Newest Bowls

[Jeff Gilfor]

Just finished a few bowls, and would love comments and critiques.

First one is mystery wood from the woodturning club challenge to surface embellish. They gave everyone an old bowl blank to turn. Second one is ambrosia maple.

[Brian Kent]

Both are beautiful. Do you do the embellishments while the piece is still mounted on the lathe?

[Jeff Gilfor]

Yes. Made two sections of texture (sorby texturing tool), opposite directions; then turned border beads to offset them from the rest if the platter section. Highlighted with some paint marker. All while on the lathe.

[Thomas Heck]

Those are nice bowls. You did a great job.

[Harry Robinette]

Nice work I like the first one best of the two.

[Rob Boesem]

I really like that first bowl!!.. Makes me think of a roulette wheel.

[Gene Hintze]

Both are very nice but the first one gets the blue ribbon. Your mystery wood kinda looks like cherry.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Good job on both. Hopefully you hollowed the pedestal on the maple piece. They crack if left full thickness. I'm sure you will show well at your club meeting.
faust

[art pfenn]

Wow I really like the first one, I didn't know what a texturing tool could do. How difficult are they to use?

[Prashun Patel]

Great bowls. I love yr finish on both. Is that shellac Since you asked:

The 1st looks like cherry. I really like the rim and form on this.

On the Ambrosia maple, it's a great pc of wood. Personally, I might have made a smaller base (but I like my open forms bordering on tippy). A thinner, more undercut rim might also make the form appear lighter. I'm picking nits, tho. Nice!!!

[Jeff Gilfor]

You know guys? I thought it MIGHT be cherry, but have turned quite a bit of that, and note that this wood was harder and had no cherry smell (I love that smell). Guess it could be an other variety of cherry though. The president of our group gave us all old dry blanks for the challenge. No ID was given.

I completely agree with the design of the candy dish. After completing it (turned it green to rough, then microwaved and waited a week to finish turning it) I reevaluated it and decided that I should have thinned the base. No, I didn't hollow it; would have made great sense though, thanks! No cracks yet; it's been a few weeks since finishing it. I've turned a bunch of ambrosia maple, and can say that it is one of the easiest green woods to turn without checks and cracking.

The RS texturing tool is awsome! This was actually the first thing I used it on after a brief practice session using some waste dowel. I got the whole seet, which comes with several different cutters, and includes an indexing collar, so that the tools can be used easily for threading/spiraling as well as artistic texturing. GOTTA SAY IT WAS EASY AS PIE! I highlighted the texture with a black magic marker, lightly applied while spinning, using a very oblique approach with the tip. I turned a few beads to set each section off even further from the untextured wood.

The finish is a shellac-based friction finish (I don't like to call it polish). Made from chemically modified blonde shellac (organic chemistry actually paid off), pure tung oil, carnauba wax powder, and DNA. Applied to piece with lathe running as fast as safe, using paper towels and moderate pressure. I use three or four VERY thin coats. Large pieces can be finished a portion at a time without any visible border, and the finish wears like iron after the initial curing period (about a week or two). No need to buff, but I have done so on other pieces. I just bypass the tripoli step. Microcrystaline wax as a protection against fingerprints works even better though (IMHO).

Thanks! I really do appreciate the feedback. \\i have been embarassed to post photos til now. I was afraid that my fledgling skills would be overly criticized; but now understand that we are all a nice group of folks with a common passion. I will be posting more. Especially after I get my new baby (Nova DVR 2024, enroute to my house even as you read this).

I really like the way the challenge bowl turned out too. I will be making more of that style.

Great bowls. I love yr finish on both. Is that shellac Since you asked:

The 1st looks like cherry. I really like the rim and form on this.

On the Ambrosia maple, it's a great pc of wood. Personally, I might have made a smaller base (but I like my open forms bordering on tippy). A thinner, more undercut rim might also make the form appear lighter. I'm picking nits, tho. Nice!!!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Nice bowls and I do like the first one.

[BILL DONAHUE]

Very nice work! The texturing tool work is particularly good.

[Kathy Marshall]

Nice job on both Jeff! Good job on the embellished rim on the 1st bowl!