I found a curly red maple log in my firewood this spring, and while it was unfortunately stained from sitting in a pile for a year, I broke it down into blanks and have turned most of it. I had a piece left over that was a lot shorter (just under 9") than it was wide (about 12"), and it had some punky wood near the center. After stewing about how to cut it, I had this idea that if I just turned it like it was a 12" blank, it might turn out kind of interesting, like a cross between a square bowl and a round one. Turning it that way had the added advantage of cutting out all the punky wood without it appearing in the rim of the bowl.

Well, it was a pretty serious fail from an aesthetic standpoint. It looks pretty much like what it is, a round bowl with two sides removed. I think part of the problem is that it's too deep, which makes the sides really scallop down in an unattractive way. This is just off the lathe, I was going to let it dry and then sand it without returning it. The wings started to move on me while I was hollowing, and I've got some tool marks to take out. It's a shy 5/16" on the wall.

Before I throw it in the burn pile, I thought I might continue the experimentation by changing the shape more. One thought I had was to bandsaw the currently straight sides into a shallow arc (as seen in plan view), something more akin to the "rounded side square platters" that John Jordan often shows (and that I've since made many of, thanks for the inspiration John). I made a very crude attempt to draw that in in the second photo. Then profile the edges to look more like the finished edges and blend the curves where the round and not round portions meet.

Any other ideas? The wood doesn't look like much in the photo, but the curl in the wood is actually pretty nice -- pic of a NE bowl made from the same log attached.

Best,

Dave

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