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We had thanksgiving dinner with some good friends who recently completed their new home. The original home and barn burned in a fire last year and they lost everything. But a year of hard work and a...

Rodger,

I turn a lot of eastern red cedar. In fact I have about a dozen cedar bowls going to a craft fair over Thanksgiving this year. This is what I do to keep cracking to a minimum. Most logs...

Steve, nice bowl and nice finish.

I would chime in with David though as to form. The bowl in this link is another example of the Hawaiian calabash style that is more what I think of.
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Good thing it was the radio and not the off switch for the vacuum system rather than the off switch for the lathe. I was tired one night and did that, not so good of a result.

Dirk; they go in the kiln after they are roughed out, so your thickness in 2" +/-. Maybe this will help.

http://www.svwoodturners.org/Newsletters/2006/10-2006.pdf

Dirk;

I have done a good amount of research on this and would suggest you look into a vacuum kiln. Look on internet and you will find some very useful information. They are not cheap, to buy or...

1) Richard Raffan: because he introduced me to the bowl gouge back in 1992 and took the scraper out of my hands changing the way I turned.

2) David Ellsworth; because he was at the fore front of...

Dirk;

I have to chime in here as well and please by no means take this is the wrong way, but; A 24" walnut log is a massive amount of weight to put on the outboard side of a lighter weight lathe...

John;
This is a nice piece and will be very much appreciated.

I have done several of these types of pieces as presentation awards for horse events and the such. Each piece stands on it's own...

I use a Jet 6X48 belt sander for all of my flat grinds, skews, scrapers, bedans and such. The top wheel radius is perfect for the parting tool as well.

For the bowl gouges I use the 8" 1750 rpm...

I don't think you can go wrong with either the U or V. I have both and use both and over the years have come to grind each differently because I have developed my preferences.

The big thing here...

Many very good comments. IMHO Thompson's tools are first rate and very reasonable in price for the quality. I have others that are more expensive but none that perform any better.

In my experience fruit wood is tough to get dry. I have found the DNA process seems to help.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree with what has been said, and have experienced this condition when I have a blank that has hard and soft spots, some times from knots or whatever.

My theory is that the pressure you are...

I as well think Anchorseal is the best. I bought a 5 gallon pail over the internet with free shipping and it wasn't that expensive.

However, before that I would use elmers glue diluted with...

Leo and Patrick,

I looked incorreclty at the menu page and thought this was Leo's post and addressed my reply to him after reading only what I now realize was Patrick's original post. My error...

Fred, I like you was not able to dance with the skew for years. What got me over it was when I mounted up a between center piece with a dead center at the spindle side and a live center on the tail...

Leo;

I was given a very large apple tree and have turned several bowls from it. I lost the first few using the paper bag method so I tried the DNA soak.

I am not a big fan of DNA but it...

I really don't know the difference either, however the person I got the wood from said it was a "Cook" but after reading this link they may have been wrong. Oh well, "Cook" is my story and I'm...

A Spalded Cook Pine from Maui. 13 X 7 sanded to 600; Dura Seal #210 Neutral soaked, buffed and engraved for a presentation. This one has a lot of color and spald. Thanks for looking.

Thanks Joe, it was great to meet and spend some time with a fellow "Creeker" as well as turn on such a nice lathe.

Good luck and happy shavings.

Kim

David, there are many different ways to dry bowl blanks and reading through this thread has been interesting and very informative. I have tried many of them and have settled on the following for most...

There are two kind of moisture in green wood. That which is in the capillary system and that which is within the cells. In order to get wood dry you need to get both out.

Getting the capillary...

I think it depends upon the humidity and dew point. In our climate I would have to keep it covered or it would rust quickly, but other that that, I say go for it.

Both work well but function differently for me. I use the U shape more for roughing out and the V shape for final cuts. But that may also be because of the grind. My U shape has the finger nail grind...