My first bowl - Flame Box Elder

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karlkuehn

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I finally tackled a bowl. Those are tougher than they look, and kinda scary! A quick Christmas gift for the hostess who invited me to her house for Christmas (Nephew's girlfriend's mother). Filled it with Christmas colored wrapped Hershey's kisses, it looked pretty neat.

This one measures 6 1/2" through the middle and 2 1/2" high. They'll get better, but I was happy enough with this one for a first. Lots of things I did wrong, but I figured I'm better off just getting it off the lathe and trying again rather than spend too much time on one 'perfect' one. Repetition is the path to perfection, I've learned!

BowlBoxElder1_1.jpg


BowlBoxElder1_2.jpg
 
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karlkuehn

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Originally posted by R2

Nicely done. Good shape.:):) but why the ugly felt to ruin the effect?

hehe...notice how you can't see any issues with the wood on the bottom of the bowl? Gah, talk about ugly...it ended up smooth, but the wood looked like I'd used a hatchet to turn it on the bottom. heh
 
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Karl -

I'm still working on my first bowl, only it's really my sixth bowl because the first five blew up on me. You're right about the "scary" part. My gouges kept catching and that ultimately led to each explosion. I finally decided to sharpen my gouges according to my sharpening system's (Jet wet grind) instructions, and I'm about ready to finish up my sixth attempt. I'll post a picture if it turns out half as good as yours.
 

louisbry

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Very nice first bowl. Sometimes you have to get the power sander out to smooth the bottom when you first start turning bowls. With experience a bowl gouge will do the trick. The outside shape has a pleasing look to it for the style of bowl you choose.
 

karlkuehn

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Originally posted by louisbry

Very nice first bowl. Sometimes you have to get the power sander out to smooth the bottom when you first start turning bowls. With experience a bowl gouge will do the trick. The outside shape has a pleasing look to it for the style of bowl you choose.

Wow! Look at that, I chose a style of bowl?! Boy, am I good or what? And here I thought that I just stuck it on there, said a couple hail Mary's and started hacking! [:p]

I hear you about the tools. My spindle gouge was hopping, dancing, hooking edges and tearing out chunks to beat all when I was working on the inside, let me tell you. Tried a fingernail scraper in there, too, and it caught so hard once it bent. Yikes. I need to get a bowl rest if I'm going to keep doing bowls, I guess. I should probably pony up for some real tools, too. My HF stuff is looking a little ragged.

Thanks for all the nice comments, you guys. Sometimes it's scary posting on here with all the beautiful work I see. Love this site! :)
 

R2

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Karl, I'm not sure what you mean by a bowl rest but you certainly need a BOWL GOUGE and A ROUND NOSE SCRAPER. to do bowls. Se if you can find someone to teach you how to use the bowl gouge to do a shearing/scrape cut across end grain. Louis's suggestion about the power sander is pertinent also.

A our club we have some wise old members who would have stopped you using a spindle or or fingernail gouge even on the outside. When you get a bowl gouge get a good one. Hnry Taylor or P&n are th best IMHO. You will, after using this implement, Know what I mean about the wise old heads here.
Best of luck.:):)
 
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