Thread: A small Jarrah Bowl

One would have to question the wisdom of your mentor who gave you a dry Mallee stump to make your first bowl from.

Besides the safety aspect of an inexperience turner using really hard timber, I would have thought the idea was to give you a good experience and encourage you.

A dry Mallee stump would be the last thing I would give to a brand new turner for his first bowl.

Still, looking on the upside you will have a ball when you try turning green timber.

I suggest you stick to the softer timbers while you gain experience.

It's much easier to learn tool control in softer timbers.

Cheers and enjoy the journey.

Tim

Steve, get some Camphor and do a few bowls. You'll learn more about entry angles and when and where to rotate the chisel.

Mallee is just hard work, cut,grind,cut,grind . . .

Tim,
Your right about those Mallee Stumps, they are pretty hard, & Pat is also right, turn for a few minutes & sharpen. And if you think they are hard to turn, you should try splitting them with an axe, not that I do that anymore.

It was my choice to start on a mallee stump, & I can totally understand those that disagree with this choice, but I am only working on this at the club. I grew up in the mallee, so while I have never turned a stump before, I know how narley they are & I know how hard they are. This will either be a nice bowl, or a nice lump of firewood, but either way, I am learning.

So my Jarrah bowl is a lot easier. While it's still a hardwood, it was nearly round before I put it on the lathe, so a lot easier to turn.

Camphor would be so nice to turn, just for the smell alone I recon, but there's not a lot of it around here.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying my turning. I mounted my Trugrind today. It's a bit different the sharpening system we have at the club, but similar, so I think I'll get used to it pretty quick.


Steve

I did a bit more today, I wasn't super happy with the finish so I did a bit more work on that & Turned the groove to accept my scroll chuck.

I think I am ready to turn it around & start on the inside. Hopefully I will get a bit of shed time tomorrow.


Stevejarrah bowl2.jpg

A week later & I finally got that shed time.

So this afternoon, I unscrewed the face plate & Mounted the Chuck.

I started to hollow out my first bowl & I would like to report a complete Success Nope, Can't do it. It had a flaw in it that I was a bit concerned about, and as it turns out, my thinking was correct. So I parted that off, and what was left was very small & ugly bowl that resembled an ashtray, but I thought for practice, keep going.

Anyway, It split right through the middle. A rather spectacular disaster I thought. One of the nicest bits of fire wood I have ever seen.

That was fun, can't wait to get out in the shed & start another one.


Steve

Hi steve,
I think most of us have had days like that
don, t let it worry you and learn from it,
Maybe next bowl try and put a bit more
shape/form to it, ask the guys who are
teaching you about a better style for a bowl
hope you don,t mind my comments just trying
to help

Hey Smiife,

I don't mind your comments at all, infact, they are very much in line with my own thoughts.

This was my first unsupervised Bowl, & the first that I have more than scratched the surface of the inside. I can't say I'm not just a little disappointed, but I knew the possibility of a successful bowl was less than 50%, given my experience level, Using Jarrah to learn on, & finding a few floors when I turned the outside.

I Learned a lot on this little bowl. The top lip was way too thin before I faced the the inside, I should have left that thicker from the outside & turned it off on the inside. I am much better at feeling when the gouge is starting to dull off now than before I did this, & I'm not too bad at sharpening my Bowl Gouge now. I was a little scared of doing this before but turning hard timber like Jarrah & Mallee, I have fairly quickly overcome this fear.

I am enjoying my turning, sadly, I don't get a lot of time on my lathe, but it's a very interesting leaning experiance.

Thanks for your post.


Steve

Steve,

We all started off there, but good to see you are taking the time to see what worked, what didn't and that you are learning from each opportunity you get on the lathe.

I would suggest you get hold of some not so special timber that cuts reasonably well. Start off with something about 200mm across and 100mm or so thick. Just concentrate on getting flow to your tool presentation and shape rather than making a bowl. Turn it all away just replicating flowing cuts. Do outside only on one, then on another blank do inside only. One or two blanks like this will be a faster learning opportunity than say 5 or 10 bowls.

Spend time on learning to sharpen gouges well, and how to present the tool to the wood - you will be well rewarded.

Thanks Mobyturns, Thats good advise I think.

I know starting on Jarrah & Mallee is a waste of good Jarrah & Mallee, but these bits were both off of fire wood heaps. Mallee stumps arn't much good for anything except burning or turning, & the lump of Jarrah I had was too small to do much of anything with either, so really, it's not wasted, mor sacrificed to the learning experience.

I think I might be onto a couple of large pieces of Pine, Not Radiata I don't think, just some scabby old bits used in a packing crate, so I might be able to have some sacrificial fun with them.

Would love to score some Camphor Laurel & turn that, Nice & soft, looks good & smells better than roses.

Thanks


Steve

Originally Posted by Ticky

.....
I started to hollow out my first bowl & I would like to report a complete Success Nope, Can't do it. It had a flaw in it that I was a bit concerned about, and as it turns out, my thinking was correct. So I parted that off, and what was left was very small & ugly bowl that resembled an ashtray, but I thought for practice, keep going. .....

You will find a lot more pieces to practice on. Just the other day I thought that I should make a snowman as I did when I first started, it helps with the practicing of making beads. After I finished I looked at it and even thou I made it the same as the ones I had in the past, I was not happy with it. I made his head a little too big compared to his chest and the rest of his body. So next time I get to release wood from it's square confines on a practice piece I will look at the proportions as well.

I was very surprised to find myself thinking about this on a practice piece. But I think over time we develop this aspect of our turning.