Natural edge bowl prep.

"Kevin" wrote: I have a piece of black walnut that has pretty much dried out. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It would have been better to turn it before it dried. Bark separation is caused by drying shrinkage. If there are open gaps between the bark and the wood, theymay be hard to control with C/A glue. Too late for that now. But, since the wood seems to be pretty dry, there is no penalty for waiting even longer.

If this is your first experience at turning natural edge bowls, you are sure to make some mistakes, and learn a lot from those mistakes. I suggest you lay that nice piece of walnut aside, and do your learning on something less touchy. Use a piece of wood that has just been cut, and where the bark is well bonded.

When you do get ready to turn the walnut, be prepared to have some of the bark fly off. Keep some scraps of bark handy, so you can repair these places. You don't necessarily have to put back the same piece that flew off, as long as you are careful in fitting things into place. If things really do fly apart, consider stripping off the rest of the bark--you'll still have a natural-edge bowl that can be quite attractive without the bark.

Since you're new to this, I want to point out something I learned the hard way. UNIFORM WALL THICKNESS is far more critical on natural edge bowls. Any variation in thickness will show up as variations in the width of the edge.

Go to it, and keep us posted. WEAR A FACE SHIELD.

He speaks the truth. You can still give it the college try by starting to stuff CA in as you approach the outside rim dimensions. Thin first, so that it runs into unseen places, then a tad of thick and dust or chips of sub-bark into places where it's pulled away. If you're like me, and sell the things, you'll want to soak CA into the bark to keep it from breaking away much as it's handled.

The uniform wall thickness isn't all it seems. What appear to be "variations in the width of the edge" are often just a result of the changing angle as you deepen the bowl. If you chase it as a visual cue only, you'll end up with some pretty thin stuff down low. Never was a critical thing to get the walls of a turning thin or even uniform, so do what looks and feels right.

Generally speaking, if you've got nice thick bark like willow or elm you can cut through at a steep angle and get good display. Thinner stuff like cherry or some maples wants to be cut a bit broader to show the bark off.

If it doesn't stay, you can clean it up and blacken the edge, wire brush it, or even (shudder) color it. Stuff like spalt generally will keep you from holding bark no matter how you try.

Don't think that barkside up is the only way to do an interrupted edge. Sometimes the unnatural edge of a split can be attractive, too.

"George" wrote: (clip) The uniform wall thickness isn't all it seems. What appear to be "variations in the width of the edge" are often just a result of the changing angle as you deepen the bowl. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I'm talking about something different, and I think it is important. It is possible to turn finished edge bowls that are not of uniform thickness, and they will still look pretty good. An accomplished turner may pick up the variations by feeling the inside and outside together. If you do as some teachers suggest, and saw the bowl in half vertically, you will see the variations in thickness.

A natural edge bowl gemerally has two high lobes and two low sides. The edge passes from the high to the low points, so differences in thickness appear as differences in the width of the edge, just as they do when you saw a bowl in half. To a beginner this can be a challenge. You can't just clean it up by taking a cut. And it DOES affect the esthetics. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (clip)Never was a critical thing to get the walls of a turning thin or even uniform, so do what looks and feels right.(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ George, since you sell your bowls, I have to assume that you are getting good results doing "what looks and feels right." To a person with less experience than you, things don't always come out as expected or desired. My comment was made with the belief that problems encountered while learning can be handled better if they are understood--and a timely explanation can be beneficial.