So I had a big log section of Elm sitting around (~8" round and 4" thick), and I decided to make a bowl out of it.

Things started off innocently enough: I screwed a faceplate into what would end up being the inside of the bowl, and I turned the outside of the bowl. I noticed that the shavings coming off were a bit more "dusty" than usual, and not whole shavings, even though the scraper I was using was pretty sharp.

I turned a dovetail tenon on the bottom for the scroll chuck, and then remounted it that way. Then when I went to turn the inside of the bowl, I first tried using a 2" forstner bit, which got about 1/4" in, and got too hot. "Oh well," I thought, "I'll just turn it away by hand with a bowl gouge." So I start to hollow out the bowl---and I know the tool is pretty sharp---and yet I can immediately notice a problem.

I can't for the life of me make a cut of any appreciable size or depth without the tool catching. I have to turn the gouge almost upside down for it to not catch, and it hardly cuts at all. The round-nose scraper is just as bad. So, after having my heartbeat greatly accelerated by several catches where the bowl blank was jerked off the chuck, I decided to give up for now.

It was then I realized that I was turning into END GRAIN, and not side grain like usual. At present, with the tools I have, this task seems impossible.

Did I miss something? Why is this so hard?

(I should add that the Elm blank is also almost dry: I have no idea as to the actual MC, but I know its not green.)