thanks Mike Mahoney

[charlie knighton]

I recently have started a new turning series, Calabash Zia

at Utah symposium I observed Mike Mahoney do a rotation where he used the word calabash and he turned an oval bottom on a large bowl. I very much liked and enjoyed this. I want everyone to know I borrowed the term and bottom from Mike, thanks.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Actually, the Hawaiians created that term lots of years ago, even before turned bowls. Calabash bowls were hollowed end grain from magnificent hardwood trees and shaped like the lower part of a calabash gourd. The hollowed gourds were used by all as daily use bowls. The largest calabash bowls were owned by the wealthy and the royalty and made from large koa trees. Those trees no longer exist in the sizes needed to reproduce the calabash bowls from the 17th century. They were hand hollowed until early lathes showed up. The true proportions for a calabash bowl often had the height equal to the width. The bottom of the bowl was the round shape Mike describes but could taper inward near the rim. Often the sides finished straight up and down near the rim to accommodate a lid.
There is a wonderful book called "The Hawaiian Calabash". It is quite expensive but I found one second hand that is in good shape. The calabash is my favorite bowl shape. Like everyone else, I deviate from the true historical shape and taper the rim to my own liking. If you happen to see one, leaf through the book.
faust