Green carved bowl

[Tony Pisano]

I'm working on carving an elongated bowl out of green willow. It's my first experience with unseasoned wood. So far, things are going okay. I have a good chunk of material taken out of the inside, and a basic shape on the outside, although I'll either have to take more form inside or out to get something closer to even tbickness. It measures about 15 inches long, about 10 wide and 6 1/2 high. I've been keeping it in a plastic bag when not working on it, and have even wet it a few times to try and prevent rapid drying. I would appreciate any experienced advice to help prevent cracking and splitting. Also, any info on a good adze or curved gouge would be appreciated, maybe for the next attempt. 385450385451

[Mike Holbrook]

Drew Langsner at Country Workshops use to import tools from Sweden, but he recently closed his school and tool store. Barr Tools would be my suggestion now. They forge: adzes, froes, chisels and gouges.

I would put plane, drawknife, gouge, adze..... shavings & chips in the plastic bag with the bowl.

[John K Jordan]

Woodcraft sells a curved bowl adz. I bought one many moons ago and I thought the quality was good.
https://www.woodcraft.com/products/pfeil-small-curved-head-adze

As for cracking, woodturners face this often with green wood. The best defense I know is to try to make the wall thickness fairly uniform everywhere, especially through the base. The thinner the wall, the more likely the wood will warp instead of crack with drying stresses. Also, a lot depends on the wood and the grain/ring orientation in the piece. I have no experience with green willow.

For preventing cracks between carving sessions just don't let it dry out! Turners even mist with water while working and cover with plastic wrap overnight. Keeping it wet and in a bag is a good short-term defense but can eventually promote mold in warm weather. Keeping the bag and bowl cool, perhaps even in the fridge between sessions might be good. You can also keep green wood sealed and frozen indefinitely. Some people store green logs and blanks completely immersed in water ("ponding") but I haven't heard of using that for partially completed work - don't see why it wouldn't work.

For preventing cracks while drying after completing the carving, turners use differt strategies and still sometimes lose some. Best to slow drying as much as possible so shrinking wood has time to stabilize. I like to coat any end grain on the outside with AnchorSeal, sometimes all the way around the outside, sometime the inside too if the walls are thick and the wood known to be unstable, but the wax will need to be removed when dry. Some turners wrap the outside with stretch wrap. Some dry in paper bags. Some dry in plastic bags: daily remove the piece, turn the bag inside out, and put it back in the dry side. Some bury the bowl in a big pile of shavings. Some soak in denatured alcohol before drying. Any of these will probably work better if the wall thickness is uniformly thin. You might ask on the woodturning forum here - lots of people have far more experience with green wood - most of my turning is with dry wood.

Some species are inherently more stable than others. I read that big carved dough bowls were traditionally carved from yellow poplar in Appalachian homesteads - I wonder if wood stability was one reason for that. (Wood availability and ease of working are probably another reason.) Again, I have no experience with willow.

Post more photos of progress! Carving a bowl from a chunk of wood has long been on my "list"!

JKJ