Aromatic Cedar Bowl

This hand-turned wood bowl is made from Aromatic Cedar. Since you don't want to use cedar for food (makes your food taste like a tree) I thought it would be fun to use a higher gloss finish than the food-safe mineral oil and beeswax I normally use. This has a shellac and carnuba wax based finish that gives it added beauty - not that it is lacking in beauty with the beautiful grain and color of the cedar. Aromatic Cedar is popular for boxes and chests due to its nice fragrance, which also repells moths. The wood has dramaitc grain, and finishes very nicely, polishing to a mild sheen without sandpaper if you use your tools right when turning a project.

This bowl is 6" in diamter and 2" high. Cedar is less expensive than a lot of fancy bowl materials, so it's not a lot of money - this bowl or one like it can be ordered for about $25.00. Click here to buy this item

Turned Cedar Box Set

These boxes are made from Aromatic Cedar. Aromatic Cedar is popular for boxes and chests due to its nice fragrance, which also repells moths. The wood has dramaitc grain, and finishes very nicely, polishing to a mild sheen without sandpaper if you use your tools right when turning a project. The boxes use a friction polish to get the bright sheen and have a vacuum fit, meaning you feel and hear a slight pop when you pull the lid straight off.

This was a very enjoyable project. I've got the hang of the suction-fit lids, jam chuck techniques, sanding, friction polish, the works. The grain matches from lid to base too which looks way cool. The boxes are from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, from 2 to 6 inches tall. Boxes are a pretty detail-intensive thing to make on the lathe, so I don't expect I'll sell a lot of them. I'd have to charge about $80 for this set to make it worth my time, and so unless you're in to high-end home decor, that's probably a little steep for you. It's too bad because they are fun to make, and they look and feel really cool.

Still, if you want a box, they start at about $25 each for a short box with simple styles and inexpensive wood, and they go up from there. Check out my links (below left) for some good places to order wood from if you're interested. Pick the wood, email me, and I'll give you a bid.

Segmented Wood Salad Bowl

This segmented wood salad bowl was a way fun project. Not that it went off without a hitch - for my first segmented bowl, however, not too shabby.

I designed it in AutoCAD at lunch, and went to work. I wanted to go as wide as my lathe would allow (10" diameter) and deep enough for salad. I had some leftover aromatic cedar, a gorgeous wood that smells so good, so I ripped it into strips, and started cutting the pieces. There are 6 layers of 16 pieces each, and a solid base. That's 97 pieces of wood. I don't have a thickness sander so I had to complete each layer, sand one side, glue it to the lathe, wait for it to dry, and then true up the top of the layer in preparation for the next. It took some time, that's for sure.

Then turning the finished bowl was a bit tricky. A learning experience that's for sure, but the finished results were great. I sanded it smooth, rubbed in mineral oil, melted in and polished beeswax to give it a food-safe satin finish, and it was done.

You can't help but run your hands up and down and around every part of the bowl. I read somewhere where wood bowls were called sensual and thought, OK somebody is just being gross - they're BOWLS for crying out loud. After finishing this though I see what they mean. It's not a sexy thing, it's just very cool to hold, and to look with your fingers every bit as much as with your eyes. And whenever somebody new takes a look, without fail they do the same thing - it feels as beautiful as it looks.

This one was for my wife. I told her I was glad it was done so she will give me peace and stop forcing me to go out in the garage every chance I get. I'm not sure that she thought that was very funny :)

I've since looked around and seen hand-turned segmented salad bowls of this size on the internet for about $150. I think I could beat that price by about 25%, depending on the complexity of the bowl and how many kinds of wood you want. And I could throw in matching, smaller segmented bowls for a complete set at about $30 each.