Most wood turners seem to prefer to make bowls from sections of a log rather than a simple cross cut of a log, or “log cookie”.
I’ve only made bowls and bowl blanks from cutting a log on the ground as you would with a chainsaw…so think of cutting up a fallen tree into smaller sections.
Does it really make a difference? Just trying to see if I should change the way I create my bowl blanks…
Replies
It can be done, but unless your piece is very small, it is about as much fun as eating raw worms.
There is as always a good reason why things are done the way they are in woodworking. Occasionally the reason is just dogma, but in this case, it is because turning end-grain is difficult - you need razor sharp gouges and even then, catches are more common. Tearout is almost unavoidable, so a lot of sanding is needed and when you have done it, you have a bowl with a thin base made of short-grain, which is weak, finishes poorly, and commonly cracks or fails catastrophically.
Of course, some turning is done on end-grain such as goblets, and they can work out, but they also have a thicker base, are small in scale and can be hollowed with a forstner bit in most cases.
Still, I would not advise against giving it a go, provided you start with a smaller piece or glue it firmly to a solid blank for base support. Some of the best developments in woodworking occur when people challenge the established wisdom and give things a go. You could for instance choose an open grained wood and saturate it with Cactus Juice or other thin epoxy, or simply take a nice dry cookie and gently shape a shallow dish without reducing the thickness too much - you'll never know what works for you it you don't give it a go, and most turning wood is free...
The problem is, if the bowl includes the pith, it's almost certainly going to crack.
Yeah that's what everyone says, but maybe I've just been lucky? I will definitely try it the traditional method and see how it feels.
But it seems with smaller pieces of wood, you would HAVE to use a cross section of the tree because of size?
It can be done but as said before requires a different approach to turning, tooling and drying. This Guy is a Master at it and has developed a special tool he calls a hook (crochet Martel) to turn end grain logs.
https://youtu.be/bSghvo4GtAM
I suggest you move to 8 minutes to start viewing.
If I read the OP correctly, he is already doing it. If you are hollowing endgrain and aren't experiencing excessive cracking and are happy with the results there is no reason you need to change.
If on the other hand you are experiencing issues then try it the conventional way.
Yep. It's likely free wood, so it can't hurt to experiment.
Select the right species, stay away from the pith, and you shouldn't have much of an issue. There is no "right" way
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled