Thread: Bowl Question...probably a dum one but here goes

i use mine for lollies and that kind of things

Hi Toni

Bowls that I have turned have been used for lots of things

Salad, chips, lollies, nuts, fruit etc

Bowls should be finish with a wax and after use should be wiped down with a damp cloth and dried with a towel

Also wax should be regularly applied as you will wear the wax off from regular use

Cheers DJ

Lots of soaking with vegie oil for your bowls - but not olive oil. Goes off. Then let sit for a month or so.

For your vases you can get test-tube type inserts.

Originally Posted by rsser

For your vases you can get test-tube type inserts.

Where do you get the test tubes from?
Toni

Can't recall offhand. Trawl thru the online turning supplies retailers: Garry Pye, The Woodsmith, Carroll's Woodcraft, MIK, maybe Timbecon. I'd guess they would be described as craft supplies.

Also try your local chemist. Explain to them that you're a turner and exactly why you want 'em (else they tend to look askance at you. DAMHIKT. ) and see if they can put you onto a supplier, if not actually sell from their own stock.

For me it worked out very, very cheap compared to other sources... but I did have to try a few different chemists.

If it's going to be used for actual food such as a salad I'd use mineral oil from the chemist. For such things as lollies that are wrapped pretty well any normal finish will work - my preferred is a polymerizing oil such as danish oil. I've tried wax before but I suspect it made someone sick once so have never used it since.

This is a handout I give with every wooden bowl I sell. Hope it helps you a little:

To keep your bowl like new:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
After using the bowl for food items, do not let it stand for a long time. Wash it with warm soapy water, rinse well, and towel dry. Let it sit for a few minutes to air dry some more, then put a teaspoon of pure, odorless, olive oil into the bowl, and smear it around with your fingers. Let it set for about 10 or 15 minutes. Then wipe out the remaining oil, and it is ready for use next time…… just wipe it out with a clean paper towel and use it.
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To season your bowl after it has not been used for a month or longer:<o></o>
Sometimes after sitting for a period of time, some grains of the wood may raise a little, causing some rough areas to exist. If there are some rough spots, smooth them out with #0000 steel wool. Wipe it out. Pour a couple of spoons of pure, odorless, olive oil into the bowl, and add half a spoon of salt. Be gentle: scour the inside with a paper towel, using the salt and oil mixture to “purify” and clean the inside. Wipe it clean and dry. Let it set for a half hour or so, and then put in another teaspoon of the oil, and rub it around with your fingers.
Let that sit for 10 or 15 minutes, then wipe out the excess oil, and it’s ready to be used.
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Note: Mineral oil can be used as a substitute. But DO NOT use extra-virgin olive oil, or any type of vegetable oil.

Sorry about the large print in the above post about bowl care... it was a copy and paste thing. )

For test tubes: http://www.testtubesonline.com This place is located in Louisiana, USA. They were nearly blown away in the hurricane last year, and he called me on with his cell phone about my online order, and told me about their damage... asked me if I still wanted them. Took an extra week, and they arrived intact. Good folks. I ordered the plastic ones, and they're good for just a single stem flower.
BTW: What's a lollie?

Small vase inserts (stainless steel) - Lee Valley on line.
glass test tubes - ask your local high school where they get theirs from - seriously. My old High School used to get theirs from a chemical supplier at Nth Ryde (long gone) but they were a standard school lab supplier.

If you want BIG glass containers, replacement liners for coffee plungers are actually Pyrex lab flasks - it would be cheaper to buy a case from a lab supplier, but if you only want one.......

Toni, I find Organoil the best for finishing bowls, it is an orange oil based and totally food safe. I know Ern ha said before he has had the grain raised after a while but I have not encountered this so far.
Darren

Originally Posted by OGYT

BTW: What's a lollie?

Bloody yanks!!! I think you call them 'candy' - small irregular shapes of highly concentrated sugar and dubious colorings. Loved by young and old!

Toni,

what the guys said for finishes
- salad bowls - what rssr said.
- Small knick-knack bowls - generally oiled and waxed is the most common (and quickest to apply if you are the type that wants to proudly display the finished product asap).

vases - Take a look around your local 2 dollar shop, Reject Shop, and sometimes your local St Vinnies.

Quite often you'll find some terrible glass vases that make great inserts inside timber vases. Only thing is that you have to come up with a turned design to accomodate the shape of glass you found.

As for St Vinnies ones, as long as you don't want to do a production run it's ok, cause it's hard to get a lot of the same shape. But they are cheap, and you can make rubbish stuff look great.

For what seems like forever, I have been having my students make salad bowls and such and the primary finish was Mineral oil.. Why? Food oils and nut oils, Walnut oil, and corn oil and lard and any other such oil will go rancid and can harbor bacteria.. I used to have my students use just plain mineral oil. saturate for a day or so and buff to a shine and replinish after it wears at home. Then a few years ago I began using a mixture of Pariffin and mineral oil 50/50.... melt canning paraffin in a jar of mineral oil and the saturate the bowl, be surprised what a sheen will develop as you briskly rub down with a piece of Terry cloth.

A friend used my advise and made a cutting board finished in that same manner and gave it as a gift to his sister 15 years ago. (gee, I've been giving advise a long time) Last Christmas , he told me, he was at her house and saw her put the board in her dishwasher. He ask and she said she always does. Ever so often she wipes it with Mineral oil as he told her (he neglected to tell her NOT to put it in the dishwasher.... so it seems the mineral oil and Paraffin wax treatment works pretty well.

Your opinion as to what to use but as for me, I'm sticking with Mineral oil & paraffin.