N.E. Bowl Technique

[Cody Colston]

Reading John Hart's description of how he achieves final thickness on natural edge bowls got me a bit confused.

I've heard Dave Hout on his show and read on forums that once you define the thickness and begin hollowing a NE bowl that you "can't go back out there", meaning back to the edge to tweak the thickness.

I have "gone back out there" with a bowl gouge and John did so with a skew.

So, what's the reasoning behind that statement.

[John Hart]

Cody, I do "go back out there" regularly...but I think it would be problematic if the natural edge were attacked frontally, simply because it is so weak and would have a tendency to flex. However, I've found through experimentation that when a very tiny profile of the blade is hitting the NE axially, the total surface area being addressed is dramatically reduced, plus, there it no pressure being exerted radially, which would be the most susceptable to flex and breakage.
All that said....any weakness in the natural bond of the NE to the wood, will come into play, and probably nothing would prevent a breakout...unless you stabilized in advance with some CA or something.

did that make sense?:confused:

[Cody Colston]

Yeah, that makes sense. Also, I probably get away with it because I almost always CA the bark in advance. It not only helps it adhere to the edge but it makes it darker which I like.

Thanks for the explanation.

[Ernie Nyvall]

Hmm, that's interesting. I had just assumed that you would rough one out like any other bowl and go back when it's dry and do the finish cut to thickness. I've done several that way.

Cody, does Dave Hout just finish them warped? John said his didn't move that much, but a couple of mine have moved enough so that I took almost an inch off to get them round again and of course I had to go back out to the edge.

Ernie

[Cody Colston]

Ernie,

On the episode where he turned a NE bowl, he (his student) turned it to finish. The episode where he demonstrated a twice-turned bowl was not a NE.

[Glenn Hodges]

I turn NE bows both ways using the DAL method to dry the NE bowl. I have stated before how I glue the bark to the bowl because I feel this is one place it will have a big chance of failing. We all know sap wood and heart wood dries at different rates. The bark being attached to the sap wood makes it more inclined to seperate from the NE piece so this is why I glue. Now back to the question at hand. It is your lathe and your tools so do as you wish. Most of the time I do go back for some reason or another and put a gouge to the outside, but the main profile and shape of the NE bowl was made before I started on the inside. This going back to the outside with the gouge is usually a very minor activity.