'Nuther Cherry Bowl

[John Hart]

Here's a cherry bowl that I wanted to practice on my wall thickness and get the curve on the inside of the bottom a little better rounded. I feel like I accomplished those things but I'd still like to do better. It's finished with a BLO, Poly, Acetone brew and it is 4.5" diameter and 2.75" height.
I found the wood in a sawmill scrap pile.

[Carole Valentine]

Good work, John. You're getting there! I have the hardest time getting a smooth transition from side to bottom on the inside sometimes. Especially if the wall of the bowl flares out then in at the bottom. I am slowly getting the hang of it. I think I am going to regrind my scraper (again!):eek:

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I agree with Carole, John. That is a nice bowl.

The inside outside curve is probably one of the hardest cuts to make. :eek: Getting the tool to "Ride the Edge" is very difficult.
Making the transition without tearout is also hard. Leads to a lot of 60 grit skew work. :p

I still have problems sometimes with it.

Keep up the good work. :D

Bruce ;)

[John Hart]

Thanks a bunch for the encouragement. I am so focused on getting better at this...'course, I better be careful, it's becoming an obsession. The sawmill I got this piece from has a mountain of wood that they are letting me pick through and buy by the truckload. I'm going there again today....hopefully come away with a good haul.

[Glenn Hodges]

John, that transitional curve gave me a lot of trouble also when I first started turning. This is one of the things that helps me. It is a 1 1/8 in. P & N Skew. I use it as a scraper to get a smooth finish. You can see from the picture I have reground the edges so it will allow me to get into the tight curve that is giving you trouble. I am just passing this along as an idea that works for me.

[John Hart]

Thanks Glenn. I was wondering about custom grinding and I think you pushed me over the edge. I found my greatest success to be using a pointed tip and rotating smoothly on the tool rest and trying to have a nice flowing movement with my body. But, while this gave me a rounded transition, it also made the most significant tool marks in the wood and was a real bugger to sand out. 'Course then, on the custom skew, all that surface area making contact might induce some chatter too, right?....maybe rough out the transition with a pointed tip and then finish off with the custom skew?

[Glenn Hodges]

John, this thing is the heftiest skew I found. It is thick! I get hardly any chatter. I have other skews, but I find myself using this one most of the time. I even bought another one and kept the face of it flat. It is my personal preference to like heavy tools on the medium to big bowls I turn. I get less chatter with the tool rest close to the wood, but when I can't do this the heavier weight tools help. BTW I think the transitional curve is the hardest to do when you first start out turning on small bowls. You probably have much better success already on larger bowls. The more acute the angle of the curve the more difficulty you have with the sanding later.

[John Hart]

Speaking of sanding...what would you think of this...Turn some different sized balls or rounded pieces to be mounted on strong shafts...then epoxy the hook side of some velcro to the rounded ends. Then attach sandpaper to that.

This would provide a number of different sanding tools with different sized radii for hitting these tough corners. Or has this already been thought of?

[Glenn Hodges]

I would say go for it, but caution you about putting some kind of interfacing on it to soften the blow between the wooden ball and the wooden bowl. This could generate a lot of heat and destroy the velcro plus wood like cherry does not like much heat does it? Velcro will melt easily. You will probably be able to use thick mouse pads or something simular. Let us know how it works out. We are always looking for ways to help out with sanding.

[Mark Singer]

John ,

Very nice and a similar shape to the previous one....I really like it . Cherry is a nice wood and nuther cherry is special , but not as unusual as Shlamaca. Still a great effort and a fine result...I like the telephone also;)