First turned bowl

Rikkor, here is my carefully considered critique:

It is round. It has a depression that seems like it would hold liquid. It is pretty.

I’d say it is a good bowl. <g>

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Good attempt Rikkor. My first bowl looked very similar. I just acquired some Osage Orange, did you find find it hard on your chisels?.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

…did you find find it hard on your chisels?

Thanks guys. Yes, I did find it hard on the chisels. I probably should have sharpened at least once during the turning. It might have helped.

-- Maplewood, MN

Hi, make sure you cut the edges off, these are not spindle turnings. Square bowl blanks will quickly dull the chisel and make one heck of a lot of noise and vibration. Keep the chisels very sharp. I’ve found osage very easy to turn and it sands up VERY nice. Overall, not bad for your first attempt. The next few will get easier and nicer.

-- Bob A in NJ

Rikkor – I looks good as it is, but it doesn’t appear that you are too happy with it.

If you wanted to you could chuck it back up in your lathe and make some changes.
The walls look thick enough to be able to thin them more and maybe make the opening deeper.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Thanks Gary. Perhaps it is because I see stuff like you and some of the others make, and set my own standards higher than I have a right to, given my level of expertise. I value your comment.

-- Maplewood, MN

Rikkor – Don’t look at me. I have never turned a bowl before. :-)

I always set my goals beyond what I can actually do. The closer I can get to them the better, but that doesn’t
mean that I ever reach them. I always seem to bit off more than I can chew, and end up swallowing what
I can.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Rikkor,

I agree with Charlie. If it looks like a bowl then it is a bowl. For a novice turner I think this looks good. I can only imagine what my first piece is going to look like. If it is anywhere close to this I would be satisfied.

By the way once you start down this path there is no “turning” back.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Rickkor,

It is definitely a good start. They say it takes about 7 years to become a good turner, so you cannot expect too much in the first try. The most important thing for you, now that you started, is to keep on turning to get better. Turning is really like driving; when you learn you have to keep on practicing to get good fast.
Initially, you should focus almost exclusively on technique not on the turning itself. You have to get very comfortable with the tools, to overcome the fear that you will destroy the piece at any moment and to do everything in the correct order. Once these things are taken care of, you can focus on making elegant bowls.
Keep in mind that woodturning is pure hand-eye coordination exercise, not a matter of know-how. You can know perfectly well how to make a bowl but still have disastrous results. Practice is the only way to get better.

In terms of technique, it seems (but I cannot be sure) you have visible tool marks on the piece. This is what you should work on initially. Once your technique improves, I will make comments on the shape of the bowl, thickness, finish, etc (that is if you still want criticism). So go on, turn more.

Practice makes perfect,
Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Nice job.

I just finished a(nother) apple bowl of virtually the same shape. I started turning 20 years ago, but took a 19 year, 11 month break. Just starting to do some on my own, away from the critical eye of the shop teacher. (I was banned from the lathe for making a bong, in grade 9…)

What grit did you go to?

Also,what type of finish is that? wax?

-- The only easy wood project is a fire

I think it came great. I had the same problems with my first few bowls. If you want to rechuck it, try using a curved scraper to refine the inside and smooth it. Also sand , a lot. Start with 120 and go all the way up to 800. Or just leave it as is and give it away, they make great gifts. I have very few of the bowls I’ve turned.

Your bowl is exactly what your first bowl should look like. With time you will be quite good at it. PLEASE, from now on round your blank on the band saw. I do remember though, it’s really hard to turn those first few bowls when your hands and arms are shaking so much from fear. Trust us, they will get thinner and smoother as experience takes over.

-- Odie, Confucius say, "He who laughs at one's self is BUTT of joke".

Rikkor,
I’ve only turned three bowls and my first one needed the bottom glued back on, so I know where you are at!!

I’m not sure how Osage compares to Yellowheart, but my last bowl was made of yellowheart. I had quite a bit of tearout (particularly end grain). I sanded the cr@p out of my bowl to clean it up the best I could. I also understand the excitement you are experiencing with your first bowl and can forgive the tool marks that you are already aware of.

I used a scraper to help clean up the mess I made with my gouge. I’ve also seen a technique using a finger nail bowl gouge used as a scraper that gives really nice results. but as been previously mentioned, bowls are not like pens and certainly seem to require a lot more practice to improve.

I also knock my corners off the blank with the tablesaw before starting to turn.

may I suggest you do with this bowl as I did with my first bowl… wipe it down with a little mineral oil and give it to the kids to eat their chips and other dry snacks from. They will love it! of course mine are 13, 7 and 4…

slap another blank on that lathe and turn away!

-- ~ www.darrylmasterson.com ~ www.woodworkingdungeon.blogspot.com ~

Based on Alin’s comment that turning is an exercise in hand/eye coordination, I have abandoned any thoughts of taking up turning. I am a klutz!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

get another hunk of wood and turn another one.
when you are finished with it, go for the next one.

After you have made a few, take a look back at this one.
If you still like the way it turned out, keep it !

From my point of view it looks like you had fun and it looks cool too.

-- ..... smalll army of cast iron wingnuts !! cool photo in FORUM

I’m with everybody else.

I just destroyed a beautiful apple crotch blank because I didn’t grab the buck saw and knock off the corners. Now I have a dent in my washing machine, a lump on my forehead, and worst of all, I will have to spend hours repairing my apple crotch for a mulligan.

-- The only easy wood project is a fire

Charlie,

If you can drive you can turn. You just need to practice.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Alin: Well,,,,okay I’ll put the lathe back on my wish list.

Matter: At least the apple crotch was the only crotch destryed in the accident.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Only because I’m short….

Turning is fun, I do it mostly just for the joy of doing it

-- The only easy wood project is a fire

i hope my first bowl looks that good

-- tn hillbilly

Rikko – Nice Bowl. A reply to Gary K, I worked for a man whos saying was” If you reach your goal than you set your goal too damn low”. Keep on turning.

Your first bowl looks much better than my first attempt. I didn’t have a proper bowl gouge so I used a 1/2” spindle gouge. The spindle gouge worked ok on the outside but was a mess inside. The bottom was so bad, I cut it out and replaced it. I purchased a true bowl gouge and life was much better.

The one I chose has a swept-back grind. It has a small point and swept-back sides that you can use as as scraper. I think they call it an Irish Grind Bowl Gouge. I’ve only turned a few bowls but I really like this gouge. The small point really slices through the wood and also allows you fine control for details. The swept-back sides stay out of the way and it is almost impossible to create a catch. It is a a bit tricky to sharpen because of the odd profile. I also now use a skew chisel to smooth up the outside.

I haven’t turned Osage Orange but I turned a jatoba bowl and it cut smooth as silk. Jatoba is much harder than Osage Orange.

As others have said, keep turning. It will only get better.

-- Leon -- Houston, TX - " I create all my own designs and it looks like it "

Great first attempt, but I agree with a few posters here, make sure you round the bowl on the bandsaw before you start. Also – find a local source of free wood, something like ash or maple, that’s wet and will be a lot easier to turn and not require sharpening as often. This is how I learned, by turning cords of freshly cut silver maple, into anything I could think of. Most of it ended up in the trash and most of it had bad tear out, but I learned a lot in the process, and I wasn’t worried about wasting money buying bowl blanks.

Good luck, keep turning!!!

Oh and BTW – keep that first bowl and don’t change a thing. 20 years from now when you’re a master turner, you’ll look back at that first bowl with very fond memories and think how far you’ve come.

-- I love woodworking. Except sanding, gluing, cutting long stock, finishing, detail work, sawdust, the cost and loss of time. :)

I envy you! You have made you FIRST bowl. Awesome. Now make more..I wouldn’t do anything with the first one. It’s a bowl. Keep it to for your own reference to improve for the next bowl. Actually I like the style! Thanks for sharing.

-- Cathy Krumrei (Krum) http://www.TheCarversCorner.com

congratulations!
You wanted to turn a bowl and you did!! Well done.
AND it’s a cute little bowl.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I would be proud of this as a first bowl if I were you. It is very cute! I would put jelly beans inside it! :) There is a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in!