How a Wooden Bowl is made.

Here are some galleries that show various wooden bowls from lump of wood to finished item.

I hope that you enjoy and can see how addictive woodturning can be and the joy of creating a wooden bowl.  It seems to me that what I do is to release the beauty that is already in the wood rather.  There is something mystical in watching the wooden bowl emerge from a lump of wood.

This series of photographs

Shows a wooden bowl that I made at Roni’s and the pictures show how it is formed.  The outside is done first, then it is turned round and the inside is turned.

The first couple show the blank that will become the wooden bowl.  The blank is cut so that it is very roughly round.  Removing as much wood as possible reduces the amount of time spent on the lathe (this wooden bowl took a couple of hours).

Roni is expert at cutting blanks to increase the chances of being able to make a stunning wooden bowl.  It takes time to learn this important part of the job. I try to pick Roni’s brains whenever I am down in Wales with her.

I mounted the blank on the lathe and then began to take wood off at is spins round to produce the outside of the bowl.  For those of you that are familiar with lathes may be interested to know a bit about this one of Roni’s lathes.  It is a big beast and did not start life as a woodturning lathe.  It started life as a metal lathe and Huw worked his magic on it.  Roni not only talks about sustainability but puts it into action.  Read more about the lathe here.

Back to turning the bowl

Look at this photo.  I have oiled and buffed up the outside while it is still on the lathe.

I have formed a recess on the base of the wooden bowl to be. This will be used to hold the bowl on the lathe while I form the inside of the bowl.

The next few pictures show me forming and sanding the inside of the wooden bowl.  You can not see any detail of the bowl while I am sanding  That is because it is sanded while it is turning.  It does not seem safe, but it is, as long as you have your wits about you!

There are some wooden bowl forms that are not safe to be sanded while the lathe is turning.  Winged bowls and natural edge bowls that are irregular in shape are obvious examples.

You can see how the oiling of the inside brings out the wood’s beauty. The penultimate photo shows how that bowl is held on the lathe while the inside is turned.  It is important that the recess in the base to be turned well.  If the bowl flies off the lathe while the inside is being turned you could have a lump of wood flying through the air towards you at a rate of knots!  Not a good idea.

The last Photograph shows the comleted wooden bowl, after turning and oiling but before waxing and polishing.

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