Bowls are they worth it?

[Tiger]

Was turning some Huon Pine into something resembling a bowl and then got to the stage where we have to deal with the torn end-grain. I scraped and shear-scraped until you could barely tell where the end-grain was. I then applied sand paper and scratches appeared and of course once I applied the Shellawax the bowl was blotchy and the scratch marks were apparent, so I immediately thought what a waste of wood and I would have been better off making some boxes or a gavel or something else. To go from the stage of rough fininshing to removing the torn end-grain took around 15 mins using delicate scraping cuts and constant sharpening of the scraper. I have had this same thing happen on other bowls but not consistently. So what do you do when the bowl looks ok and you then apply your 120 or 180 grit and start sanding. Would it be better not to sand and apply the polish straight onto the scraped work?
BTW how long is it taking you to produce a bowl, seems to take me a couple of hours whereas spindle projects are fairly quick.

[DJ’s Timber]

Can take me longer to sand some bowls then it did to turn it. It comes down to different species, some having really bad endgrain issues and others only need a touch up with sandpaper

[TTIT]

When the profile allows it, a rotary sander applied just to the area with tearout (lathe stationary) solves it pretty quickly - or stick to species that aren't prone to tearout :shrug:

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I know that, in general, you're not really considered a "master" woodturner until you can't get a perfect finish straight off the tool. :rolleyes:

But in reality every piece I've ever turned with cross-grain that I've been really, really proud of, I have easily spent as much time sanding & finishing as I did turning. It's not just bowls... goblets, platters and anything else with cross-grain has the same tendency. How bad the tearout is depends on the wood, but all cross-grain turning will suffer from it to some degree. It's just another facet of wood-turning that needs to be mastered. :shrug:

I generally start at 180 or 240, depending on how bad the tearout is, and work my way down to 1200. (If sanding with the grain, there's not much point in going beyond 320/400 grit; cross-grain's a different matter.) However, it took me a long, long time to realise that you need to blow out or wipe down the work between different grits to remove "loose grit." Huon Pine being so soft, it only takes one errant grain to ruin all your work and make you start all over again from 180 grit.

But to answer your original question: Yes. IMHO the end result can be worth it. (Of course some bowls are, and will forever be, just junk! :wink:)

[CHJ]

I regularly use the nylon abrasive pads for final polishing, going through the grades below 320 grit.

This is not the brand I use (which go finer) but the only picture I could find of similar.
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Hermes-Webrax-Hand-Pad-23609.htm

I find that there is less chance of scratching from rogue grains and they do not clog like the finer grit papers.

[rsser]

You can be too rough on timber and compress the fibres. They pop up later; a bit of finish swells the grain and helps that along.

With softer woods in particular it's small tools and fine cuts that's the go IMO.

[Tiger]

Some good suggestions. My scrapers do a good job of cleaning up the end grain, maybe it is some loose grains of sandpaper, I am going to try and apply a finish straight off the scraper just to see what happens.

Other lesson learnt is stay away from soft wood for bowls.

BTW approx how long do other forum members spend on making bowls?

[cedar n silky]

Hi Tiger.
Here is a thread http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=40191
you might be interested in. I had similar problems with Huon pine, and got some good feed back from the forum.
Cheers.:)

[Tiger]

Thanks , Cedar.