Fruit bowl

[J.P. Rap]

I finally found some time for some turning. This blank has been in my chuck for more than a month so I figure it was time to make it spin. It's a very nice chunk of Box elder crotch with lots of figure but I'm not thrilled with the shape. The dementions are 10" wide X 6" tall X about 1/4" wall. The shape was dictated by the roughed blank so I was stuck with it. When I turned the rough blank it was a pretty standard bowl shape but there was a big chunk of bark in the middle. By the time I turned the bark out, this is the shape that was left. I left it pretty thick so I could do some more shaping. It was a lot more pear shaped originally.
Anyway, I call it a fruit bowl because for some reason, this shape makes me think fruit bowl.It has one coat of danish oil and will get a few more after it's signed and dated.
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Today I picked up some fresh cut beach and sugar maple. I bandsawed them into blanks and will turn some of them this weekend. I didn't want all bowl blanks so I cut several shapes. Hopefully they survive.
more blanks..jpg
Thanx for lookin. As always, all coments are welcome.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi JP .

I'm not commenting on the MM bowl, you already know, but I'm calling attention to your Beech blanks, you think fruit wood is a challenge, well Beech is a couple grades worse to keep from splitting, turns very nice, and you can get a thin translucent wall easily.
It'll warp a lot, you either need extra thickness or go real thin, even then it might split, I have sealed the thick ones completely and then set away cool and without draft, so far so good.
They use Beech quite a lot in Europe, but it all gets steamed as far as I know.
Have fun turning it JP


I'll add this picture of a small Beech that did split on me even though it was pretty thin.

[Grillzy]

The shape is not my cup of tea. I find often MM looks dirty. Looks like some time roughing out.
Grillzy

[Pete in Welland]

He's Baaaack! Good to see you back on the slope JP.
My thoughts on the shape are the same as everyone else. I think deep down we all still try too hard to get the biggest bowl out of the blank. I think I would've just bit the bullet and made a shallow form. Anyway nicely finished and I'm wondering if a bleach job would take away the muddy look?
As for the beech I've never had a piece to try but in England virtually all furniture spindle turning is beech. There are some huge (for England) beech forests around the town of High Wycombe and it became the furniture capitol of England supporting many bodgers who didn't have access to steam equipment. So it might be a slightly different species or maybe it's really only suited to spindle turning. I'tll be interesting to see what your experiences are with it, so keep us posted.

[Mike Brazeau]

Hey J.P. great to see you back. Was the rough blank the result of trying to use as much of the starting piece as you could? It is a trap we all easily fall into, myself included. I am sure it will get lots of positive comments because of the wood and I am sure you were trying to keep as much of that red figured area in it as possible. It is an unusual shape, and you have already critiqued the bowl yourself. There is no doubt it would look better with the curve continuing into the base.

From this example and not centering you out, when I first looked at your post while browsing the forum on my iTouch earlier this morning, I felt I should say this. One thing I think the members of this forum could benefit from is more real discussion on design. Certainly there are lots of people that are just struggling with basic techniques and the tips and techniques offered here are excellent. I do think though, if you want to get serious about become a good turner, you need to spend time studying design and of course putting the gained knowledge to use. Unfortunately it is easy for feelings to get hurt and that is not the purpose of critique. There are many qualified here to critique. We are very fortunate locally in the GHWG library to have an abundant source of books and magazines to have access to.

Once again I would recommend to all, Raffin's new book, The Art of the Turned Bowl. Excellent section on design with explanations and line drawings for the many overall shapes of bowls. Woodchuckers will be at the CHWS supporting the local guilds and will have books there. I'll drop John a note and make sure he has this one there. I am working at the booth for the GHWG on Friday night 5-8 PM.

And on the beech, I echo what Leo has said. I love beech but it is brutal for splitting. Stay as far away as you can from the pith and then some! Just saw Pete's post and I do think there are differences with the European species and ours. Am sure I saw something about it soemwhere but recall at moment.

[Don in Brooklin On]

JP

I like the design. I think there are too many "oval" bowls and not enough unique ones.

I like MM. I just hope the colour stays in.

Don

[Wally in Calgary]

I finally found some time for some turning. This blank has been in my chuck for more than a month so I figure it was time to make it spin. It's a very nice chunk of Box elder crotch with lots of figure but I'm not thrilled with the shape. The dementions are 10" wide X 6" tall X about 1/4" wall. The shape was dictated by the roughed blank so I was stuck with it. When I turned the rough blank it was a pretty standard bowl shape but there was a big chunk of bark in the middle. By the time I turned the bark out, this is the shape that was left. I left it pretty thick so I could do some more shaping. It was a lot more pear shaped originally.
Anyway, I call it a fruit bowl because for some reason, this shape makes me think fruit bowl.It has one coat of danish oil and will get a few more after it's signed and dated.

Today I picked up some fresh cut beach and sugar maple. I bandsawed them into blanks and will turn some of them this weekend. I didn't want all bowl blanks so I cut several shapes. Hopefully they survive.

Thanx for lookin. As always, all coments are welcome.

Hey J.P. Was wondering where you were!! Nice bowl!! I have lots of that firewood out back. LOL. How's the shop coming?? Do you have everything put away yet?? Good to see you turning again.

[Steve McCarron]

JP: I have to agree with Don. I like the shape of this one. Especially like the larger lip. Nice wood, nice finish.

[MAWarner]

Glad to see ya back in the swing of it. Very nice work on your bowl.
Murray

[J.P. Rap]

Thanx for all the comments.
For those of you who guessed, you guessed pretty close. I was trying to get a big bowl but I also wanted to save the figure at the crotch. I guess if I had sawn it in half I could have got two nice bowls out of it. If I knew what I was in for when I started, I would have done that.
I know what you mean about MM looking muddy but that is not the case with this one. It must be the lighting because in person it's very nice. There is some spectacular figure in just about every part of the bowl. Perhaps more finish will bring it out. I'll post another pic when the finish is finished.

That's bad news about the beech. A lot of it is crotch with some bark in the center that was deep in the tree. Most of it is nicely spalted. I did cut all the pith out so that might help. Today I picked up some Anchorseal and sealed all the ends. I guess I should seal them completely until I can turn them. Right now they're out back getting buried in snow. The problem with turning thin is once you start, you have to finish. That takes time and there's a lot here. I will keep an eye on them and keep you posted as to the results.

Hey J.P. Was wondering where you were!! Nice bowl!! I have lots of that firewood out back. LOL. How's the shop coming?? Do you have everything put away yet?? Good to see you turning again.

Hi Wally. The shop is functional and I work on it a little bit at a time. I have the lights in and wired up but only two plugs so far and a bunch of extension cords and power bars. At least I'm not running power cords in from outside any more. Most of the stuff is put away but it's just about all temporary. I have a lot of changes planned. I already moved a few cabinets and have plans to move the rest. All in good time.

Cheers

[Leo Van Der Loo]

JP, If the wood is spalted, in my experience it does less warping checking or splitting, I don't know for sure but I assume that the lignin is used by the fungus, and so there's less "muscle" in the wood, also spalted Beech looks really nice, I only turned a couple of pieces, good size candle holders only, but they are nice, each of my sons have one, I hope you have good luck with it, as it can be real nice wood