Catalpa Bowl

[David Delo]

Instant gallery theme for our Saturday chapter meeting is "Things Around The House." Here's my entry of a 11" x 4.5" catalpa bowl with different sizes of "wood fruit spheres." 4" oak, 3.5" cherry and 2.25" poplar. First time working with catalpa and must say it's a beautiful looking wood even in an unfinished state. I just finished it with walnut oil and buffed it. I like the way it came out overall but did screw up the small diameter burn on the bottom side. Thought my formica strip was thin enough to get it the groove but it wasn't. Cleaned it up the best I could with the wood burning pen. Spheres finished off in the same manner and pretty satisfied with the results. Next batch will probably include some type of design work and maybe some hollowed out styles.
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[Brice Rogers]

Very nice, David.

You mentioned using a formica strip. I'm unfamiliar with that. Is it for burning in the rings on the bottom? How well does it work in comparison to using a wire (as would be used on the outside of a bowl) ?

[Peter Fabricius]

Very nice bowl and spheres, David,
If you want the smudged burn line to go away then mount the bowl on your Vacuum Chuck and turn the burn off. The other two lines look good so you could reburn with a sharper piece of formica.
Peter F.

[David Delo]

Very nice, David.

You mentioned using a formica strip. I'm unfamiliar with that. Is it for burning in the rings on the bottom? How well does it work in comparison to using a wire (as would be used on the outside of a bowl) ?


Brice,

You can take strips or scraps of laminate material and use it as sort of a burning stick. Just apply the friction and it will burn a line. My laminate is .042 thick that I sanded a little thinner for my grooves. My problem was I burned up the thinner edge on the first 2 grooves and didn't refresh my edge on the inside groove. Don't think there's any way to use a wire on the bottom of a bowl or vessel. Harvey Meyer likes to use a paper backed sandpaper for burning in-between his beads. Just google his name and beading demo. Haven't tried that yet but looks pretty slick and easy.
331960

[David Delo]

Very nice bowl and spheres, David,
If you want the smudged burn line to go away then mount the bowl on your Vacuum Chuck and turn the burn off. The other two lines look good so you could reburn with a sharper piece of formica.
Peter F.

I might just try that idea........thanks for the suggestion Peter

[Eric Gourieux]

I like the bowl shape and how you centered the grain pattern. The spheres are nice, too.

[Bob Coates]

David,
Nice bowl. I tree trimmer gave me some catalpa and said it won't check. To prove it he cut 1/4 inch slab off a limb and it didn't split. With that information I turned a 14" bowl down the pith and it has not show any signs of splitting. If you have any extra, you might want to try that. Wish I had some more.
Bob

[Ben Pierce]

It's a really pretty bowl, David. I like Catalpa. A friend of mine gave me a couple catalpa blanks. The wood sure does stink, but it's shiny and attractive when sanded.

[David Delo]

It's a really pretty bowl, David. I like Catalpa. A friend of mine gave me a couple catalpa blanks. The wood sure does stink, but it's shiny and attractive when sanded.Yeah, you know your not getting any cherry aroma when cutting this stuff. I've read a couple people comment that they had a bear of a time sanding catalpa. My experience was almost the opposite. Got a very niece smooth finish right off the tool and took very little sanding to clean up/

[David Delo]

Thanks Bob & Eric. The only downside other than a funky smell, this wood is so light in weight that you need to leave it thicker than normal to make it feel like anything. This bowl is just shy of 3/4" thickness and I'll bet one of the oak spheres weighs more than the bowl itself.

[Mike Goetzke]

Dale - I love the bowl. The grain pattern really stands out. Usually there is a four quadrant pattern and yours is almost completely circular (and it's not an end grain bowl). How was this turned from the log?

Thanks,

Mike

[David Delo]

Mike,

I picked up a 4 blanks from a chapter member that was selling all his stuff a few months back. Here's a pic of the remaining 3. I'm assuming they were cut in the traditional manner of splitting in half thru the pith by the way the top blank was prepared. The one I machined was like the bottom two. I cored another bowl out of that blank. Should have got a couple more out of the blank but my initial tenon cracked on me so I had some extra whittling to do to save what I got out of it.
331984

[Robert Henrickson]

Dale - I love the bowl. The grain pattern really stands out. Usually there is a four quadrant pattern and yours is almost completely circular (and it's not an end grain bowl). How was this turned from the log?

Circles or concentric ovals result from having the base at the centerline of the log, the four-quadrant if the base is at the outside toward the bark.

[Roger Chandler]

Very nice, all pieces, David. I especially like the catalpa bowl. Great form on it, and the grain orientation makes it all the more a nice piece. Did you have any sanding problems with the catalpa? Sometimes it goes well, sometimes not so much, and the softer wood makes the grain raise, so just the right amount is the key, and it looks like you found the right amount on this one!

[David Delo]

Roger,Perhaps it was my once in a million moment but this wood gave me the best finish directly from the tool (both inside & outside) of anything I've ever done. Sanding was a breeze. Used my inertia sander with 3" disks without any hiccups. The only thing that was a little strange is the top of the bowl at the rim and the bottom of the bowl on the inside & outside.....have a wave in them in-between the grain rings. It's flat but has a definite wavy texture to it. Kind of a cool effect, just haven't ever noticed anything like that before.