How to: Natural edge bowl

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Leo, thanks for the input. I'm learning and the picture helps. I'm thinking now I should have rough turned this one. I started out at 19% MC. When down to 11/2" rough I was at 16% MC. Went ahead and turned it to size and next day about 8% MC. This is in a 4 day span. Guess what! CRACKED. Disappointing yes. It may have cracked even if rough turned. Cherry does dry fast. I really don't want to put it in the fireplace (where others have been cremated). My thought is to let it sit a week or so and fill the crack with powdered brass. Other ideas welcome. I did see evidence of it trying to crack and did put CA on it to try and limit the progression. However the stress was too much.

your bowls look about as perfect as perfect gets. I would love to make just one nice one. I know, practice.

Attachment 354094

Sorry to hear about that Bill, turning it in one go is the way to go, than stick it in a brown paper bag and let it dry, also make sure there isn’t already a split in the wood before you start, it always gets bigger, though a staple can help keeping it where it is or prevent it from happening like where I do know it will otherwise.

There are only a few that I did this way, with the bark in the crotch in this Black Cherry crotch, and the wood wet, I did expect this to open up, so I made a couple staples and drilled the holes and hammered the staples in.

The split being on the ends and the side going to shrink, I would loose the holes, and even if not these small holes are easily filled, I had two pieces about identical and I did both.

So 4 pictures that show the rough turned bowl wit the staples, one top side and one in the underside, next picture shows the dry piece on the chuck and you can see the way the wood dried, but the split stayed the same.
Black Cherry with bark.jpg Black Cherry with staple.jpg Rough turned black Cherry dry.jpg

Next is the finished bowl, then a picture of a Black Walnut crotch with a staple still in on the top side and an American Beech that had a very small split that I held with a staple, this one LOML has in use, and has used many times in the several years she has had it, still exactly like that, (staple I made from Stainless Steel)
Black Cherry finished.jpg Black Walnut crotch with staple.jpg Beech with staple.jpg

[William C Rogers]

Robert, I'll give that a try and see what happens. Yes there is som CA and I will use some acetone. I'm going to try hard to save it. This is my first and ther is always a learning curve. I have one more blank that is a candidate for natural edge. I'm thinking to turn down to about 1" or so and let it dry a couple of days on the lathe before going to finish size. Or do you just hope for the best.
Leo, your bowls seem to be thicker than mine. What thickness do you think is ideal? I was shooting for about 3/8" thickness, but went to 1/4 in some areas that may have contributed. I think I will shoot for 1/2" on the next one. Comments?