Ok, so I tried to turn the elm bowl yesterday at my last class. Unfortunately, the spar chuck would keep slipping and the blank was never stable to 'square' up the faces and edge. I only spent 10 min with it as I knew my time was limited and I didn't want to waste it trying to figure it out. Some other day, perhaps.
I then mounted my red oak and proceeded to turn it. It was fairly dry throughout as mentioned it should be and turned rather nice. I didn't get the exact shape of the mallet handle that I wanted, but the face of the mallet head is a nice continuous line from top to bottom. The hardest part for me was turning the transition from head to handle. I continued to keep getting catches on the 1/2 gouge I was using. I didn't have a smaller tool to turn it, so I had to make do.
It is a monster. 10 inches long and the head is 3 inches in diameter! I coated it with 1 coat of BLO. I will cut off the base after I have another coat of BLO and maybe a few coats of shellac on it.