Wood bowls
When Paul is not busy building furniture or running mouldings, he spends his time turning utility salad bowls that are as much a joy to create as they are to use at the dinner table.
See images below to see how each bowl is created. Then visit our online store to view and purchase these practical works of art online.
How a wood bowl is made:
This is an ash tree that blew down in a winter storm not long ago, on one of my neighbours farms. It measures about 20" across the diameter.
I prefer to use wood that has already come down so that I don't have to harvest any tees. I like to start the turning process when the wood is still green, or wet, to avoid any cracking as the log dries.
I trimmed the log to remove any cracks, then cut a piece off equal to the diameter, then cut that in half top to bottom down the middle of the log. Each half has the corners knocked off before mounting on a face plate (shown above).
I measure the log to centre it, and then begin the roughing out stage to form the basic bowl shape. This particular blank was deep enough that I cut 2" off the rim side to make a platter and still ended up with a rough bowl that is 6" deep.
Then I reverse mount the bowl to begin the coring operation, removing smaller bowls from within the largest.
I ended up with 5 bowls overall, the largest is about 18" across, and the others are 5", 7", 10" and 14". The platter will be about 18" as well. Since these are still very wet, I take them through a drying process that will slowly dry them to avoid any cracks, as well as takes them out of round, which could take up to a year.
Creating a bowl sure makes a lot of sawdust! (It doesn't go to waste though - we reuse it as compost).
After carefully drying each blank - which can take more than a year, I may microwave them (the ones that fit, anyways) to be sure the moisture is out as well as kill any bugs that may exist. Then I can start the re-turning process to finish the bowls to their final shape, and then sand apply several coats of food-safe finish.
Although the above picture is of a different bowl set (these ones are already dried, re-turned and finished with food-safe finish - the newly turned bowls will take about a year to complete the drying and finishing processes), this gives you an idea of what the final product will look like.
When each product is completed, we place them for sale on our online store.
Visit our online store to see our currently available wood bowls and prices.
Visit our online store to see our currently available wood bowls and prices.
Contact us:
Paul S. Jackson
(519) 274-9694
5557 Line 36 R.R. #3 Mitchell, Ontario N0K 1N0 cell 519-274-9694 fax 519-393-5081