My first ever burr bowl - for critique please

[henton49er]

Having finished my Tazza for the March turning competition, I thought I would turn something a bit different (for me).

A shallow bowl turned in burr elm, my first venture into turning burr woods. The bowl is 175mm in diameter and 30mm deep inside the bowl. The overall height is 35mm. I found that I needed to sharpen my gouge much more often that with "regular" bowl blanks. The inside is not as smooth as I would have liked. Finished by hand sanding to 400 and then sprayed with two coats of gloss acrylic lacquer.

I would appreciate any comments or constructive critique.

Mike.

 

[artanddecco]

Hi Mike, that looks fantastic, beautiful contrasts, a work of art to be proud of.
John

 

[jumps]

I'm a sucker for Elm grain, and here you have both that and the contrasting burr - lovely

Overall the piece seems to work, although the sides look a little straight and in direct contrast with the internal and swirls of the grain/burr. Seeing the natural burr side I can understand why you went this way.

 

[boysie39]

You done the piece of wood proud Mike , Elm is a lovely wood to work with but as you say the burr will keep you on your toes . For a first try you done a great job well done . =D> =D>

 

[Blister]

My 2p worth
The sides look to thick a bit out of proportion for the size of the bowl

I love turning burrs

They always reveal beauty as your one has :mrgreen:

 

[CHJ]

Always a challenge with an interesting piece of burr, do you keep as much as possible or turn it away in shavings.

Personally I would have hollowed out the centre more and undercut the inner rim to lighten the appearance, also if at all possible left the outer burr in the rough and not taken off so much of the 'tops' to intensify the character.

But that is just my gut reaction on first viewing without taking into account it is your first encounter with such and I know you will have been fighting tool control and knuckle wrapping avoidance, so well done.

To try and achieve my preferences with that piece of wood would have required turning the inner and the outer on different axis.

Moving the centre of the inner bowl over away from the burr would have left more wood for the rim and any undercut on that side and reduced the rim thickness on the burr clear side.
On the base, centring it nearer the burr would have allowed removal of some of the clear bulk but retained more of the burr peaks.

 

[henton49er]

Thank you all for your comments.

Artanddecco - I like the contrasts as well; elm gives some lovely grain effects and I enjoy turning it.

Jumps / Blister - I agree that the sides look too bulky in relation to the height, but I would have lost more of the burr if I had carried on reducing the wall thickness; there is already a hole in the burr!! Chas has hit on a good point.

Chas - I did not think of turning the inside on a different centre to the inside. I started with the bowl on a faceplate and turned the outside. Could I have then used a glue chuck to get a better centre for turning the inside, rather than making a spigot to reverse the bowl onto my chuck? I agree that this could have given me thinner walls and shown more of the burr. Personally, I quite like the burr with some of the tops knocked off in the turning process; it seems to give a greater contrst to the burr with the darker and lighter areas - each to his own as they say!!

I really enjoyed turning something that was always slightly out of balance - a fight between lathe speed and stability on the one hand and tool control and finish on the other - and I am aure that I will be trying more burr pieces in the future.

Thanks once again,

Mike

 

[CHJ]

Yes a glue chuck can be used, I would fix a scrap piece to your faceplate and turn a suitable register (hollow or whatever) for the base, then move (offset) the scrap on the faceplate to give the alignment you require.

Alternate method Combination of chuck, glue block and faceplate.

Actual method will be determined by the character of each piece but it is a good idea to start thinking how you can secure odd ball pieces with the fittings you have.