Thanks to Darrell LaRue's post in: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-made-a-bucket I went ahead and tried making some shrink pots (thanks Darrell!).
There are a handful of pretty good tutorials online if you search for "shrink pot" on google. The short version is to hollow out the center of a green log/limb chunk and then cut a groove around one end and snap a piece of dry wood into the groove. The green wood will shrink as it dries and trap the bottom in place.
They're a lot of fun to make, although I'll certainly be the first to admit that there is no chance than any of these will hold water without leaving like a sieve Also ended up wishing I had a couple of in-cannel gouges for this, you can - sort of - clean up the insides with out-cannel but it would be a whole lot easier with the right tools (as Darrell noted a hook knife would work but I don't have one of those either). So far this is the only project I've done where I really wanted those so didn't invest yet.
These are in elm, I suspect a softer and more "shrinky" wood would probably seal up the bottoms better.
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