Natural Edged Bowl - Roughing Outside (3)Finding the Curve

For me, one of the things that keeps me coming back to the lathe is the everlasting hunt for the elusive curve. Every piece turned could be a little different with a subtle change in the curve of the bowl.

Here I have the fun of hunting in a spot where the curve changes dramatically as the bowl rotates. The line of the end will disappear around the side because the wood is simply not there. So the quest becomes a search for a curve that exists in different configurations at different spots. An ogee at one spot becomes a simple curve at another because half the figure is gone.

This is simply fun. The other side of all this is the wood is cheap to use. As I recall the pin cherry for this turning came from a tree that was too close to Dad's shed and was dying from black knot so it had to come down. Once I got it down, it was too good to toss so here it is.

Natural Edged Bowl - Roughing Outside (1)

One of the things, if not the thing that makes turning these natural edged bowls fun is simply the amount of air in the mix. That is especially true for one like this that is longer than it is wide. Of course this brings up complications. For one thing, there is really not firm bevel to ride. You depend on the speed of the wood to make up for the gaps and just go for it. As the video goes on you can see the difference in tool movement as I go from the sides with gaps to the bottom with solid wood. The other thing is the difficulty in viewing the bowl. There is so much air that it can be hard to see the wood once it starts turning. I am turning here at 1200 rpm. You need a decent speed to contend with the huge gaps. If you are not comfortable turning a bowl at that speed, just practice on a few regular ones first.

Roughing a Bowl, Video 6; turning the outside

I am continuing the video series with the outside turning. It gives an idea of using the Oland tool on some green wood. The video is real time of course. I had to remove about 70 seconds of time in order to fit it to YouTube's length allowance but it gives a good approximation of time involved for roughing a bowl. I will try to get the inside turning up in a few days. I suppose this means I need to shoot the finishing video for a bowl as well, but it will likely wait until after Christmas.