I finished up the year by turning a number of maple and cherry bowls for family and friends. I'm really loving the process and playing around with different shapes, sanding techniques and finishing styles. The bows are a lot of work, but reveal new character and hidden gems within the wood grain throughout the process.
I have also spent the past few months cutting up blocks of wood with my chainsaw and storing them (green) in the back of my garage. When time permits, I pull one out and true it up on the bandsaw and rough turn it on the lathe. What I'm left with is a "green" bowl (not dry) that is about 1" thick and will be stored again in the back of the garage for about a year to dry out naturally. Wood that dries too quickly or unevenly tends to crack and split and quickly turns into a scrap piece for the fireplace.
Below are some photos of two bowls I turned and finished. The first is made from a chunk of maple and the second, a nice piece of cherry. They are both about 8" in diameter.
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| Maple bowl with nice beetle holes. |
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| Cherry bowl with some black lines running through the grain. |
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| Maple and cherry bowls for comparison. |
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