Last minute Christmas bowls - several pics

[Wilbur Pan]

I had all kinds of big dreams for Christmas presents for my secretary, office manager, and nurse practitioner this year, since I've been at woodworking for 2 years now. Of course, I wound up scrambling at the last minute, which for me means making bowls.

Here's a picture of what I managed to do yesterday and today. The bowl on the left is cocobolo, the bowls on the right are cherry, and the one in the middle I thought was cherry, but obviously isn't.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3117/3127398654_997102f47e.jpg

Here are some closeups:

The cherry bowls on the right were supposed to be a matching pair, but I blew one of them up, so now they are a nesting pair. :@)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3093/3126569815_1341950f06.jpg

I like the branch inclusion in the big mystery bowl in the middle. I think it makes it look like a phoenix, or a peacock.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/3127398554_f8fb880da9.jpg

I really liked how the cocobolo bowl came out. I'll be really sad if one day I become allergic to it.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3228/3126569829_4dfa2423ab.jpg

By the way, if you're interested in hand tools, this cocobolo bowl is made out of a kind of infamous piece of cocobolo. I once whacked a notch in the side of this cocobolo bowl blank to try to put to rest the idea that Japanese chisels couldn't be used in hard tropical woods. This caused a lot of consternation (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=83526) over on the Neanderthal forum. I'm sure the cocobolo bowl blank is happy now that it's a bowl, and not a hand tool demonstration piece. :@)

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wilbur - very nice work! Good form on all the bowls! Will make for wonderful gifts! The mystery wood reminds me of the osage orange I see posted here every once in awhile - just going by the grain. Again - very nice work!

[Chris Stolicky]

Wilbur - very nice work! Good form on all the bowls! Will make for wonderful gifts! The mystery wood reminds me of the osage orange I see posted here every once in awhile - just going by the grain. Again - very nice work!

It could be Osage, a or large opened-grained wood like Ash.

[Brodie Brickey]

Wilbur,

Great bowls.

[Pete Jordan]

A very nice collection, Wilbur!

All of them turned out great!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Wilbur those are some great looking bowls. I like the dunno one with the branch inclusion.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Wilbur that mystery bowl is Honey Locust, I'm certain of that, nice bowls by the way, well done :D

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I was thinking Osage Orange or Mulberry.

They're all great.

Bruce

[robert hainstock]

I expect Leo is right on his wood ID. I know it is not ash. If cocobolo is going to be a problem, your applied finish will most likely soften in spots. there was an excellant article in the April 2008 AAW magazine on finishes for bowls, etc. but alas nothing on cocobolo. Jim Becker has a handle on most finishing issues,. If you didn't see his answer in his post, maybe a PM. :)
Bob

[Jim Kountz]

Really nice work, I like the all but I guess my fav would have to be the two cherry bowls. Nice form!!

[Greg Just]

Nice job Wilbur - they will make great gifts - make sure you sign them

[alex carey]

I absolutely love the cocobolo. Those will make awesome gifts.

[Scott Lux]

that mystery bowl is Honey Locust

That's what I was going to say too. Nice work on all of them.

[Wilbur Pan]

I think that my mystery bowl is honey locust. I do remember picking up a couple of honey locust blanks a while ago, although I must have forgotten that I still had one. This bowl was quite hard to turn, even harder than the cocobolo.

I recently got some chunks of black locust from a neighbor who took down a tree, and turning that stuff was such a pain in the tuckus that I swore that I would never deal with anything with the word "locust" in it again. I guess that's why I forgot that I had this blank. Although I must say it was easier to turn this particular blank than it was to turn the black locust that I had.