Playing Around With Bowls

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Dehn0045

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Over the Holiday my woodworking mentor gave me a Hunter Osprey carbide tool. He had won it in a drawing and gave it to me out of the blue (along with a live center and some nice pieces of wood). He has always been the most generous person that I know, a real inspiration. Anyway, I first had to turn a handle for the tool and then turned my 3rd and 4th bowls. The bowl pictured with the tool is 3rd and I'm pretty sure is white oak. The other two photos are the 4th which is mesquite. The tool was incredible. Both blanks were dry, I previously have tried turning dry wood for small platters but really struggled with HSS tools, this tool cut it like butter and didn't slow down.
 

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Dehn0045

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Very nice it does look like white oak to me. What did you use for a finish?

I used Shellawax friction polish followed by a coat of paste wax and buffing. I still have a long way to go with my turning and finishing techniques, but it's fun learning something new.
 

JimB

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Very nice job on the bowl. Bowls are a lot of fun to turn and you can get creative with designs.

Out of curiosity, why didn't your mentor teach you to use a HSS bowl gouge?
 

Dehn0045

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Very nice work !! . The mesquite has beautiful grain !

Thanks Mal! The mequite came from a scrap pile at a lumber Mill nearby. I went there hoping to get some small off cuts. The guy in the office pointed to a mountain of wood and said take whatever you want for $50. The wood was all still wet, but 4 foot lengths of 4/4 and 8/4 rough sawn boards. Unfortunately I only had my car, so was limited on the quantity I could take. The two boards of 8/4 mesquite we're sun faded and I didn't know what they we're until a couple weeks ago when I cut into one. Sure glad I didn't use it for firewood! Not long after I got my haul, the mill burned down, was apparently pretty spectacular. I haven't been by there since, not sure if they reopened or not... I have few regrets in life, but not grabbing more of the mequite is one.
 

Dehn0045

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Very nice job on the bowl. Bowls are a lot of fun to turn and you can get creative with designs.

Out of curiosity, why didn't your mentor teach you to use a HSS bowl gouge?

Thanks Jim, unfortunately he lost a leg in a car accident many years ago. This has led him to use less traditional approaches to bowl turning as he likes to remain in a seated position. I did discuss HSS bowl gouge with him and he suggested that the grind that I am using might be part of my problem. I am going to try some tweaking with my grind and try again at some point with wet wood. Given my limited shop time, the carbide is nice as I can go right to turning without a lot of time spent on other stuff...
 

JimB

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Very nice job on the bowl. Bowls are a lot of fun to turn and you can get creative with designs.

Out of curiosity, why didn't your mentor teach you to use a HSS bowl gouge?

Thanks Jim, unfortunately he lost a leg in a car accident many years ago. This has led him to use less traditional approaches to bowl turning as he likes to remain in a seated position. I did discuss HSS bowl gouge with him and he suggested that the grind that I am using might be part of my problem. I am going to try some tweaking with my grind and try again at some point with wet wood. Given my limited shop time, the carbide is nice as I can go right to turning without a lot of time spent on other stuff...

Sam - your mentor mentioned one of the two most common problems. The other is how you approach the cut. Both are easily fixed. I have taught many people to turn bowls. Some are folks that have never turned before so they are using my gouges so I only need to focus on technique. These folks go home with a finished bowl in about 3 hours.

When I help people who have been doing Spindle work and are getting into bowls I almost always need to re-grind their bowl gouge and then help them with technique. For these people it only takes about 30 to 60 minutes to get them going down the right path where they understand what was causing their problem and can go home and do some bowl turning on their own.

Maybe your mentor, if he has used HSS to turn bowls, can watch what you do and help you.

BTW, I don't have anything against carbide. I own a set of EWT Carbide. I just do 99% of all my turning with HSS.
 
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