Hey! In this project I’ll illustrate how to build a wood bowl in a few steps. The process is very easy and quite quick (less than 1 hour), the key is that the wood has to be dry enough, otherwise will crack.

A couple of days ago I’ve found a piece of beech log in my yard and  I’ve decided for make my first wooden bowl. I’ve never tried to make one before so I was quite exited to give it a try.

Here is the beech log I’m taking about:

A couple of key highlights before start the project:

•  the wood dried for ~1 year. Unfortunately as you can see I have quite a big crack in the middle. I still in the process of learning how to dry the wood without cracks. I’ve read a few articles but as you can see I have no result yet 😦
• the wood for the bowl has to result from a longitudinal cut rather then radial cut, otherwise will crack. This will also provide a nice grain structure for the bowl.

I’ve mounted the beech log to the lathe using a Nova chuck screw, than I’ve used a roughing chisel until I get to the desired outside shape. For carving the inside part I’ve used a gauge chisel.

For finishing the bowl I’ve applied two coats of transparent wax while the bowl was on the lathe set to ~ 800 rpm. After ~5 minute when the wax dried a bit I set the lathe to 1600 rpm and with a clean towel I’ve polished the wax on the bowl. This way the bowl will get a shiny look as you can see in the below picture.

Once the polishing was done I had to cut off the bowl and here we go, the bowl is ready to be used.

I’m quite happy with the result having in mind that this was my first bowl.

I’m hope you’ve enjoyed this post. See you soon!