out his place and came across all these bowls. They aren't very big, 6-12", and there are a bunch of wooden discs about 4-6" diameter and about an inch thick. Most are marked with a date, day and month, but some also have a year ranging from 84 to 86. Some look like they've been sealed with wax and some look and smell like they've been rubbed with heavy grease. They were all roughed using an assortment of face plates and various screw hole patterns in them. The guy took me into his house and showed me some of the finished work his father had done. It was incredible stuff. Mostly utility things like candy dishes and small lidded boxes. There was a cookie jar thing that had been segmented and made to fit a tin cookie can inside of it. (They gave me a cookie from it too). But the segmenting pattern was like nothing I've seen anywhere else. Then they had two large segmented table lamps that were really nice. All the joints were perfect and they had some interesting designs that I haven't seen either. All his work was finished with felt on the bottoms, I'm guessing to cover the screw holes, and had a really nice finish that gave the wood a nice dark patina. Probably just real genuine aged wood. It was just cool to see this old work and wonder about the guy that did it.
So now I have a box of roughed blanks and a bunch of discs to try do something half as nice as what he had done with them. The wood is hard to tell what variety it is because of the coating on it but it's pretty well preserved. I turned one of the smaller bowls just to see what the wood might be. I'm pretty sure it's apricot but it has a darker and richer color than the fresh apricot I've worked with before. I tried making a lid for it from one of the discs that I think is also apricot but it just didn't turn out as well as I would like. The grain doesn't line up and then I let the buffing wheel grab it out of my hand and it got chipped anyway. But If you haven't nodded off yet from my long winded story, here's some pics.....

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[Bernie Weishapl]

Not sure what the wood is Curt but that is a great looking lidded bowl. Congrats on the big box of bowl blanks. That should keep ya busy for a while.

[Thomas Heck]

If they all turn out like the one you finished, they will be beauties. I think the one you turned looks great. I'd be tickled to have turned it.

[Ted Calver]

Great story Kurt and really nice lidded bowl. Looks like the grain lines up pretty good to me. I hope my blanks find someone like you when the time comes.

[Doug W Swanson]

That's a great story, Curt. I love wood with a history like this. Looks great so far!

[Brian Kent]

I agree. Great history and congratulations on all you are going to do.

[Russell Eaton]

Cool story Curt. Nice looking lidded bowl as well.

[Thom Sturgill]

I'm with Ted, it may just be the side you pictured, but I think the grain lines up nicely,

[steven carter]

Great story Curt. I've been looking at your work since 2008, and think that the legacy of these bowls is in fine hands. Love the apricot lidded bowl, and look forward to seeing the rest.

[Peter Blair]

Great story. I'm with Ted and like he said I sure hope my family finds someone like you to take my rough turning when I go . . . .

[Mike Cruz]

You might want to let that wood sit and dry a while. May still be wet/green...:D

Very cool, Curt. Though, my favorite thing to turn is green wood and doing rough outs... Glad to see these didn't get thrown away.

[William Bachtel]

Sure is a nice story. The wood looks like Red Elm.

[Thomas Canfield]

Good story, good wood. I'm looking forward to the next chapter and more finish pieces. Your talent taking the rough forward will be the final test.

[Eric Gourieux]

That's a GREAT story. I even read it to my wife. I agree, they are in good hands.

Did you just get lucky, or did you intentionally pick 2 pieces that match? I know you said that the grain doesn't line up, but it appears to be a match

[Mike Cruz]

Curt, I just took a closer look and see one of the segmented pieces. I see what you mean about segmenting in a different way. Looks like it is a segmentation made of...triangles. Then, the outside is cut on the band saw. It is more of a continuous segmentation with 45 degree angled wood up against straight grain, rather than 22 1/2 degree angles up against 22 1/2 degree angles. Wonder if it is any more or less stable that way...

[Curt Fuller]

Thanks everyone!




Did you just get lucky, or did you intentionally pick 2 pieces that match? I know you said that the grain doesn't line up, but it appears to be a match

I was able to position the lid so it appears to line up in that one spot. But if you could see all the way around it doesn't line up around the rest of the lid.

Mike, I've looked at that segmented blank several times and scratched my head over how he cut the pieces and got them to line up so perfectly. He was a machinist by trade so I'm sure he was both very precision oriented and also knew his math, two things that I fall on the opposite end of those spectrums.

[charlie knighton]

great story, very nice lidded bowl, hope to see more

[Mike Cruz]

Curt, I think you will bury your head in your hands and say, "Really?!?! How didn't I see that?!?!" when you see how simple this is... It is just a bunch of triangles. ;)

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Now, clamping/glueing it may be a little more difficult... There must be some sort of trick to that to make sure that the lat piece fits. Otherwise it might just be a "measure 1 inch from the end of each piece and glue the next one to that mark" kinda thing...leaving yourself a little extra thickness (not like in my quick drawing) in case you are off a little.

[Mike Cruz]

Curt, I did some more thinking about this, and I looked back at the pic of how he did his segmented piece. I drew this the way he did his. I'm wondering if glueing them in the opposite orientation would be better. The reason is, if you look at the picture and imagine that spinning on the lathe, you would be cutting INTO each joint. But it the pattern were reversed, you'd be cutting along each joint. Probably less tear out that way...