Spalted oak bowl

[woodfarmer]

This was from the firewood heap cut last winter and split april (ish).

 

[gregmcateer]

Nice and chunky.

I like that - looks like a giant mortar

 

[CHJ]

Good recovery of basically scrap wood, some interesting figuring.

Seeing as you have retained the chucking socket you might consider re-mounting it and sanding out the tool marks on the inside.

Folks may not like/prefer or otherwise rate your output but if you present it without any finishing blemishes they will always have to give it credit for that.

Regarding the rim on bowls, try not to have an inner form that gives the impression of the tapered inner edge as seen in the left sketch.
Try turning one with a slight undercut to the inner rim that casts a slight shadow, visually makes a thicker walled bowl look lighter.

 

[woodfarmer]

Good recovery of basically scrap wood, some interesting figuring.

Seeing as you have retained the chucking socket you might consider re-mounting it and sanding out the tool marks on the inside.

Folks may not like/prefer or otherwise rate your output but if you present it without any finishing blemishes they will always have to give it credit for that.

Regarding the rim on bowls, try not to have an inner form that gives the impression of the tapered inner edge as seen in the left sketch.
Try turning one with a slight undercut to the inner rim that casts a slight shadow, visually makes a thicker walled bowl look lighter.

Thanks for phrasing it so kindly

I actually deliberately turned the taper on the rim in the hope it would make it look lighter . So when I finish it I will have a go at undercutting the rim to see how that looks. Although the wood has taken a bit of shine, the wax is really there to slow the drying. It will quickly lose its shine as the water comes through. When dull and drier I will have a go at refinishing it. The wood is one of those awkward bits so even with a sharp gouge it vibrates as it passes through bits of differing hardness and density.

Sometimes a start with a shape in mind, but often I sort of just follow the wood, few are alike. Although I think my inclination is to have a concave bottom half then convex up towards the middle and from then on slightly flared outwards.

I still since starting have problems on some bowls getting a clean surface in the bottoms especially if they have tall sides. Just can;'t get the gouge to ride the bevel reliably. I had hoped the superflute would have helped. Sometime this winter think I will eventually find a solution.

I was surprised to find Oak kept in the dry had spalted. The other half which I had set aside for a natural edged bowl is scrap. just crumbled in the log splitter

 

[paulm]

I still since starting have problems on some bowls getting a clean surface in the bottoms especially if they have tall sides. Just can;'t get the gouge to ride the bevel reliably. I had hoped the superflute would have helped. Sometime this winter think I will eventually find a solution

Try a second bowl gouge ground to a steeper angle bevel for tidying up the bottom of the inside. The steeper angle allows you to keep the bevel rubbing on the bottom without the gouge or handle fouling the sides of the bowl so much.

And/or a heavy scraper used with a light touch and resharpened every minute or so of use can give good results too depending on the timber.

Cheers, Paul

 

[CHJ]

I still since starting have problems on some bowls getting a clean surface in the bottoms especially if they have tall sides. Just can;'t get the gouge to ride the bevel reliably. I had hoped the superflute would have helped. Sometime this winter think I will eventually find a solution.

As Paul says use a simple gouge with a 45 to 55 deg front bevel for the bottoms of bowls.
So called super flutes etc. are just limited use specialist tools and not necessary, may make things easier occasionally but there are basic ways of getting the job done.

As far as tool marks and torn grain, remember that 60 or 80 grit abrasive is a cutting tool, used with a light touch so that it does not removed soft areas into forming pits no one will know once the piece is finished.

If you don't rotary sand then try that, work piece at slow speed, even stationary, and battery powered hand drill at slower speeds will rapidly clean up problem grain areas.

By all means improve the sharpening and tool use techniques, but producing more pieces with a good finish will develop your skill levels and lead to an automatic response to problem areas quicker than all the theoretical contemplation and tool sales literature promises.

You don't master driving a car by reading and thinking about it, you get out on the road and put the miles in.

 

[CHJ]

So when I finish it I will have a go at undercutting the rim to see how that looks.

Be very careful how you tackle that, although you have plenty of meat to work with, the bowl will no doubt move out of round if it has significant drying still to do.
Also ensure your mounting socket is well seated on the chuck jaws with no rocking movement if the base has distorted.*

Take care you do not get tool catches on the interrupted cuts if it has soft spots. Worst case use a scraper (in trailing mode) to round it up before using a bevel gouge to get a clean tear free finish.

* if sockets or spigots distort too much during drying the bowl needs to be reverse mounted and the socket/spigot trued up.

Or if all of the above occurs and the world looks bleak and likely to prove discouraging then just add the piece to the firewood pile and move on, you'll get far more pleasure from turning the next piece to a good finish than spending hours trying to recover a bad egg.

 

[Woodmonkey]

I turned some spalted oak a while back, I found it had quite an unpleasant "feety" smell :mrgreen:

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

+1 on power sanding, I was going to say the same thing. I think arguably the greatest single difference to the insides of bowl finishes came when I started to power sand. It makes a world of difference. Check out Simon Hope's website (http://www.hopewoodturning.co.uk/). He makes a sacrificial Velcro pad that sits on top of the arbor as well as the arbors themselves in both 2 or 3 inch diameters. They work extremely well and take the backache out of sanding bowls. Of course there is no substitute for getting the best finish off the tools and every wood turner should always strive to start sanding at 120g upwards but sometimes the wood sprites don't know that!

I strongly recommend you try power sanding.

 

[Dalboy]

Reading this post and the answers it is surprising how much you take for granted the techniques that we use. Many of the things that have been pointed out is the type of advice I would give but at the same time there are others that I personally just take for granted and would have missed out if I had replied. All the above is very sound advice.

 

[woodfarmer]

The sanding discs arrived today so tried them out. I did undercut another bowl at the rim, but disliked the look I guess we are all different). The good thing is I have now recommissioned my very old Wolf grinderette and it now has a backing pad and spanners to undo the centre. I could do the bottom and sides but not get around where they join so spent a happy hour with sandpaper in my hand, It does look and feel better. I am glad I have the trend airsheild as I and the entire lathe and workshop was covered in fine wood dust, just the thing for getting in your eyes and lungs.

 

[leisurefix]

The bowl looks much better following the additional sanding. I looked up the Wolf Grinderette, and see that it is an angle grinder. I find that using an angle grinder is too fast and can burn the wood, it is also rather aggressive, and with the gyroscopic effect quite hard work.
It is much easier to use a power drill and a Velcro arbor, with Velcro sanding discs. Sand at low speed, as the sanding discs will last longer, and the wood will not burn from the high speed. The Indasa ones sold by Hope are excellent, although I have just bought some Abranet discs, and they seem even better.
If the dust is a problem, then get a chip (with fine dust filter cartridge) or dust extractor. I have just bought a filter cartridge from Axminster that had 1/3rd off, and it is fantastic. I have in the past used a second hand wet dry vacuum cleaner that worked reasonably well.
It is a good idea to get a 2nd bowl gouge with a different angle of grind to ensure bevel support on the bottom of bowls.