FEBRUARY 2021 TURNINGS
This is a functional and sturdy bowl that can be put to work, but also gives richness wherever
it is displayed. We gave the first one made from this plan to our friends, Rick and Aloma Phillips
of Tetonia, Idaho, so I had to make another one for our home.
This turning has a history! Once it was finished except for removing the tenon. During that little
exercise a human error occurred by yours truly; the turning came off the lathe and bounced off
my head protection visor and landed on the floor of my shop in five pieces. Disheartened, I was about
to throw the remains in the firepit when along came Allie The Gluer who suggested it be put back together
by the same process our other segmented bowls are made. When she finished I put the bowl back on
the lathe and finished it a second time and then added the padauk foot. The bowl is now one of our favorite
keepers and only a very close inspection will reveal it's wild history.
This is one of those turnings that told me what it wanted to become.
From an arborist discard pile, a small log was set to dry in the
shop through the winter. Three inches of imperfect blank material
was lathed to the floor shavings pile. Then an extra segmented walnut
rim was glued and turned until things looked right. Sanded to 1200 and
finished with Yorkshire Grit and friction polish.
This bowl is unique. The wood is not commercialized; it does not come from a tree that is known to grow
very large. This wood grew on a neighbor's front lawn. When it was cut down I was fortunate to obtain
some of the wood before the cutters turned the tree into chips. After curing in the shop the wood was rendered
on the table saw into one foot long pieces to accommodate the needed segments. This is the second bowl of this
size from the wood. It measures 6-1/4" high by 8-7/16" wide. The accents are padauk and walnut.
When I was boy, dad planted two Siberian elm trees along our driveway in Utah. Over the years they grew to three feet in diameter at their base until they were removed from the property. I never thought of them as a producer of good turning wood. Oh, how I was wrong. Living in Colorado now, I will take any elm I can get my hands on as I love to turn elm when the moisture content is below ten percent and I don't have to fight raised grain. The wood for this bowl came from a Siberian elm that had grown in Lakewood. I dried it for a year and found it just right in moisture content. Added some padauk accent and this is what you get. The lid is six inches wide. Finished with Yorkshire grit and friction polish based on shellac and linseed oil. The recess technique I use is based on learning from one of Robo Hippie's videos. The "CNC" name chip is produced by son, John.
This is the second elm bowl with a lid this month. It was turned from the second half of the same log round as the first elm bowl presented above. It is a little different in that the side beading is different and the lid has 16 segments and padauk spacers instead of twelve. The top of the lid was turned from walnut given to me by Aaron Richins of Oklahoma and a piece of African Ebony brought home from his church mission years ago by Shaun Stahlecker.