Wood Salt and Pepper Shakers - Purpleheart, Hand-Turned
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Figured Walnut Turned Wood Pill Box
This hand-turned wood box is made from figured walnut. It's about 2" in diameter and 3" high. I used a glossy finish and smooth form to highlight the figure of the walnut. It has a suction-fit lid that makes a nice popping sound when you take it off. Price for similar: $15.00
Natural Edge Elm Bowl
This natural-edge wood bowl is made from a crotch from a Chinese Elm tree, and measures 9-1/2" diameter and 5-1/2" deep, and about 3/8" thick. The bark has been treated with cyanoacrylate to make it hard and firmly attached. The bowl is finished with a mineral oil and beeswax finish so that it's food-safe and sealed. It was turned while partially seasoned, and then microwave-dried to make sure it's sterile. The result is a slightly ovoid bowl with a unique, classy look and intriguing wavy grain pattern.
Chinese Elm wood is similar to European Elm wood, except perhaps twistier and more prone to warping for dimensioned lumber. For bowl turning, however, it works every bit as well and looks every bit as beautiful. It's much easier to find too, since most European Elms were wiped out by Dutch elm disease in the early 20th century. Elm wood is hard, with coarse, interlocking grain. It polishes to a satin sheen with no finish applied, and has a comfortable woody smell when cut or sanded. It is hard, and resistant to cracking and splitting.
I have about 50 pieces of this wood. You can buy a blank from me for this size of a bowl for $20 and turn your own, or you can buy a finished bowl like this with a natural edge for $124.50. If you'd rather have one with a smooth, finished edge, it would come to $98.50.
Natural Edge Bowl - $124.50
Elm Bowl, Smooth Edge - $98.50
Elm Bowl Blank, 10"x6" - $20.00
By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.
Purpleheart Goblets
Not exactly bowls...but they work on this page. This matching set of purpleheart goblets was made as a gift for a wedding shower. They're small because solid purpleheart is only available in thicknesses up to 2" thick - 6" high total. But the wood makes them awesome, and as my MIL put it, it's nice to have wood goblets with you because you don't have to worry about them shattering in your luggage...Purpleheart, also sometimes called amaranth or violet wood, comes from several species of tropical trees native to Central and South America. The heartwood is a light purple when cut, and darkens upon exposure to sunlight, reaching first a darker purple and eventually a brown with a purple cast. It is hard and strong, and takes attention when turning, requiring sharp tools, gentle cuts, and a LOT of sanding.
The finish is mineral oil and beeswax, and is replenished by rubbing in more mineral oil, and won't change the flavor of your drink.
Sold individually for $40 at this size, the set is $70.00
Cocobolo Sushi Hangiri or Bowl
This hand-turned bowl or Sushi Hangiri is 8" diameter and 2" high, made from a gorgeous piece of cocobolo that includes a little of the much sought-after sapwood that adds unique contrast and variety. I really like working with cocobolo - the texture is so smooth, it cuts so evenly, and it polishes to a shiny surface even without finish. As with all my bowls, this is sealed with mineral oil and beeswax so it's food-safe and ready for use.Cocobolo is a medium sized Central American tree growing up to 2' diameter and 90' tall. The heartwood is typically orange or reddish-brown in color, often with a figuring of darker irregular traces weaving through the wood, while the sapwood is a creamy yellow, contrasting sharply with the heartwood. Its fine texture and excellent color make Cocobolo one of the most popular exotic woods. Grows along Pacific seaboard of Mexico and Central America. Considered one of the most important woods in cutlery business for knife handles (can be soaked in soapy water with minimal ill effects). Also used for tool handles, brush backs, bowling balls, chess pieces, carving, jewelry boxes, canes, utensils, buttons, musical and scientific instruments, especially guitars and basses, but some woodwind instruments such as clarinets and oboes have been successfully made using cocobolo instead of the more usual African blackwood. It is also used in making luxury pens, and decorative veneer and inlay.
Because it is so sought after, cocobolo is a little pricey. Price for a 8"x2" Cocobolo Bowl or Hangiri like this one: $62.00 - and be sure to specify whether you want sapwood if it's available, or if you prefer the dark colors only.
Wood Platter - African Mahogany
These platters were made by my Father, but my mom's out of room around the house for his work, so he's hoping I can move them for him, see, it's hard to justify our time in the shop if we don't have a place for the stuff we make...
Anyway, this first platter is 12.5" diameter and 2" high, and is available for $55.00.Click here to buy this item
This second platter is 12.5" diamter and 1.5" thick, and is available for $50.00. Click here to buy this item
African Mahogany is different from your usual mahogany used in furnitures and fine woodworking in the US. It's from a tree in the mahogany family called Khaya, and is an exotic and imported hardwood that is figured "broken grained". It is characterized by vertical bonds of varying luster and vessel markings in which the ribbon effect is intermittent. The heartwood varies from light to deep reddish-brown. Like American Mahogany, this timber is very durable and stable. Khaya species tend to be lighter in color, generally more of a salmon/pink in tint, but the color and density are affected by the specific conditions in the area of growth, so there are no absolutes It had a hayday in drum making, but was too expensive for that to continue.Purpleheart Wood Bowl - 7.5"x2"
Turned from a solid piece of kiln-dried purpleheart, this open-formed bowl measures 7.5" diameter and 2" high. It's a more practical form than the first bowl I turned form purpleheart, with a full open form. Purpleheart, also sometimes called amaranth or violet wood, comes from several species of tropical trees native to Central and South America. The heartwood is a light purple when cut, and darkens upon exposure to sunlight, reaching first a darker purple and eventually a brown with a purple cast. It is hard and strong, and takes attention when turning, requiring sharp tools, gentle cuts, and a LOT of sanding.
Price for this bowl or one like it: $37.00.
Click here to buy this item
Oregon Myrtlewood Bowl, Enclosed
My son Matt made this (with my help) for Mom for Christmas. What at first looked like a somewhat bland piece of mystery wood my Dad gave me, turned out instead to be a very nice, pretty piece of Oregon Myrtlewood. Oregon Myrtlewood, also called California Laurelwood, is a hardwood with a wide variety of colors depending on the minerals in the soil where it is grown - from light tan to dark brown, olives and reds, and blacks from spalting. It is noted as one of the world's most beautiful woods. This bowl, and all my bowls, are finished with mineral oil and beeswax - the mineral oil brings out the natural colors, and the beeswax protects the wood and adds a satin sheen. It is food safe, washable, and ready to use.The bowl is 5.5" diameter and 4" high. Price for a similar bowl: $55.00
Ambrosia Maple Bowl - Green-turned
This ambrosia maple wood bowl measures 8" diameter and 2" high. It was made for an order, and the wood was shipped after the order was placed. There is never any guarantee as to the moisture content of bowl blanks when ordered this way, and it turns out this one was still pretty green. This means that as it dries over the next month or two it will elongate slightly and get a really cool, natural, organic shape to it. It was already a gorgeous piece of wood, and I think it will only get better.
Ambrosia maple is one of my favorite woods to work with. It's regular maple, left moist and warm and exposed to the elements after the tree dies, so that the ambrosia beetle can attack the tree. The beetle bores into the tree, bringing ambrosia fungus spores with it. The fungus attacks and stains the tree and then the beetle can eat the fungus as it reporduces. The net result: Beautifully figured wood. Price as shown: $40.00
Purpleheart Bowl - Oh, and Don't Forget the Bloodwood, Maple, and Walnut
This set was made for a custom order. A customer, originally from Guyana where the people are known for their craftsmanship with purpleheart, was looking for a purpleheart bowl. her Father had promised her one but had passed away before he could get it for her. She had google-searched for a purpleheart bowl, and saw my segmented bowls. She wanted a fuller shape, but the same woods. To emphasize purpleheart, each has a purpleheart base whereas the other set alternates.
The large bowl is 6" high and 10" in diameter. The smaller bowl is 3" high and 8" in diameter.
Price for the set: $450.00Aromatic 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
Eucalyptus Burl Bowl
I really like how this bowl turned out. Hand-turned from eucalyptus burl, this wood bowl looks as cool upside-down as right-side up. The wood grain has such cool patterns and swirls - figure almost as nice as my wife's. Just kidding baby. Anyway, Eucalyptus is an Australian wood, very popular among Australian woodturners, and for good reason. It looks awesome when it's turned and it finishes up nicely, to a semi gloss sheen from sanding with no finish applied. The bowl shown, as with all my bowls, is intended to be used and is finished with mineral oil and beeswax for a food-safe finish that can be refreshed with any food-safe oil.This bowl is 5-1/4" diameter and 1-3/4" high, available for $30.00. Click here to buy this item
Ambrosia Maple Goblet
These hand-turned solid hardwood goblets are made from ambrosia maple. Ambrosia refers to the fungus that causes the black streaks. It's introduced by beetles that cary the spores with them. They burrow in to dead maple trees, lay eggs, and leave, and the spores they leave behind begin to break down the walls of the hole into food the larvae can eat. When they grow up and leave, they take the spores with them. The fungus only exists in symbiosis with the beetles, and the beetles can't live without the fungus. Cool stuff. The resulting staining pattern in the maple is distinct, dramatic, and beautiful.Turning these goblets was exciting and challenging - the hollowing technique for endgrain is completely different from that used for sidegrain like in bowls. It was also a challenge to make the two goblets look the same. There are subtle differences that are a mark of hand-turned work. These were made as a set for a gift for a bridal shower.
This second set was made much later for a different customer - same kind of wood, but different shape.Goblets this size (3" diameter x 8" height, approximate) start at $55 each from ambrosia maple. Other woods are available but may be priced differently. Order more than one and get $10 off your order.By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.
Walnut Fruit Platter or Bowl
This solid walnut platter was made to hold fruit as a table centerpiece. It's hand-turned from four pieces of walnut cut from the same board, to save cost when compared to a single piece of walnut (very expensive in this size) The finished platter is nine inches in diameter, four inches tall, and 3/4 inches deep. I love working with walnut because of the rich hues and the smooth shiny finish that is so rewarding for a job well done. Walnut wood is hard, dense, tight-grained. Cutting it on the lathe is like carving really hard chocolate. It smells kind of sour when cut - I guess that keeps me from wanting to put the shavings on my ice cream... This piece shows both the lighter sapwood and the normal dark heartwood. Walnut has long been a favorite for gun stocks, and also popular for guitar bodies. The finish is mineral oil and beeswax so it's food safe.Below you can see the heartwood more dramatically, as well as the decorative finish on the base and how it was assembled.
This was made for a customer who had a specific order, but for something similar, including wood, I would charge $55.00.
Segmented Bowl Set - Salad Bowl and Serving Bowls
This hand-turned wood bowl set is a segmented bowl set made from bloodwood, maple, purpleheart, and walnut. The contrasting woods make dramatic and beautiful bowls. The large bowl is 9.5" in daimeter and 5" high. The small bowls are 5.5" in diameter and 3" high. All are finished with mineral oil and beeswax for a food-safe finish. They can be hand-washed and restored with oil and be used over and over for years. Bowls can be ordered individually or as part of a set. If you'd rather have other colors, you can choose from basically any of the woods at Macbeath Hardwood's domestic or exotic pages.The large bowl pictured is $108.00, and the small bowls are $34.00 each, for a total of $244.00 for the set as pictured.
Wood Serving Bowl - Segmented with Purpleheart, Maple, Bloodwood, and Walnut
This hand-turned wood serving bowl is a segmented bowl made from bloodwood, maple, purpleheart, and walnut, made to be part of a set with a larger salad bowl. The contrasting woods make a dramatic and beautiful bowl. It's 5.5" in daimeter and 3" high, and finished with mineral oil and beeswax for a food-safe finish. It can be hand-washed and restored with oil and be used over and over for years. It can be ordered individually or as part of a set. If you'd rather have other colors, you can choose from basically any of the woods at Macbeath Hardwood's domestic or exotic pages. For segmented bowls, I charge $1.00 per square inch of profile ($16.50) plus $0.50 per piece of wood ($7.50) plus the wood ($10 in this case) so this bowl would be $34.00.Wood Salad Bowl - Segmented with Purpleheart, Maple, Bloodwood, and Walnut
This hand-turned wood salad bowl is a segmented bowl made from bloodwood, maple, purpleheart, and walnut. The contrasting woods make a dramatic and beautiful bowl. It's 9.5" in daimeter and 5" high, and finished with mineral oil and beeswax for a food-safe finish. It can be hand-washed and restored with oil and be used over and over for years. It can be ordered individually or as part of a set. If you'd rather have other colors, you can choose from basically any of the woods at Macbeath Hardwood's domestic or exotic pages. For segmented bowls, I charge $1.00 per square inch of profile ($47.50) plus $0.50 per piece of wood ($30.50) plus the wood ($30 in this case) so this bowl would be $108.00.
The profile shows the flared design that my wife wanted (this one's hers, but I'd love to make more), while the top view shows the spiraling colors.
Spalted Maple Wood Bowl - 8"
This wood bowl is 8" wide and 2.5" deep. It's made from Spalted maple, which is maple that was kept moist while the decay process started, and then cut, dried, and now hand-turned into a traditional form wood bowl. Food-safe, hand-washable, ready to use or display.
Price = $1" per square inch of profile, plus wood, or in this case, $42.50 (the wood was kind of pricey, sorry).
Walnut Wood Bowl
This Walnut Bowl is about five inches in diameter and 1-1/2 inches deep. Walnut wood is hard, dense, tight-grained, and polishes to a smooth finish. Cutting it on the lathe is like carving chocolate. It smells kind of sour when cut - I guess that keeps me from wanting to put the shavings on my ice cream... It can vary in color from creamy white sapwood to deep brown heartwood. It's long been a favorite for gun stocks, and also popular for guitar bodies. The finish is mineral oil and beeswax so it's food safe.This was a simple and quick to shape bowl, so I spent a lot of time getting a smooth surface and nice finish, It's great for keys or candy on your desk or counter, and as with all the wood bowls I make, it's an individual, quality piece that feels great in your hands. Bowls like this cost the price of the wood plus $1.00 per square inch of profile. This bowl is $12.50 plus shipping.
Walnut Bowl, Enclosed Form
This Walnut Bowl is about five inches in diameter and 1-1/2 inches deep. Walnut wood is hard, dense, tight-grained, and polishes to a smooth finish. Cutting it on the lathe is like carving chocolate. It smells kind of sour when cut - I guess that keeps me from wanting to put the shavings on my ice cream... It can vary in color from creamy white sapwood to deep brown heartwood. It's long been a favorite for gun stocks, and also popular for guitar bodies. The finish is mineral oil and beeswax so it's food safe.With this one, one challene was how to hollow it out without specialized hollowing equipment. The other challenge was sanding the inside - sticking your fingers in through a 3" opening with a sharp edge on a lathe spinning at 1200 RPM is a little troublesome - the sandpaper would catch and my fingers would get bounced around inside the rim like a marble in a bowl that you're shaking - ouch. They make specialized tools for both jobs, but unless someone orders enough of these to cover the cost, I'm doing it the old hard way - hence the extra charge for enclosed forms.
Enclosed bowls are the price of the wood plus $1.50 per square inch of profile. This bowl would be about $19.75 plus shipping.
Square Turned Bowl - Maple
One of these bowls is not like the other...one of these bowls just isn't the same...
This Square Turned Bowl is made, i think with maple. It turned very nicely. Its closed-grain nature finishes smooth and shiny, it's hard, and it cuts cleanly. The dimensions are 7" wide x 2" tall.
I don't usually include views of the bowl from the bottom, but you just don't get the full effect of this one without the bottom view. It's a bit treacherous to make, with sharp corners whirring at 850 or 1250 RPM to bang up your fingers, and takes a lot of care, but the effect is way cool.
Price for a bowl like this: diameter x height x $1.50, plus wood. In this case, about $30 total.
Oregon Myrtlewood Bowl - 6"x3"
This 6" wide, 3" deep Oregon Myrtlewood Bowl turned out great - the wood has some beautiful figuring, and I really like the smooth, round shape and thin walls. A bowl like this would be $35.00.Oregon Myrtlewood, also called California Laurelwood, is a hardwood with a wide variety of colors depending on the minerals in the soil where it is grown - from light tan to dark brown, olives and reds, and blacks from spalting as in the bowl shown. It is noted as one of the world's most beautiful woods. This bowl, and all my bowls, are finished with mineral oil and beeswax - the mineral oil brings out the natural colors, and the beeswax protects the wood and adds a satin sheen. It is food safe, washable, and ready to use.
For any open-formed bowl, multiply the height times the diameter, and add to this the price of the raw wood 'blank' and that's your price.
Small Oregon Myrtlewood Bowl
This Small Oregon Myrtlewood Bowl is the perfect "gateway" bowl. Just the right size for candy, keys, or your morning cereal, and the small size makes the price quite affordable - just $20.00.Oregon Myrtlewood, also called California Laurelwood, is a hardwood with a wide variety of colors depending on the minerals in the soil where it is grown - from light tan to dark brown, olives and reds, and blacks from spalting as in the bowl shown. It is noted as one of the world's most beautiful woods. This bowl, and all my bowls, are finished with mineral oil and beeswax - the mineral oil brings out the natural colors, and the beeswax protects the wood and adds a satin sheen. It is food safe, washable, and ready to use.
For any open-formed bowl, multiply the height times the diameter, and add to this the price of the raw wood 'blank' and that's your price.
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.
Purpleheart Bowl
This is a purpleheart bowl, hand-turned and finished with mineral oil and beeswax for a food-safe finish, 8" diameter, 2" depth. Yes, that is its actual natural color, with no stain.Purpleheart, also sometimes called amaranth or violet wood, comes from several species of tropical trees native to Central and South America. The heartwood is a light purple when cut, and darkens upon exposure to sunlight, reaching first a darker purple and eventually a brown with a purple cast. It is hard and strong, and takes attention when turning, requiring sharp tools, gentle cuts, and a LOT of sanding. An interesting side note: every kind of wood smells different when turned. Maple smells kind of like pancake syrup, mesquite like warm raw meat, walnut like something sour. Well, the dust and shavings from this wood at first smelled kind of sweet, but as I kept smelling it as I was working, it started to smell more meaty, and then kind of like sweet warm old meat. Yuck. Wikipedia says the dust can cause nausea. I can see that. Don't worry, the finished work is scentless.
I wanted to try a more artsy form, less practical with this one for two reasons - one is because I've been wanting to try this brimmed form and see how it would look, and also I could use the wood from the sides under the brim to make some pens and a pencil (future project). As with any nicely-turned wood bowl, it feels great to hold and stroke, and as with all of my bowls, it's ready to use or show. Price as shown: $36. Or as with other open-form bowls, you pick the wood, and add to that $1 per each square inch of profile and I'll make it per your order.
Oregon Myrtlewood Bowl
Oregon Myrtlewood, also called California Laurelwood, is a hardwood with a wide variety of colors depending on the minerals in the soil where it is grown - from light tan to dark brown, olives and reds, and blacks from spalting as in the bowl shown. It is noted as one of the world's most beautiful woods.This bowl, and all my bowls, are finished with mineral oil and beeswax - the mineral oil brings out the natural colors, and the beeswax protects the wood and adds a satin sheen. It is food safe, washable, and ready to use.
Price for 8"x4" Oregon Myrtlewood Bowl as shown: $75.00. For this particular bowl, however, because it's so spalted, it has a couple of hairline cracks, sealed of course, but perhaps not able to withstand washing and drying needed if used for food, so I'll sell it for replacement cost of the wood - $31.50 plus shipping. Email me if you're interested. Thanks!
Elm Bowl
Elm wood is hard, with coarse, interlocking grain. It polishes to a satin sheen with no finish applied, and has a comfortable woody smell when cut or sanded. It is hard, resistant to cracking and splitting, and useful for anything from cart wheels and chair seats to water pipes during the medieval period. The bark is edible, and saved Norway from famine in 1812. Once a highly popular ornamental street tree, elms are more rare now due to the effects of Dutch elm disease, a beelte-borne fungus that wiped out elms across Europe and North America in the 20th century.
If you ask me, everybody with a desk at work needs a bowl on it. Of course that's what I'll say - that way you'll order a bowl from me... This bowl is 8" across, 2" deep, and about 1/4" thick, with a beeswax finish. Use it for your breakfast cereal if you want. Open forms like this turn nicely and quickly.
There are so many beautiful pieces of wood out there to be made into bowls like this. Just do an ebay search for "bowl blank" and you'll see some spectacular pieces of wood for surprisingly little money. Buy it, ship it to me instead of to you, and tell me what you want it to look like and I'll send it to you when it's done. Food-safe finish will be used unless you tell me otherwise.
I'll be honest - I love turning bowls. So I've priced these so that they're not really worth my time, just so I can do more of them. Take the diameter of the bowl blank, times the height, and that's your cost in dollars if you provide the wood. This bowl would be about $32.00. Exceptions are for natural edge bowls and enclosed forms, which I have to charge more because they're more difficult to make.
Come on, you know you want one, or maybe two - yeah, that's it - one for your candy on your desk, another to keep your keys and wallet in while you work...order now!
Natural Edge Hawthorne Bowl
Hawthorne is an interesting wood - very hard, light and smooth color, and nice attractive strong bark. It's prized for firewood, among the hottest burning woods, and also prized for woodturning, because of its strength and smooth grain. Also known in celtic and witch circles as a fertility something or other - I don't go there...Natural Edge Bowls are cool - bark edges, irregular shaped rim, warping, bark intrusions, even checks - these irregularities are the name of the game for a bowl like this - turn it wet and then nuke it in the microwave to accelerate and accentuate the warping. And along with these imperfections comes a set of challenges for turning the bowl on the lathe, not otherwise part of bowl making - catches, chuck or faceplate tear-out, sanding problems, etc. Not an easy bowl to make, but therein lies the challenge...
OK enough drama - This bowl had me banging my head against the wall, and in the end I settled for about 3/8" thickness, where I would have liked to go to 1/4", but still a satisfying project when all is said and done. Thanks to Keith Tilley for the tree!
Due to the challenges in turning a natural edge bowl, I'll have to charge more than for a regular bowl, or even an enclosed form. Plus the availability of good, natural-edge wood is intermittent. $2.00 per square inch of profile, plus wood. This bowl would be $30.00 including wood.
Spalted Maple Bowl - Enclosed Form
Spalted maple is similar to ambrosia maple in that both are colored from fungus that is allowed to attack the wood while it's kept moist and near room temperature. The difference is that spalted maple is just randomly attacked by fungus however it is introduced, whereas ambrosia maple is attacked from the fungus introduced by the ambrosia beetle into the holes it bores. You get completely different coloration patterns. This Spalted Maple Bowl has dark spots throughout, and a large stain on the bottom of the piece. Maple is a popular wood for woodturning because it is smooth and closed grained and hard. And it smells great when you cut and sand it - faintly of maple syrup.Really thought it's the enclosed form of this bowl that gets interest. People keep asking if it was hard. Of course it's hard...but not terribly. Still, each project has its own challenges. With this one, one challene was how to hollow it out without specialized hollowing equipment. In the end it went quite well. The other challenge was sanding the inside - sticking your fingers in through a 3" opening with a sharp edge on a lathe spinning at 1200 RPM is a little troublesome - the sandpaper would catch and my fingers would get bounced around inside the rim like a marble in a bowl that you're shaking - ouch. So I didn't spend as much time sanding the inside as I would like. They make specialized tools for both jobs, but unless someone orders enough of these to cover the cost, I'm doing it the old hard way - hence the extra charge for enclosed forms.
Still, a fun project.
Enclosed bowls are the price of the wood plus $1.50 per square inch of profile. This bowl would be about $28 plus shipping.
Ambrosia Maple Bowl
Ambrosia maple is regular maple, left moist and warm and exposed to the elements after the tree dies, so that the ambrosia beetle can attack the tree. The beetle bores into the tree, bringing ambrosia fungus spores with it. The fungus attacks and stains the tree and then the beetle can eat the fungus as it reporduces. The net result: Beautifully figured wood.
So here it is - I'm finally satisfied with it. This is the first bowl I turned, made from Ambrosia Maple. For those fellow turners out there, I started it when I had only a face plate, then when I got my chuck including cole jaws, I decided to improve it - it was thick and clunky because I was afraid of hitting the screws in the faceplate setup, and it was rough with torn endgrain and tool marks. Not very impressive. So I turned a recess in the base and mounted it in the chuck.
I worked on it some more, thinning it out, improving the form, cleaning up torn endgrain. I brought it to work and put it on my desk. Then every time I was waiting for AutoCAD to do its thing, I picked up the bowl and over time noticed more and more I wanted to improve, but I was afraid of making it too thin and breaking it. Then my dad gave me a set of bowl calipers so I could check the thickness everywhere, and so I mounted it again.
I really like it now. The ambrosia beetle worked a pretty nice job on this piece, and left a few holes to show he had been there. I kept this bowl on my desk for a long time till the Farmers' Market this summer where I sold it to this sweet old lady. I missed it though, so I bought another piece of ambrosia maple and made this next bowl:
Price for a similar bowl: $12 plus wood. (6"x2")
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.
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