lost fight with cherry, supprised by Lilac

[pete00]

A few days ago i was playing, had a hunk of cherry, intended to make a bowl for wife, went from this

just about done..was saying "yes im a genius.... a real norm abraham junior". All i had to do was take off one small mark....put down my friendly gouge and picked up the ........skew.

Two seconds later

another one of my famous kerchunks.....

Now im mad its bad enough my hot chocolate froze, and I had to chew it .. now i have nothing to show for my cold morning.

Decided to take it out on lilac bush in back of house. Grabed a saw, went out back and attacked the first peice i came to. It was about a foot long and a good 2" round.

What did i get.

Inside was really pretty. The real supprise was how i finished the outside. After turning and sanding to about 320, never really planned on doing anything with it. I grabed a hand full of shaving and continued to sand (burnish)with that. Holly cow, it just shined to beat the band, and got as smooth as a baby skin.

I have read of others using sawdust, shaving, and a piece of pine to do that , but never tried it. Will have to continue to try this.

Of course your thinking now I have a pretty piece of wood to make a pen from right...wrong..while i was warming up in the nice warm house the lilac had another supprise.

Warm house+frozen wood = a whole bunch of cracks.

pete

 

[Monty]

Lilac looks fine inside. To bab it wasn't your day and Mr. Murphy had to pay you a visit.[][][]

 

[Dario]

Pete,

That lilac heartwood looks pretty. One word for you "microwave" []

 

[wood-of-1kind]

I guess you can use the lilac club to smash the cherry bowl and relieve some frustration. Too bad about the bowl, it looked very promising.

-Peter-

 

[Old Griz]

Pete, lesson #1 NEVER, NEVER, NEVER EVER USE A SKEW FOR BOWL WORK.... it is not meant for it.. skew chisels are for spindle work... the only two tools you want to ever use on a bowl are a bowl gouge and a scraper. I have seen way too many "could have been nice" bowls turned to scrap by someone using either a skew chisel or a roughing gouge on them.
The latest issue of the AAW magazine has a great article on the top 20 mistakes in bowl turning... very interesting reading...

 

[pete00]

Originally posted by Old Griz
<br />Pete, lesson #1 NEVER, NEVER, NEVER EVER USE A SKEW FOR BOWL WORK.... it is not meant for it.. skew chisels are for spindle work... the only two tools you want to ever use on a bowl are a bowl gouge and a scraper. I have seen way too many "could have been nice" bowls turned to scrap by someone using either a skew chisel or a roughing gouge on them.
The latest issue of the AAW magazine has a great article on the top 20 mistakes in bowl turning... very interesting reading...

Thanks for the lesson Tom.....Now you tell me...[][]

I'll check out AAW, i know i can come up with many more than 20.[]

 

[pete00]

Originally posted by wood-of-1kind
<br />I guess you can use the lilac club to smash the cherry bowl and relieve some frustration.
-Peter-

[][][]Now why didnt i think of that.....[][]

 

[alamocdc]

Pete, I had one break like that on me (dropped it taking it off the lathe), but I was able to glue it back together and you'd never know the break was there. Just took a little extra turning to get it back to being a whole bowl.

 

[Mudder]

Originally posted by Old Griz
<br />Pete, lesson #1 NEVER, NEVER, NEVER EVER USE A SKEW FOR BOWL WORK.... it is not meant for it.. skew chisels are for spindle work... the only two tools you want to ever use on a bowl are a bowl gouge and a scraper. I have seen way too many "could have been nice" bowls turned to scrap by someone using either a skew chisel or a roughing gouge on them.
The latest issue of the AAW magazine has a great article on the top 20 mistakes in bowl turning... very interesting reading...

Got to disagree with you Tom. I took a class with Richard Raffan and he showed us how to use a skew on a bowl. He told us only to use a skew on the outside of the bowl. I also have video's of him using the skew to do detail work on bowls. Also, If you look at the bottom of this page you will see a picture of a really good turner from New Zealand name Terry Scott using a skew on the outside of a bowl.

http://avwa.org/Newsletters/AVWAnewsletter7_04.html

I'm not saying that I would recommend it unless you have total confidence in your ability to handle the skew. For me, it was the only way I was able to get an acceptable cut on the outside of a spalted maple bowl that I made.

 

[gerryr]

I bet Tom was referring to the inside of the bowl. I wouldn't hesitate to use a skew on the outside, but I sure wouldn't try it on the inside.

 

[Woodnknots]

One more note about tools to use on bowls. If you are doing centerwork (grain parrallel with lathe bed), a spindle gouge is acceptable (and many times more practical) for hollowing. I use a spindle gouge almost exclusively on goblets. The thing to remember is, when hollowing center work, work from the inside out. Face work is hollowed from the outside in, and a spindle gouge will catch (and skate)every time.