Making Blake’s Bowls

Wood sources

I make my bowls from previously-used wood whenever possible. Old furniture that I see in someone’s trash is my treasure. The wood must be solid wood or veneer over solid wood, preferably a dark wood like mahogany, rosewood, or walnut. I avoid furniture constructed of particle board or coarse plywood.   An oft-used wood resource is rough-cut six-foot stakes that landscapers pounded into the ground to support newly-planted tree saplings. After several years, the stakes were discarded, and I salvaged some to become bowl components. Frequently the foot-long portion of the stake that was underground turns black from a common fungus. This “spalted” wood contrasts nicely with the light-colored wood that was above ground. (The fungus becomes inactive when the wood dries.)  I’ve used redwood from an old playground set. The western red cedar in my bowls is decades-old fascia board that once lined the roof of a Boca Raton condominium. Old construction lumber is a source for pine and fir. A friend gave me some foot-long pieces of Ipe, a very tough, dark wood, that were cut-off scraps from new dock construction. Fine-woodworking companies sometimes supply scraps of woods that are too small for their purposes and perfect for the segments that comprise my bowls.   It breaks my heart to see a fine chunk of wood head to a landfill, so I recycle as much as I can.   Some bowl woods I must buy. Aspen is a very white wood available at reasonable cost from some Lowes stores. It contrasts nicely with darker woods, but is quite soft and therefore difficult to finish smoothly. Exotic woods like purpleheart, wenge, and padauk are beautiful and rarely free. I use them sparingly.

Bowl base

Bowl construction begins with its base, which is made from a long (10 to 20 inches), wide (two to four inches) piece of wood. That stick can be solid wood or several thinner pieces glued together. Choice of wood is often an agonizing compromise. If I don’t have enough of a wood that I want to use, I’ll make part of the base from a contrasting wood having similar dimensions. As in every step of bowl-making, I try to minimize waste.   I cut the stick(s) into eight pie-shaped wedges so that the pointy end of each wedge is exactly 45 degrees, which is one-eighth of a circle. If that angle is slightly small, there will be an ugly gap in the base’s perimeter when I glue the wedges into a solid disk. If the angle is slightly too large, the wedge points won’t meet at the center.   Gluing and assembling the base is a challenge because the glue tends to warp each wedge, especially at the pointy end where I must get eight points to come together precisely to form an attractive base. I use large hose clamps to hold the freshly glued base together overnight while the glue cures.   I roughly smooth the bottom of the base and glue it to a scrap disk that I can screw (and unscrew many times during the creation of the bowl!) onto a steel “faceplate” that mounts on my lathe. I put the bowl base on the lathe and turn it enough to make its top perfectly flat and smooth, ready for the first ring.

Bowl ring

The bowl grows from its base as I add wood rings.   Each ring usually consists of 4, 8, 16, or 32 trapezoidal-shaped segments. The angle formed by the sloped sides of the trapezoid is exactly 45 degrees for an 8-segment ring, 22.5 degrees for a 16-segment ring, etc. As with the base, a tiny error in these angles will cause the ring to have unsightly gaps. A ring may include parallel-sided pieces between some of the segments.   The dimensions of each segment is critical, because the ring must overlap with the base or ring below it. Too much overlap will waste wood; too little overlap and the bowl will fall apart during the turning process.   Choosing the components of a ring can be exhilarating and/or agonizing. Exhilarating because there are so many possibilities: identical segments vs. contrasting segments, grain orientation (tangential or radial), parallel-sided inserts (yes or no), arrangement, etc. Agonizing because there are so many options: which choice will work beautifully with the rest of the bowl?   I try to achieve maximum symmetry in arranging the segments into a ring, and once arranged, I number each segment, 1 to 16, say, so that I don’t lose the symmetry during the gluing process.   The ring is assembled in stages. I apply glue to one side of segment 1, and rub it against the appropriate side of segment 2 for a few seconds until the glue “catches,” then precisely align segments 1 and 2 and set the pair aside. I do the same with segments 3 and 4, 5 and 6, etc. For a 16-segment ring, I now have eight glued segment pairs. Then I apply glue to the available side of segment 2, rub it against segment 3, and align them perfectly. This results in four four-segment ring arcs. I then check to make sure the four arcs fit together perfectly and make corrections as needed.   Next I apply glue to segment 4 and rub it against segment 5, 8 against 9, 12 against 13, and 16 against 1. Then I put the four glued arcs together in a ring and bind the ring together with hose clamps, adjusting the pieces before the glue hardens to achieve a nearly perfectly flat and round ring.   After at least a day of drying, I use various tools and a large disk sander to make the bottom of the new ring perfectly flat and smooth. I can then immediately glue the new ring to the (previously smoothed) base or ring below it on the bowl. This involves applying glue and meticulously positioning the new ring so that it is centered and has the desired rotational orientation with respect to the rest of the bowl.   A device clamps the new ring in position while the glue sets overnight.   If I will add another ring, I mount the bowl on the lathe and turn it enough to get a perfectly flat and smooth surface on the top ring, ready to accept the next ring.

Features

My larger bowls usually include a “feature ring,” a ring with several specially constructed decorative segments. The decoration may have a checkerboard pattern, concentric squares of contrasting woods, a diamond shape in a square, or simply pieces of strikingly-grained wood, like curly maple.   The constructed features may take several hours spread over days waiting for glue to dry. I try to form “sausages” having the desired decorative cross-section and then slice the sausages into thin decorations, rather than construct, say, eight identical features one by one.   Feature options, as with rings, are endless.

Turning

When the glue has dried on the final ring, the bowl is ready to be finish turned.   I mount the bowl on my lathe and use various gouges and scrapers to remove wood from the outside and hollow out the interior. The dimensions of the rings and the overlaps from ring to ring limit the profile of the finished bowl. I first eliminate all roughness/edges inside and out and use whatever wood remains to achieve a pleasing shape.   When the tools have done their best, I use sandpaper from 50 grit to 400 grit to smooth all bowl surfaces. Gentle sanding pressure avoids wearing away softer segments when a ring includes a variety of woods; otherwise the ring develops lumps.

Initial finish

I use a soft cloth to apply Minwax (brand) “wipe-on poly” to the sanded bowl.   To help apply the finish uniformly I built a simple turntable (picture a record player 10 to 100 RPM) that spins the bowl. I move the poly-soaked cloth over the turning bowl to spread the finish, first on the outside, then on the inside.   I let the finish dry overnight, then mount the bowl on the lathe, fix any blemishes, re-sand, then apply another coat of wipe-on poly.   I apply at least five coats in this way, many more if the bowl includes soft woods.

Turning the base

When the bowl’s finish is nearly perfect, I sand once more on the lathe and separate the bottom of the bowl from the scrap disk that I used to screw the faceplate to the bowl.   I mount the open end (top) of the bowl in a lathe chuck that has huge jaws with the bowl base facing out.  Now I can access the bottom of the base and use tools and sandpapers to shape and smooth it.

Signing and final finish

I use a special pen to sign my name on the bottom of the bowl, indicate the year, the bowl’s number, and the species of wood.   Finally, I apply more coats of wipe-on poly to the entire bowl, sanding between each until I’m satisfied that more coats cannot improve the bowls appearance.