I ordered several bowl blanks from Got Wood. They were species of wood that I have not had any
previous bowl turning experience (except for Cherry): Bradford Pear, Chinaberry, Red Elm, Cherry,
and Ash. These bowl blanks are pre-cut
round. Blanks are green wood (not dried), fully sealed
in paraffin wax to guard against defects and too quick drying.
The pieces contain no pith, checks, or cracks.
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| green blanks with paraffin |
The first bowls I turned were of Bradford
Pear and Chinaberry, both 6 inches in diameter and 3 inches thick. I used a 2 1/8 inch diameter Forstner bit in
my drill press to drill a .25 inch deep hole in the center of the blank and
mounted the blank in the scroll chuck using the chuck in an expansion
mode.
My first step was to true up the blank
sides to form a cylinder and remove the paraffin coating. On the tailstock side I turned a tenon about
2 1/2 inches in diameter and 3/8 inches long. I shaped the curved bottom of the bowl and put in an indentation near the tenon that would later
become the base of the bowl. Using the
tenon I reversed chucked the bowl and hollowed out the inside of the bowl.
The Bradford Pear was particularly aromatic and quite wet, but it turned nicely and showed very little tear out
in the end grain.
The bottom of the bowl has a curved surface where the
side meets the bottom of the bowl. I put
a small band on the outside lip of the bowl and otherwise had the side of the
bowl taper to the base.
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| Bradford Pear: Happy Birthday Lady Ariel |
The inside of
the Bradford Pear bowl shows a subdued grain pattern and the wood has an
yellow-orange tint. The Chinaberry blank
was turned in the same manner and I found the wood to be aromatic, not as
fragrant as the Bradford Pear, and the shavings were not as wet as the
Pear. Chinaberry also showed more tear
out on the end grain, so I had to be more careful to get a smooth finish.
On this bowl I put a small cove cut on the outside of the
bowl, about an inch below the lip of the bowl and then a simple taper to the
bowl base.
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| Chinaberry |
The grain pattern on the Chinaberry bowl is very distinct,
and the wood had an orange to red coloration.
Turning green wood is definitely easier than turning dry wood as the
shavings come off almost in continuous strips. My hands often felt damp from
the spray coming off the chisel as it cut into the green wood. I used the carbide tools for most of the
turnings, plus the parting chisel and a round nose scraper to smooth out the
bottom of the bowls and remove most of the tear out on the outsides of the
bowls.
Once the bowls were completely
turned, I reverse chucked them in a jam chuck to remove the tenon from the
bottom of the bowl. I could only get the
tenon down to about the size of a quarter and about 1/4 inch long, because the
tail stock gets in the way of the parting tool, so to remove that remaining
tenon, I used a hand chisel and then power sanded the bottom.
To sand the bowls I used Abranet sanding mesh, but it was really needed for the Bradford Pear because
the wet wood would have clogged up regular sandpaper. The Chinaberry was not as wet, so I used both
Abranet and regular sandpaper to finish it.
Both bowls got a finish coat of Walnut Oil and once dry, they will get a
final wax finish.
Because of the
high moisture content of these green bowls, I am storing them in a plastic bag
with their moist shavings, a combination that hopefully will allow the wood to
dry slowly, without too much movement or checking. At this
point I am not sure how long it will take for these bowls to dry out, so this will be an experiment to see
what it takes to dry these kinds of wood.
