Thread: Bowl savers of a different kind

The purpose of this thread is to show some ways in which a bowl can be saved due to defects in the wood. I would be also interested to see any alternate methods anyone else has used by all you bowl turners out there in cyberland.
So you have a big chunk of wood that looks like it might make a nice bowl....BUT, there are some defects in it just like this bit of huon pine(rot holes).
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This timber takes a lot of time to grow (thousands of years sometimes), so a bit of persevering and a bit of extra time seems warranted (dunnit?).
The approach I took for this piece was to turn the outside shape then drill in holes with a spade bit where the defects were, then turn up some plugs and glue them in and then turn down, thus filling in the rotten bits with good bits.
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The next boo boo's were a couple of bowls from a previous post "Turning a bowl with a friction chuck" In each case a crack started happening while the bowl was being turned even though the timber was dry(flamin cantankerous wood!). No point stopping now, might as well finish the piece and then fix up. This one was not too bad....BUT!...It was a crack and no one buys a bowl with a crack in it (do they?). The solution here was to cut the crack out of the bowl and to glue in an insert, then carve it down and hand sand to the right profile.
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The very next bowl developed an even worse crack while turning (don't ya just hate that?), so an even bigger inset was fitted. These inserts have to be carefully marked out (I used a patternmakers mouse....guess that's another thread) and then cut the crack out with one of those really fine Japanese handsaws.
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You can see the crack in the bit that was cut out.
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Now we have a bowl with a strange looking insert. The question I suppose is will it sell? Yet to be proven, but it's gotta have more chance than a bowl with an ugly crack in it.

The final "fix up" was a pretty substantial myrtle burl bowl (the blank weighed 90 kilos wet) I paid a few dollars a kilo for it, so there was a bit on the line so to speak. It turned nicely but after turning an insidious crack started happening. First repair job was to use colored epoxy. Worked for a few days...crack kept opening...more epoxy...ditto....more epoxy.....ditto. Then put in some of those double ended dovetails that you see in furniture work , tabletops etc. Would have thought that would be enough but no! kept moving. The final stay put item is the stainless steel shop made staples,from 3mm stainless steel. Happy to report that bowl seems under control.

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Inside view.....and out side.....
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Anyone else out there have other methods to save defected bowls and I would be really keen to see.....lots of ways to skin a cat as they say.