yew bowl

[moby]

a mate gave me a piece of yew, rough turned whilst green and now dried out, warped and cracked.

the plan was to turn some mushrooms out of it , dont laugh! i'm new to this sawdust lark.....

anyway the mushrooms kept splitting, i gave up after three attempts. what was left of the lump of yew looked like i could get a bowl out of it. so i gave it a go. almost scrapped the piece as you can see in the pic.

i used a combination of roughing guage, round scraper and a bowl gouge to get the shape.
sanded to 280 and used beeswax to bring up the colours. i do need to invest in finishing oils/waxes etc.

opinions welcome (please be gentle)

 

[Melinda_dd]

nice looking little bowl that.

Don't get despondent about the splitting, cracking ect.... yew is renowned for it when green and drying

 

[moby]

i forgot to say, i dont have a chuck, so, used a glue block when i turned it round. that left me with a problem of how to get the glue block off. considering i used a hot glue gun i decided to put the whole thing in the microwave.

i gave it two bursts of 20 seconds at full power, it came apart no problem. maybe another 5 or 10 seconds was needed so that the glue left on the bowl would be easier to clean off. but, it worked ok anyway.

 

[monkeybiter]

Some better piccies would help, but it certainly looks like a lovely piece of wood.
In the turning world you see a lot of good stuff but you also see a lot of abominations. Sometimes it seems to me you only have to splash it with stain or burn it with a blowtorch and it suddenly becomes art.
What you've clearly done right is persevere, only regular and frequent practise will bring your abilities to a level you're happy with so it sounds like you're on the right road.

 

[Spindle]

Hi

Splits cracks and warping can often be desirable 'features' so if I were you I'd be pretty pleased with that bowl.

A word of advice - roughing gouges are not designed to take the rigours of bowl work, (worst case will be it snapping where the tang enters the handle), and their design leaves the wings prone to catching, stick to bowl gouges and scrapers for bowl work.

Regards Mick

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Good work old son, keep it up. Keep posting the progress. Bet you're addicted already

 

[shaver01]

Hi

A word of advice - roughing gouges are not designed to take the rigours of bowl work, (worst case will be it snapping where the tang enters the handle), and their design leaves the wings prone to catching, stick to bowl gouges and scrapers for bowl work.

Regards Mick

+1 Never use a 'roughing gouge' on faceplate work'. It can be done, but when it goes wrong, it goes wrong in a big way.

Nice try on the bowl.

 

[Hutzul]

..................sanded to 280 and used beeswax to bring up the colours. i do need to invest in finishing oils/waxes etc............

opinions welcome (please be gentle)

I recently picked up a few finishes etc from Rutlands when they had a 10% off sale & free p+p. I found it easier on my finances.

Nice piece by the way, but I don't think the piccie does it justice.

Thanks for sharing moby =D>

 

[EnErY]

Hi
first bowl i ever made was from a lump of yew and like yourself it cracked but i later found that some of reasons for yew to crack is it dont like too much sanding causing it to overheat so i was informed by a distinguished turner from this forum my effort was frustrating and disapointing but it was mine and i was eventually proud to know it was mine and we all start at the bottom and learn by our mistakes good luck with future turning and keep at it it will come good
Regards
Bill

 

[stevenw1963]

As has already been said, perseverance will bring results.

We all start somewhere & all make mistakes, even those that have been turning for years come across a piece that will split etc for no apparent reason, but that's just wood. Chance you take every time you pick a piece up & chuck it on the lathe.

Looks a nice bowl but more pics would be nice too.

 

[moby]

thanks for the replies. I'll take some better pics from different angles soon.
i did experience some scary catches whilst hollowing out! who says woodturning is boring? :shock:

i think the scariest part is putting an uneven log onto the lathe and starting it up. my lathe starts at a min 750 rpm which with an irregular lump of wood is quite interesting. gum shield in and stand to the side. :wink: