Thin-Walled Apple Wood Bowl

[Chris Gunsolley]

Here's an apple wood bowl that I turned on Wednesday. Just thought I'd share.

9 1/2" in diameter, 5 3/8" deep, with walls that are about 1/16" thick. I've been saturating it in food-grade mineral oil.

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[Frederick Skelly]

Beautiful work!
1/16" thick? Man, that's amazing.

[Thomas Heck]

Great looking bowl. I like turning Apple. Seems to smooth up easily, but moves a lot if any bit wet.

[Alan Heffernan]

Wow, beautiful wood. Like the mineral oil finish too.

[John Keeton]

The wood is striking and the form is very good. What is the diameter of the base?

[Chris Gunsolley]

The wood is striking and the form is very good. What is the diameter of the base?

Thanks for the compliments on the wood and the form of the bowl, John! Part of my intention with the form on this one was to accentuate its depth, which to me is a major asset of this particular bowl. I like the outcome. And I agree with you on the apple wood. I think the unpredictability amongst the reddish light and dark brown variations within its grain rivals the intrigue of crotch figure. To accompany this pattern excitement, it's got this warm, heart-melting color to it that seems to generate a calming affect. It's too bad so many people burn it (for cooking). Why does it just have to turn out that the best woods for us bowl turners are also the most sought-after woods to burn as well? I wish it weren't so...

As for the base, the tenon is about 2 5/8" in diameter; about 28% of the bowl's 9 1/2" diameter.

[Chris Gunsolley]

Beautiful work!
1/16" thick? Man, that's amazing.

Thank you for the compliment on the bowl, Frederick! And yes, at most the walls take up about 1/2 of the 1/8th mark on the ruler:

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[Chris Gunsolley]

Wow, beautiful wood. Like the mineral oil finish too.

Thank you for the compliment on the wood, Alan! I like effect of the mineral oil, too. It makes the color of the wood warmer, and it appears healthier, which it indeed is. I actually consider mineral oil saturation to be critical to allowing a green-turned apple wood bowl to survive crack-free. As I'm sure you realize, green apple wood cracks easily as it dries. So, my routine with apple wood bowls is to absolutely saturate them in mineral oil (a penetrating oil). I figure if I keep it wet, how will it crack? So far, so good and I haven't had any issues with wood that wasn't cracked prior to turning it (a point on apple wood that Leo has made numerous times before). I apply generous amounts of mineral oil to the bowl while turning it for my finishing cuts, then after I take it off the lathe, I apply additional oil every couple of ours for the first few days. After that, a few times a day, then after a couple days of that, a couple of times a day which is where I am now with this bowl. I monitor it frequently to see how it's sucking up the oil and if there are any dry spots. I think today--after a week of oil saturation--I'm at the point at which I can settle down a bit on this particular bowl and call it safe, but I'll keep an eye on it, looking for dry spots. It also helps that it was turned thin (and the rim was rounded courtesy of Reed's advice), which I do because I think that's beautiful, and coincidentally the wood is less likely to crack because of that.

[Brice Rogers]

Chris, You did a nice job, especially making it so thin.

Are you planning on keeping the tenon or turning it off?

I think that the bowl might look a bit better if the tenon was either removed or made much shorter. Just my personal opinion. Perhaps others may disagree with my comment ....

[Chris Gunsolley]

Chris, You did a nice job, especially making it so thin.

Are you planning on keeping the tenon or turning it off?

I think that the bowl might look a bit better if the tenon was either removed or made much shorter. Just my personal opinion. Perhaps others may disagree with my comment ....

Thank you, Brice! My intention with the tenon was to lift the bowl off the surface that it is sitting on, giving a light feeling to a deep bowl so as to make it feel as though despite its size, it's floating. In doing so, the very round profile in its bottom half is revealed more so than it would be without the tenon. To me the tenon's depth (0.25") still allows the bowl to appear stable (but I'm sure I can delude myself, which is why third party perspective is useful.). Still, I'm carefully considering your suggestion, and at this point think that I agree with you in the sense that the bottom would look better without the tenon, as the grain patterns would look more continuous. In any case, I may still remove it or reduce it, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate that you've got my ideas on the matter stirring...

[Glenn C Roberts]

Yep - I believe Brice is on to something. Seems like the bowl would fall over if it were filled with "candy".

[Jamie Straw]

It's too bad so many people burn it (for cooking). Why does it just have to turn out that the best woods for us bowl turners are also the most sought-after woods to burn as well? I wish it weren't so...


Totally agree with you about apple, many turners are afraid of fruitwoods in general because of the possibility of cracking, but the result is worth the risk to me. I'm on board with Brice about the tenon/foot. It looks a bit "stuck on" to my eye. I struggle with those decisions every time I turn a bowl -- spend inordinate amount of time re-reading Raffan's design book.:p

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Nice bowl Chris, I do like turning Apple wood, it has often very nice coloration going from red to almost white and all colors in between, and often in a abrupt manner, I’m not a fan of using Mineral Oil on wood just too greasy and will dull quite quickly.

Food safe just means the body will get rid of it promptly :rolleyes: :eek: ;)