hand made hald log bowl

[curtis rosche]

i have alog peice that it a peice of cherry that is where a branch grew broke off and then grew over i was going to do it on the lathe but the peice wouldve wasted too much and there was alot of ant damage

i have it started and i was wondering if anyone ever made a bowl out of a half log and if any one has any tips i will post pics of what i have so far latter

[curtis rosche]

pics of what i have so far i also just got a large milling vise to hold the peice so it doesnt slide on the floor

[Dave Mount]

I made an adze a while back and then took after a piece of paper birch firewood to test it out. Pics below. From your pics, it looks like you will face a couple challenges I didn't. For one, the grain in your piece appears much more tortured; this doesn't mean you can't do it, but working the wood will be a little more difficult because of the changing grain directions. A second challenge may relate to tools. It looks in the pic like you're using an Irwin paring chisel to remove the waste. This will not only be slow, but it's not the right geometry for gouging out the bowl. Usually, one would rough out the cavity with a chopping tool like an adze, then clean up with large radius gouge. If you go to Drew Langsner's site, www.countryworkshops.org (http://www.countryworkshops.org), and look under tools, you can see examples of bowlworking tools (BTW, I've no affiliation with them).

In the first pic, you can also see how I held the workpiece while I was chopping on it. I just made a cradle out of 2x4 scrap.

Good luck with it, it looks like there would be a lot of pretty grain in that piece.

Dave

[curtis rosche]

its a peice where there was a branch that grew broke off and the grew over these are the only chisels that i have the grain it interesting i started on the softest spot to make it easier and at the bottom where the crotch is there is that curl grain that looks like a brain thats brown on the outside i havent been able to work on it for a while but when i do more ill get more pics