Creating a Burl Bowl
Dec
20
Written by:
Joe Brinkman
12/20/2008 10:24 PM
This is my second attempt at working on a new style of bowl. During last month’s NCWT Annual Auction, I picked up a nice cherry burl. What I really liked about this piece of wood was that the bark was completely intact and that the edges were nice and clean. This gave me a great idea for a natural edged bowl. Rather than having a small band of the bark exposed, I chose to really highlight the bark and the moss that you can still see on the final piece.
Since the bottom of the piece was already fairly flat, I just needed to add a recess on the top so that I could turn between centers. As you can see below, a little work with a forstner bit and some chisels and I had a nice flat surface for engaging my drive center.
With the wood between centers it was now a simple exercise to clean up the bottom face and add a small foot so the bowl stands proud of the table top. I also added a small recessed dovetail (not shown) so that I could reverse the blank and hold it with my four-jaw chuck.
If I had been using a face plate I wouldn’t have had the extra stub to worry about where the tail center held the blank. In looking back at the process, that stub came in very handy later. I turned the center stub as small as possible so that it would be out of the way in the center recess of the chuck.
With the bowl now firmly held in the chuck, it is possible to turn the inside of the bowl. For this project I decided to turn a bowl in a bowl. This allows me to keep the rough, natural edge, while also creating a “clean” and symmetrical inner bowl. This makes a nice contrast.
During the course of turning the bowl, I had the opportunity to try out a trick I learned at a recent NCWT meeting. By turning a short stub to fit in my tailstock I could use my tailstock as a depth gauge. As shown in the picture below, I set my depth gauge to measure a specific distance from the chuck when my mark on the masking tape lines up with a line on my lathe bed. By sliding my tailstock up as I am turning, I know when I am getting close. Just make sure you don’t change the depth the tailstock is extended as this will invalidate the marks you use for lining up the tailstock.
After getting the bowl complete I made a quick wood block for my chuck and rounded the face to somewhat match the curve of the bowl. It doesn’t need to be exact. You just don’t want any sharp edges that could dig into your bowl. I use some non-slip padding on the face. I stole this from my wife’s kitchen and just cut it a little larger than the wood block.
I can now flip the bowl back around and use a live tail center to hold the bowl against the wood block. The non-slip padding protects my bowl surface and gives a good grip. When I originally turned my foot, along with the recess for the chuck, I left the center stub where I originally turned it between centers. By using that stub again, I am able to get my bowl perfectly centered without any difficulty. I know turn away the recess leaving a nice clean bottom with a small foot. After removing the bowl from the lathe, a chisel and sandpaper makes quick work of the remaining stub.
One of the joys of turning burls is that you never know what you will find in the center. In this case I had some figured grain and a nice bark inclusion which you can see in the first picture.
One thing that this project re-affirmed for me is the value of spending some quality time thinking about a project before you ever put the wood on the lathe. I spend time thinking about the general design, how I will hold the piece at various stages of the turning process and even how I will sand and finish the project. Although I generally don’t try and plan the final shape, I know plenty of turners who do. I prefer to let the shape emerge during the turning process. The planning process lets you figure out when you need to perform certain steps, which may sometimes only be performed at one critical point in the process. Only when I have a “plan of action” will I actually begin the turning process.
I believe that wood turning is both a right and left brained activity. There is a part of wood turning that is about technical skill and execution. There is a second part that is about design and what looks pleasing. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try something new or different. Let your right-brain run free and see what wild new ideas you come up with. I do this at two different points in my turning. I think about design when I am first deciding on the project. What kind of shape do I think would best compliment a particular piece of wood. Once I have my end goal in mind, I will then perform some left brain activity and make sure that I know the technical details of how to reach that destination. Sometimes during this technical evaluation I will reject a design because it is way outside my skill level or may require tools that I don’t currently own. During the actual turning I open myself to new possibilities. I look to see if the wood is suggesting a slight alteration of the shape or some embellishments – like the bowl in a bowl.