Steps involved in making a bowl

            Several people have asked me how the process of turning a tree into a bowl. What are the steps involved? Well, here are the steps and rough finished products to show that process.

First we start with a tree. This Juniper was standing at the corner of a house in town and she contacted a friend of mine who is also a member of the local wood turning club. He recruited me to help him cut them down and haul off the limbs along with the useable wood. What you see is part of my share, he took some as well and the rest we took to the club to distribute to the other turners.

From there I cut a section of log that roughly matches the diameter. In this case, the diameter is roughly 12” so I cut the section 12” long. Add to that, my lathe will only do bowl 12” in diameter or less and we are off and running. The next step is to cut the block in half vertically, taking the “pith” or center section of the log out. That section will cause nothing but problems. With the halves cut I use plywood temples to cut them to rough circles that can be mounted on the lathe. Here I have the first roughed out bowl and five more pieces ready to turn.

The next step is to mount the piece on a “screw chuck” which is a fancy word a Big wood screw that’s held in the 4 jaw chuck on my lathe. I then bring up the tail stock and put pressure on the blank to help keep it in place. Since the wood is not yet ‘round’ it is out of balance and makes the lathe vibrate if it’s running too fast. One view shows the chuck on the front of the piece and the next is the tailstock in place. This will be a “natural” edge bowl, meaning the bark will show on the finished piece.

Here is a shot of the bowl after I have shaped the outside, made a tenon on the bottom so it can be held in the 4 jaw chuck. The shavings on the floor are from the previous bowl and the shaping of this one.

This shows the inside of the same bowl with the “natural edge” and the fantastic grain that Junipers are known to produce.

Here is one of the smaller pieces, but this time I will make a traditional bowl where all the bark is taken off and a flat edge is produced. The hole showing is in the part of the bowl that will be the inside, so it will get turned out once the bowl is done. I’ll make a tenon on the other side, turn the bowl exterior off this side, reverse it in the chuck.

Here is that same bowl held by the tenon.

Remember that selection of blocks? Here is the finished, well Nearly finished, can’t sand them until they have a few months to dry, bowls. The one piece on the right had too many cracks to be safely turned into a bowl so it will be cut down into smaller square sections and used for other products.

And that is the steps to produce a bowl. There are variations on how you hold it in the lathe (glue blocks, drive spurs, etc.). The shapes are mostly whatever the wood tells me when I’m turning it or the approximate shape a customer has told me they want.