Hickory bowl, the good and bad

[William C Rogers]

I'm learning. The first hickory bowl I turned had a small inclusion that I should have super glued. It came out mainly because I got this bowl too thin, around 3/32 or less. I debated fixing it or leaving it, but had taken it out of the chuck. Decided to fix or should I say destroy. I couldn't get it back in the chuck close enough and turned through. Lessons learned never take out of the chuck unless you have enough material to true up again and use super glue if you want the inclusions to stay. I did use it to try my wood burning signature.
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The second hickory bowl came out much better. This bowl I decided on straight sides and no fancy rim. Not everyone's style, but what I decided to do. This bowl measures a little over 9 1/2" wide by 3 1/2" tall and is the largest I have ever done. I finished with Minwax antique oil and buffed. I also have some Watco that I will try on the next bowl to see what I like best.
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I guess the the positive thing is the first bowl didn't have much grain characteristics like the second. Comments, tips and tricks welcome. What I learned on the second is to make sure everything is well sanded. I saw one small scratch when I put the finish on that I didn't see before.

[Doug Herzberg]

William, I think the second bowl looks great. We've all had our share of practice bowls.

Sanding is part of the process, on and off the lathe. Better finish cuts make for less of it, but it's hard to avoid entirely. Consider epoxy for those inclusions, rather than CA. I've learned here that you can thin it with a little acetone and it will flow into the cracks quite well. In my experience, a 24 hour cure is the minimum and because it usually takes two applications to level the surface, that means a 48 hour delay in your project, but for me, the results are much better than with CA.

If you mark the #1 jaw on the tenon with a pencil, you can usually remount a piece by lining the jaws up with the impressions they left on the tenon. If the bowl is out of round, it's probably movement of the wood, which you can't fix without enough wood, as you stated.

[William C Rogers]

William, I think the second bowl looks great. We've all had our share of practice bowls.

Sanding is part of the process, on and off the lathe. Better finish cuts make for less of it, but it's hard to avoid entirely. Consider epoxy for those inclusions, rather than CA. I've learned hear that you can thin it with a little acetone and it will flow into the cracks quite well. In my experience, a 24 hour cure is the minimum and because it usually takes two applications to level the surface, that means a 48 hour delay in your project, but for me, the results are much better than with CA.

If you mark the #1 jaw on the tenon with a pencil, you can usually remount a piece by lining the jaws up with the impressions they left on the tenon. If the bowl is out of round, it's probably movement of the wood, which you can't fix without enough wood, as you stated.

Thanks Doug. I didn't know about the acetone trick. I have always admired your turnings, especially the cottonwood platter you did. I thought I should have marked the first piece "after I took it out". I did use epoxy to fill a small area at the knot in the second one and it did take two applications (48 hours), but wasn't about to remove it. The hickory was dry and hard as heck to turn. It is a present for my daughters in laws as it was from a tree they had to remove to build their new house. Thanks for your comments and help.

Edit: The only thing I need to do now is clean the fireplace glass so I have a good view when cold weather arrives!

[John Keeton]

William, good job on the bowl. As for comments, everyone has their artistic preferences, and for me, I prefer the foot to be around 1/3 the diameter, the rim to be something other than horizontally flat (slight angle toward either the outside or inside), and avoid flat sides, i.e., have a consistent curve beginning at the foot and ending at the rim. There are styles of bowls where any of these might not be applicable, but for what you have done, I would think they would work well.

It appears from the pic that the sides may not be of even thickness, and for a hemi-spherical bowl, I prefer consistent wall thickness within reason.

All that said, very good work!

[Bill Boehme]

Congratulations on your first two hickory bowls. My opinion is that is is better to avoid having things like bark inclusions in small bowls.

You are correct about removing a piece from the chuck can lead to difficulty in remounting. Doug gives a good suggestion that I also use, but sometimes even that isn't enough. I have found that my Vicmarc chucks perform better than the others that I have when it comes to precise alignment.

Also, the shape that you have -- flat bottom and vertical sides -- will distort more than a smooth continuous curve that doesn't have "corners" or "transitions". Shapes that work well and also look good include spherical sections as well as variations such as elliptical, parabolic and similar simple continuous curves. I think that if you will give these more round shapes a shot that you won't go back to the flat bottomed shape. It's a bit more difficult to get a perfect smooth continuous curve, but when you nail it, you will see the significance of this small change.

[William C Rogers]

John, good eye. The bottom at the transition is thicker. Didn't intent it, but was maybe gun shy from the first bowl. Yes, the foot is quite large and should be smaller.
Bill, the first bowl was to be more parabolic, but! I did want to make this one as I did, but will go more elliptical on the next one.
All the comments are very helpful, thanks.