Something to think about when turning bowls.

**The Spin Doctor** · 23rd April 2024, 07:43 PM

I've been a turner since I was 12, though artistic turning hasn't been my forte. Production turning was where I really excelled. But in that time I've turned a few bowls to say the least.

The pic below is of three that were turned some years back. Sadly the picture doesn't do them justice. They are actually pretty nice looking. But that's not where I was going.

One thing I realised many many years ago is that bowls are tactile pieces. So the feedback they give to the fingers is as important as how they look to the eyes.

So what I have done since my early 20s is to wet sand to 320 and then take a break for a few days from finishing it completely. In that down time the bowls would often sit on the side table in the living room next to where I sit on the couch, often still attached to the face plate or chuck. While my mind and eyes have their attention focused on the TV I hold the bowl. Allowing my fingers and thumbs to run themselves all over the surface and letting that be absorbed into the subconscious...

Overall I'm trying to, without prejudice (occupying my conscious mind with watching TV helps with that), determine if the bowl feels right and good. Feeling right will include such things as, can I feel a differences in wall thickness along the entire profile. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if the wall thickness isn't consistent. However, it's hugely important that if feels like it's even throughout the piece. Or is that little bump there in the dead centre of the inside of the bowl. We all know the one - right.

Does it feel good. How do the transitions feel from convex to concave to flat... Also, the fingers are looking for anomalies in the surface. Does it feel rough, are there high/low spots, cracks, pockets that the fingers can decern and are they appropriate. There is no hard n fast rule, it's about does the feel in your mind with the piece. Overall does the shape of the bowl feel good in the hands, regardless of how it looks... It may not be a bowl with a glass smooth surface, but overall it needs to still feel good in the hands.

Once I've sent a few days nonchalantly fondling the bowl, it may go back on the lathe and fine-tuned and back to the side table, or it may be completed.

The three bowls in the pic feel good in the hands. The one on the left is a red gum, rescued from a firewood pile, that's a very simple form. Its smooth surfaces transitions nicely in the hands and the wall thickness feels even throughout. The middle is from the same piece of firewood and the carved lip still feels good in the hands along with the rest. The right one is a Gary Oak burl, the tree only grows on Vancouver Island in Canada, it has a slightly rough texture because it was turned wet and wet sanded to a finished state and then allowed to dry very slowly over six months in the fridge. So it develops an uneven surface as the wood fibres collapse, but still retains a silky feel from wet sanding. All only have a Danish oil finish. I might try to French polish the two gum bowls though as it a nice shellac surface feels really nice. I did one recently, never had before, and damn did it look and feel good.

Something to think about...

**hughie** · 26th April 2024, 05:32 PM

The tactile aspect is known and has plagued many over the years almost as much as the form. But like many trades and professions, there are tricks to trap the eye and beguile the holder. For me if I am doing any sort of spiral embellishment I make sure that both ends of the embellishment can't be seen at the same time forcing the beholder to pick it up, Its here the form, weight and finish have their part to play. It here there must no negative surprises other than ones of joy. As its been said, the devil is in the detail. What ever finish is used, there must a little pull on the fingers as the piece is fondled in the hand. As if to say, dont put me down, I dont want to leave your hands. Another aspect is intrigue, of the colour, the grain structure and position in the piece, flawless finish and form. This all takes time but most definitely worth what ever effort and time it takes up.

**NeilS** · 27th April 2024, 10:10 AM

In my experience the piece must please the eye before it asks to be picked up and explored in the hand.

SpinDr, your bowls on the left and right in your photo certainly invite me to do that... a pleasing form that floats above a well proportioned foot does that for me.

What I have observed is that often people will run their fingers inside a bowl before picking it up and if they get good feedback from doing that they might then put their thumb inside the piece and run their fingers down around the outside as far as the thumb allows the hand to reach that way. That is when they will get tactile messages about the how the inner and outside curves work together. Some will then pick up the piece and cup in both hands while repeating that and just a few at that point will turn the piece over to visually explore the bottom of the piece*. I always like to have a little extra surprise there for those that do that.

*Of course, other turners will turn over a piece to see how a piece has been held or finished on the bottom. Doing that is like a badge of woodturning 'knowmanship', but they don't count as they never buy the work of other turners...

My preference is to undercut the rims on my bowls which leaves a slightly thicker rim and a wall that is thinnest just below the rim and then very slightly increasing in thickness progressively towards the foot. Discovering that thinner wall thickness below the rim with the fingers is a pleasant tactile experience for most and the profile down from there seems to work going by the countless hundreds of bowls that I have sold over many years.

I don't get too fussy about the 'tactile' thickness below the reach of the average thumb as that can't be felt by the average person. I just have to be satisfied about that for myself.

**mic-d** · 27th April 2024, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by NeilS

In my experience the piece must please the eye before it asks to be picked up and explored in the hand.

SpinDr, your bowls on the left and right in your photo certainly invite me to do that... a pleasing form that floats above a well proportioned foot does that for me.

What I have observed is that often people will run their fingers inside a bowl before picking it up and if they get good feedback from doing that they might then put their thumb inside the piece and run their fingers down around the outside as far as the thumb allows the hand to reach that way. That is when they will get tactile messages about the how the inner and outside curves work together. Some will then pick up the piece and cup in both hands while repeating that and just a few at that point will turn the piece over to visually explore the bottom of the piece*. I always like to have a little extra surprise there for those that do that.

*Of course, other turners will turn over a piece to see how a piece has been held or finished on the bottom. Doing that is like a badge of woodturning 'knowmanship', but they don't count as they never buy the work of other turners...

My preference is to undercut the rims on my bowls which leaves a slightly thicker rim and a wall that is thinnest just below the rim and then very slightly increasing in thickness progressively towards the foot. Discovering that thinner wall thickness below the rim with the fingers is a pleasant tactile experience for most and the profile down from there seems to work going by the countless hundreds of bowls that I have sold over many years.

I don't get too fussy about the 'tactile' thickness below the reach of the average thumb as that can't be felt by the average person. I just have to be satisfied about that for myself.

You really should write a book on bowl turning and call it The Joy of Bowls, or something.

**NeilS** · 27th April 2024, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by mic-d

You really should write a book on bowl turning and call it The Joy of Bowls, or something.

Mic

There has probably been enough written already on the topic for me to add anything further.

But, there is always enough room in this world for more lovely wood bowls.

And, that is what I'm off to do again right now...

**brainstrust** · 27th April 2024, 09:10 PM

Couldn't agree more. Pleasing to the eye is number one unless you are making bowls to use and hold in your hand. Is anyone doing that these days?????

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