Monday 29 September 2014

First Bowl

So - my third spoon is referred to as the Soup Spoon and you need a bowl to hold the liquid so you can use the spoon.

When I was at John Boddy Timber looking for wood to carve spoons and other "easier" items I saw these pre cut rounds ( for turning bowls on a lathe) and thought, how hard could it be- they've rounded it already and squared the top and bottom.  Lemon squeezy!

Tools : #8 gouge - a blister and some bruised hands.

This is European Steamed Beech.



I marked the center on the top and bottom sides - I had to go back to early geometry to find an easy way to find the center - its not all carving!

The blocks/rounds have been rolled in wax to ensure the moisture content doesnt change in the round.
This has been kiln dried so there wont be a need to do the slow drying as you have to do with greenwood. I thought that was a big Pro for using this sort of wood - but there is a massive Con!

It took 2 hours of hand aching perseverance to get to this stage -its practically bullet proof!


I stopped to sharpen my gouge and then get to it.  Ill update with another photo soon - I was determined to get it to the tipping point where it got easier.

To be continued:

06/12/2014 - Its been a long time since I updated this Blog, time and seasons wait for no man.
Today was the first carving I've done in about 4 weeks.  Any spare time has been going  into the Bowl Shave Horse (Pony). *more on that another time.

So my brilliant idea of carving a bowl from a prepared round that is prepared for turning has not worked to plan. The bowl is nearly finished but has taken a good 7 to 10 hours so far. Below are a set of photos that cover the various stages so far.




Once I got it to a reasonable *inside shape I started on the outside.  I tried various methods and each worked for a certain stage of the process.   Initially I tried the push knife,  this only mildly rounded the edge and then the bowl started slipping and I spent more time trying to work out a new way to secure the bowl.  So then I picked up the axe but was worried about cracking the bowl.



Although the bowl is round it still has grain running in the same direction through it.  So some cuts worked a dream and others left me with cause to worry.  I didnt photograph the next steps due to rushing about but suffice to say, a surform and a good old vice produced the quickest results.


That is almost the shape I was after but when I compare the outside to the inside they arent inline with each other. Its like having a V shaped bowl sitting in a U shaped bowl.
The problem now is that the outside has been rounded and any previous means of wedging and clamping wont work now.
Time for a simple solution.

A small off cut of wood screwed into a cross bar which is clamped down.  The T bar can swivel around so it can be "turned off" if need be.
A close up of the tool marks and to show the next attack line - the scallop marks on the lip show the next line where I will reduce the volume and try to match the profile of the outside of the bowl.

This has become a labor of love.  The wood is so hard and each round of carving means I have to take time out to sharpen the gouge. With daylight hours being limited its been put on the back burner for a while. 

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