Bowl questions

m in a brown paper bag for a few months, then finish turning them.

r folded over?

Hello Ted,

The paper bag helps slow the drying of the rough turned bowl. It should be sealed and should be stored in a dry area out of the sunshine. What I've found even more effective than placing the bowl in a brown paper bag is to wrap the outside of the bowl with a brown paper bag and tape the bag at the rim of the bowl leaving the hollowed inside open. Store this bowl with the hollowed side down on stickers so that some air can get into the inside. This seems to work about as well as anything I've tried. Most of the time, I simply rough turn, write on the date of turning, and throw them on the shelf to dry. Sometimes they crack and most of the time they don't.

Fred Holder

a brown paper bag for a few months, then finish turning them.

This is what I do when starting with green (wet) wood. When green wood dries it warps. You can go ahead and finish turning it if you don't mind oval bowls. Turning it down to a wall thickness of about 10% of the bowl diameter seems about optimal and this makes for quicker drying than if you left the blank un-turned.

The bag promotes even drying throughout and helps prevent cracking and checking. I just fold the bag down and stack it in the un-heated part of the shop. If the bowl is too large to fold the top down over it, I use two bags, inserting the open end of the one with the bowl in it into the other bag.

I write the date and type of wood on the bag. But first I weigh the bowl. After about a month I start re weighing the rough bowls every 2 or 3 weeks and recording the weight. When the weight remains the same for 2 or 3 weighings I consider it dry. I have a digital scale for just this purpose.

If the wood is sopping wet, I let it sit out about a day to dry off some before bagging. This helps keep the mildew down.

Note: there are many ways to do everything. I have tried boiling the blanks without noticeable change in the number of spoiled ones. Some woods will still crack often with bagging, and for these I may seal the end grain with wax emulsion before bagging.

And while my dear wife was gone on a trip - I microwaved almost finished - final sanding done by hand - and when the bowl - done on defrost or low power - the bowl comes out hot - not much if any steam - and you use gloves - it is plastic - and you can shape the bowl into an oval or other - gently and as it cools it will become fixed.

Lots of tricks out there.

Mart> >> I have read posts where people say to partially turn bowls then store them in

a brown paper bag for a few months, then finish turning them.

folded over?

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