Thread: First but not my first

OK so it's not my first bowl. I've done three or four and posted a couple here. Those ones were done using a combination of shallow spindle gouges and a bodgied up 3/4 inch deep roughing gouge reground to a pseudo fingernail shape. They did the job but geez it was hard going.

So I decided to invest in a proper bowl gouge and went hunting around all the suppliers at the show last weekend. I finally settled on a 10mm Robert Sorby from Carrols and brought it home with a number of blanks to test it on.

Having done it the hard way it was such a treat to be able to watch the shavings fly with little or no effort. Not having to work so hard just to cut the timber I found it much easier to concentrate on form and finish. Having said that the final shape wasn't quite what I set out to do but I'm not entirely displeased with the result.

The timber is camphor laurel, finished size is approx 140mm x 60mm, sanded to 600, then hit with EEE and finished with Shellawax Glow. I've not used the U-Beaut products before but after watching Neil demonstrate at the show I was impressed enough to part with my hard earned and I'm glad I did.