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Today’s bowl, a slowly updated thread. Starting with a piece of cherry salvaged from a tree removed at #UVic.
Cut out a rough cylinder with a band saw. Cherry smells great! Like cherry syrup. Attach a metal faceplate, to put it on the lathe, with screws. This will be the concave side.
‘Lathe’ comes to us from old norse through Middle English: heap -> frame -> bench -> turning tool, apparently.
Put the blank on the lathe, the faceplate screws on. In the background is the grinder. It’s essential to keep the tools (shown) sharp.
Face shield, not suitable for medical personnel, required. Bits of wood go everywhere.
Make it round. This environment is really bad for smart phones.
Make it flat. I’ll cut a tenon next, so that the lathe can hold it when I cut the inside.
The shavings are hot and smell great.
Tenon
Start shaping the bottom.
I use a bowl gouge for most of this. The come in different sizes and there are different profiles and angles I’m not great at sharpening yet. Another skill to learn.
There’s a bowl inside every piece of wood. The last cut is (hopefully) very thin and continuous leaving a surface that does need much sanding.
Now the bowl goes onto a chuck the grips it inside the tenon. It’s reversed and next I’ll cut the concave inside. But first a quick bite to eat for lunch and warm my hands.
By the way, I’ve sanded off too much skin on my fingers doing these bowls and am at risk of staining the bowls with drops of sacrificial blood.
Here’s the bowl reversed on the lathe.
Hollow out the bowl from the outside in. The centre of the blank is solid and strong. Removing it makes the piece of wood weaker. Work in stages.
Switch to a curved tool rest. Very helpful. At this stage I start to worry about not going through the bottom. It’s a bit of eyeballing and estimation.
Close.
Final cuts. I ended up pushing the camera. 
I’m happy with this. Time for some sanding. When cutting the wood spins at about 1500 RPM. I slow it down for sanding.
Work from coarse to fine, with clean sandpaper. Some woods need a coarser starting paper but not this piece of cherry.
Today’s bowl assistant.
You’ll want to make sure you’re happy with the inside of the bowl before the next step. We’re going to cut off the tenon and finish the bottom. We won’t be able to sand the inside under power again.
Reverse the bowl again. Adjustable jaws. There are other ways but this works well.
Smaller tool careful, small cuts. The bowl is not being held as strongly as before. I did check the thickness of the bottom first so I have a good idea how much I can cut away.
The tenon is reduced to a little foot. A bit more sanding.
Sanity check. The bowl will rest on its foot, not on its centre.
The original piece of wood has been reduced to a pile of shavings, and a bowl. Anyone need some mulch? I’ve got a couple cubic metres of shavings.
A bit of hand sanding to remove circular scratches ... next step is some oil and wax.
There are lots of ways to do an oil and wax finish. I like using walnut oil and then a beeswax and mineral oil finish. Today I’ll use this oil and beeswax combo. I rub it in by hand.
Seventeen days. How much longer will this go on? I think I’m in over my head.
