Small stool in style of Japanese bath stool

In between other jobs I had some spare wood left to make a small stool for my grandchildren. I wanted to try another design so went for a stool with "through angled tenons". These joints I found quite challenging to do with hand tools but I persevered and so I include a few thoughts from this project here.

I made the top and legs from a 3.5 cm thick pine board. The finished stool was 36 cm long and 22 cm wide and the height was 24 cm. Pine isn't ideal for detailed joints because of the course grain and so takes more care to work and sharp tools. I used a section of 2 x 2 inches to make the stretcher connecting the two legs.

Stool after making the joints. Surface preparation (planing and sanding), preparing clefts, gluing and treatment yet to do.

The legs were set at an angle of 10 degrees from upright hence fixing the angle of the mortice and tenon joints on the two legs and stretcher. I set the angle on an angled bevel marker and this remained fixed for the entire job. the construction involved:

1. Marking out the two legs and sawing to shape. This can be just rectangular or truncated pyramid as shown. I also made a 5 cm cylindrical cut in the middle of the bottom of each leg and so made four balancing points for better stability of the stool. 

2. I decided to make two mortice and tenons on each leg to join them to the top of the stool. Basically the top was 12.5 cm wide and each tenon was 2.5 cm wide. The length of the tenon was about 5 cm to allow them to protrude out of the top so that the beech wedge could be added when gluing and then sawn/planed to the meet the top surface.

3. The most difficult part of the construction for me was cutting the mortices in the stool top. For this I made a small jig to clamp to the top and use as a chisel guide to get the correct angled mortice  (again 10 degrees).  I found that if I clamped the jig firmly to the top with a piece of plywood on the underside of the top, I could cut the mortice from one side right through to the plywood base. This worked well for all the joints. I made the jig by sawing/planing the correct angle on the face of a piece of beech and then cutting into three sections and then gluing together with the centre piece off- set.

Beech jig for cutting mortices. The face is angled at 10 degrees to the vertical and the width matches the tenons. The front "prongs" are also angled.

Finished stool after two coatings of Danish Oil. A further coating of clear polyurethane was applied after a couple of days. Now in full use by grandchildren.

Stools from Green Wood

Autumn has come quickly this year (2019) and we're quite far into November and had for the first time temperatures below 5 C during the day. With all the rain over the last few weeks, there is not so much I want to do in the garden and I've put-off more pole lathe work until the weather improves. I made a hedgehog house with Sam using old timber from other jobs and that is now near the hedgerow at the rear of the garden. In between times I have collected locally some felled ash and silver birch green wood with the idea of making some green wood tripod stools. I read the book by Alison Ospina "Green Wood Stools" with lots of photos that gave me some ideas on designs and methodology. I'm not so keen on the stools with bark legs, mainly hazel, and prefer a more finished  approach (that are also illustrated in the book). Alison sets the legs in the base at 90 degrees thus avoiding the problems in drilling at an angle into the base and then uses the flexibility in the green hazel to bend the legs as needed. I wanted to use thicker wood for the legs and set the legs at an angle as I wouldn't have so much flexibility in the legs of the stool. 

The photo below shows a small stool I made on a one day course at Dartington and this was also made of ash wood and shaped with a draw knife and roughing plane.

Tripod stool made of green wood ash, height ??

The legs pass through the top and are held in place with walnut wedges. The legs where shaped with a "rounding plane" so they fitted into the holes in the top. The holes were drilled at an angle using a pillar drill making this bit of the construction much easier. The legs were shaped so that they were thinner at the top and bottom and roughly matched each other. This was done using a draw knife and refined using a large spokeshave plane. I did use sandpaper to finish it off although on the course they discouraged this; I guess it comes down to taste as some like the look of plane and chisel marks. The height of the stool is good for young children (both Sam, 5 years and Esmee, 3 years both use it either as a stool or table). Anyway, my idea was to make a higher stool than this with cross bars to strengthen the leg support. I wanted to experiment with the top as I didn't have large enough material to make it out of one log. For this I intended to join 2 to 3 inch sections together to get a diameter of about 11 to 12 inches and another using 3 radial sections from a large log as shown below.

Five rectangular pieces of ash 2-3 inches wide and about 2 inches thick roughed-out from ash logs originally 20-24 inches long.

Three radial ash sections cut from a single log to a thickness of about 2 inches.

Three ash legs ready to be refined and shaped for the stool . Two of the legs are from one long 22 inch log that was cleaved down the centre and so produced legs with a similar curvature at the bottom. The other leg was from another similar length cleaved log but the shape was somewhat contrived with the axe and drawknife to match the others!!

Tools I used are: 1. Sharpened axe 2. Froe (to cleave but you can just use an axe). 3. Large Draw -Knife. 4. Large flat spokeshave (I find this useful for developing the shape but a smaller draw-knife would do or even a knife). 5. Roughing Plane (Veritas Scrub Plane). 6. Jointer Plane. 7. Rounding Plane. I already had all of these from previous work apart from the Rounding Plane (chairmaker's plane) that is used to make the round tenons on the legs and cross-spars. It is possible to use a pole lathe for this but as the wood isn't often straight it becomes more difficult. Of course it is possible to make straight legs rounded with a pole lathe and then it is a simple matter to cut the round tenons. I purchased a Rounding Plane made by Ray Lles (3/4 inch) (the Ashen Crafts ones are no longer available as new).

I made the top pieces by first cutting into cuboids with an axe and then selecting the best side for the top used a draw-knife and then roughing plane to remove wood to get a fairly flat surface. Finally a used the jointer plane to get a flat surface. I then selected an adjoining surface and did the same but this time using a set-square to get a 90 degrees corner. I then selected a possible thickness and with a marker-gauge marked for the next surface and so on until I had a good shape ready to dry. I wasn't sure how long it wood take to dry so I selected one piece and weighed it at 1 week intervals with it stored in an unheated workshop in the winter (outside temperatures around 10 C). Here are the results:

Week #	Weight/g	% reduction
0	1001
1	973	2.8
2	963	3.8

3                   954                                       4.7
4                   943                                       5.8
5                   943                                       5.8
6                   945                                       5.6
When dry enough, my plan was to finally match the surfaces (with more use of the jointer plane) and  then glue before shaping to a disc but more of that later.

The legs were made from 22 inch length logs split down the middle so the two pieces matched. Each section was cut with a draw-knife to form a rectangular cross section. Then the corners were removed to form an octagonal shape. Further shaping was done with the spokeshave to get a good curvature, uniform thickness and elliptical cross section (as shown in the picture above). Further shaping was done to achieve a leg that was slimmer at the top to accommodate the cylindrical tenon and also at the bottom for standing with ample wood in between for the cross-spar mortices.

This is the first leg that I shaped with 3/4 inch tenon  (2 inches long) cut at the top.

The shape was partly decided by following the grain in the wood so that the bottom of the leg curved out, was thinner at the top and bottom with the thicker part in the centre for the cross-bars. I refined the shape by first marking a circle 1 inch diameter on the top surface of the leg and then shaving wood to get to that diameter. I then used the rotary plane to produce  a taper and 2 inch long 3/4 inch cylinder for insertion through the stool seat. Two sides of the leg were straight (looking at 90 degrees to the stool) so they were reduced first. The other sides had a curvature at the bottom and the leg also tapered at the bottom. I did most of this reduction by eye with the large spoke shave. I finished off with a small spoke shave and 80/240  grit abrasive. The other two legs were done in the same way but using the first leg as a template to develop the right profile.

I then figured out a way to set the legs through the top. First I made a small jig out of some waste redwood. The purpose of this was to align the auger bit at 10 degrees from the vertical to allow a hole to be drilled through about 5 cm thickness seat.

Jig for assistance in drilling leg holes in the seat. I used a traditional auger bit (11/16 th inch diameter) that was about 18 cm long. The guide hole is 13 cm depth set at 10 degrees to the vertical. Note the pencil line used when aligning the block on the seat before drilling. This line also extends over the front and rear faces of the large block.

The small block on top was predrilled by hand and set into the top of the larger block to a depth of about 1 cm and glued into position. This was then used as a guide to drill though the larger block. A centre line was drawn around the large block to aid positioning of the jig.

The jig was tested using a waste piece of 15 mm thickness pine sawn to a diameter of 12 inches. A circle of diameter 12 inches was scribed on the top and a hexagon drawn with sides 6 inches in length.. From this an equilateral triangle was drawn as shown below.

The seat top showing the geometry defining the position of the legs.  This was only a trial with joined pine wood to test the jig and methodology 

The centre of each side of the triangle was marked to show the position of each leg. The jig was then clamped in position on the seat so that the drill contacted the marked position and also aligned in a direction facing an apex of the hexagon to the rear and front of the block (the line also going through centre underneath the block). A board was also clamped to prevent break-through when drilling by hand.

The trial seat with legs partly inserted. With the actual ash seat (about 5 cm thick), the top of the legs will go through the seat and be wedged with beech. Also the stool will have two ash strechers to strenghten it.

I will continue the construction when the seat timber is dry enough.

After about 2 months (see drying table shown above) I decided to continue with the top. I planed the boards with the jointing plane and then joined with glue and dowel pegs. I positioned the dowels using dowel pins to get good alignment. Once set, I planed the top and bottom of the seat to get level and flat with particular attention to the top of the seat. I then used a scribe to find the seat centre and work out the maximum diameter of the seat. I then marked the centre and scribed the seat top. The next job was to cut the seat cylinder using a traditional turning saw. I had tried an electrical jig saw but the seat thickness was too much for the blade and the turning saw was easy going. After that I used a block plane to trim the seat edge to the correct scribed diameter and the smoothing plane to remove any excess wood from the underside of the seat so that it was a uniform thickness.
I then marked out the top of the seat for the leg holes. I did this by drawing an equilateral triangle with the apices on the edge of the circle defining the seat diameter (see picture below). I found it difficult to mark the internal angles of 60 degrees so instead calculated the length of the triangle side (radius from the scribe x square root (3)) and marked the three points. Marking the triangle, the legs holes were marked half-way along each side. I then placed the drill jig with the bit protruding to the mark, clamped it in the correct position and drilled through to a back board. This worked well.

Stool top after gluing boards together and making leg holes. The top has to be shaped and prepared for making the leg stretchers.

I then marked bevels on the top and underside of the seat using the scribe (about 6 mm from edge) and with a marking gauge marked about 6 mm from the top and 1 cm on the edge side of the seat. I planed these with a block plane and tidied with a large spoke shave.

The next step was to prepare a stretcher between two of the legs. To do this I installed the legs to the correct positions and marked their orientation on the tops. I then judged a vertical position of the stretcher that looked right and measured the distance from the bottom of the seat and marked this on both legs. I put the stool on the bench with the seat at the bottom and legs up. Because the legs are slightly different I was careful to locate the centre for the holes for the stretcher on the inside of the legs and then mark the line around the leg to estimate the position of the hole on the outside.  This line needed to be horizontal (i.e. parallel to the floor) and hence at an angle to the surface of the leg. I also estimated this angle with an adjustable square. The next stage was to drill the holes for the stretcher in both legs. This proved straight forward by clamping the leg in a vice and adjusting the angle of the leg in the vice so that the drill would be central on the leg and also horizontal. To do this I used the ratchet on the brace and kept a close eye on the direction of the bit relative to the bench top. Hence it was easy to keep the drill bit horizontal (measure against the bench top) and central on the leg. Once the drill screw pierced the opposite surface, I reversed the leg and drilled from the other side to produce a clean hole.

I made the stretcher by using the draw-knife to make a round blank of about the correct length for the stool. I then shaped it so that the end fitted into the 3/4 inch Rounding Plane and the centre was large enough to accommodate the cross-stretcher. I then used the Rounding Plane to shape the ends of the stretcher to a depth of 5 cm (the diameter of the legs). Finally, I used a large Spokeshave to shape the stretcher and make it symmetrical ready for fixing as shown below.

The first stretcher installed ready to mark the second one. It is of course necessary to remove the legs to install the stretcher. The stretcher still needs to be finished and fitted with glue and wedges.

The cross stretcher was made in a similar way but this time the hole in the first stretcher was made smaller (9/16 th inch) because of the smaller diameter of the stretcher compared with the legs. I formed the shape of this on the pole lathe, reducing the last 1 1/2 inches to 9/16 th measured with Vernier calipers. I then used the 3/4 inch Rounding Plane for the other side of the stretcher and shaped the rest with the large Spokeshave. Obviously it is important to measure the distance between the leg and the first stretcher so that the uniform diameters at the end of the new stretcher extend far enough. In fact it would have been easier to make the whole stretcher with the lathe although the oval shape at the centre of the stretcher would have been lost. It only remained to drill the appropriate holes. This seemed a little daunting at first because of the non-regular shape of the legs and the angles involved. However it was straight forward, basically putting the stool together to the marks previously made, and then finding the centre of the first stretcher and using a steel ruler and spirit level to locate the centre on the opposite leg. I then used a plastic flexible ruler to mark the opposite side of the stretcher and leg and sliding bevel to get the angle on the leg. The holes were drilled with a brace using the work bench and sliding bevel to judge the angles and direction.

The stool legs with both stretchers installed and ready for finishing and installation with beech wedges.

Now (beginning of July) five months later and the parts were left in the workshop over the winter and spring. It only remained to put the stool together, install wedges in the joints, glue and finish.

Finished stool after treating with Shellac, Dutch Oil and Wax. 

The final construction was made more complicated because the Ash had dried further after shaping and making the joints. I made the mistake of making the joints prior to complete drying and so the tenons were smaller than ideal. Although I had left them two month to dry, that is clearly not enough or perhaps the higher temperatures in the Spring and Summer had some effect. With the foot-stool (see below), I made the tenons after the wood was dried longer and obtained a snug-fit.  Also the top had moved a little and had to be planed flat again. In retrospect, the top should have been joined after drying. In future when working with greenwood, I will do the main roughing-out and pole lathe work with the fresh wood and then allow it the dry slowly by sealing the end grain. After drying I will then do the joinery. Assessing the dryness of the wood is pretty crucial to the joinery.

 In all it was a challenge to take a log of Ash and use the intrinsic shape to make the curved legs and choose wood for the top. By splitting the log I was able to get some matching symmetry for two of the legs. The geometry to get the mortices correct is difficult but possible given some flexibility in the placement of the stretchers.

Square footstool.

I also decided to use some of the ash to make a square footstool of similar design to the solid seat stool described in the book by Jack Hill ("Country Chair Making"). For this I used the three larger timbers described above and joined them with dowels. First I got the surfaces square using the jointing plane and then used dowel pins to locate the holes for the dowels. The boards were then cut to approximately the chosen size (about 9 x 9 inches) and then glued / clamped. When the top was dry I marked out the top and planed the main surfaces flat, first with the roughing plane and then the smoothing plane. The final board was 1 3/8 inch thick and 9 x 9 inches and perfectly square.

I didn't follow the dimensions given in Hill's book for positioning the leg. I increased the angle from 20 degrees to 25 degrees and then calculated the position of the legs across the diagonals. This was 3.1 inches on the bottom side of the seat and 3.7 inches on the top (measured from the corners of the seat) with a stool height of 8 inches.

The footstool seat with one of the leg holes drilled. A new drill guide was made (shown on the right) using some waste beech so that it could be clamped to the top of the seat with the centre line along the diagonal.

Drilling a leg hole using a 1 inch auger and jig to get the correct angle.

I then made the four stool legs using silver birch branches. These were from some pruning from a nearby orchard and about 4 inches diameter with the bark on. I decided to shape these on the pole lathe. I cut them to about 11 inches in length and used the axe to remove the bark and side branches. I then marked the centres and turned about 2 cm on each end on the lathe and then used a draw-knife to make a cylinder between the two turned ends. I then turned the legs (I was aiming for a stool height of 8 inches) allowing 2 inches for the tenons (I turned to 1 1/8 inches to allow for shrinkage) and shaped so the maximum diameter of 1 1/2 inches was 4 1/2 inches from the top of the stool. I turned the lower part of the leg to mirror the upper and reducing to 1 1/8 inches at the foot of the stool and allowed about 1 inch spare to adjust the height as needed.

Silver Birch stool legs immediately after turning. The top tenons are shown at the bottom. The ends of the legs were coated with beeswax and put in a paper bag to dry together with some shavings from the lathe. The plan is to refine the legs when they are dry and make the 1 inch tenons accurately with a rounding plane. The legs can still be mounted on the lathe for adjustments and sanding as needed.

Now about five months later having left the wood in the workshop over the winter and spring. I prepared the top of the stool using a scraper and sand paper down to 350 grit. Because of the varied grain pattern, the scraper worked better than a plane. I put the legs back on the lathe to do the final preparation of sanding and marked two concentric rings with the skew chisel. The legs had not cracked or distorted but the top of the stool had a slight concave that I rectified by planing.  The next step was to use the 1 inch rounding plane to form the final shape of the tenons. I had to use a spoke-shave to get the slope on the legs to fit the plane as without doing this the plane caused some tearing of the wood. I did one leg first and from this did more work on the pole lathe to shape the upper part of the other legs for use with the rounding plane. Each leg was then fitted into the mortices by making fine adjustments to the tenons using sandpaper to get a close fit. 

The stool was then put together and the lines for the wedges to fit the legs were marked so that they went across the grain of the top to avoid splitting the top when tightened. I prepared wedges from some waste beech, sawed the wedge-cut in the tenons, glued the legs in position and inserted the wedges. It was then only a matter of sawing off the waste from the top of the legs, chiselling them to fit flush with the top and doing the final preparations before treating with Shellac and Dutch oil.

Foot stool; Ash top and Silver Birch legs. 

Bowl Turning with a Pole Lathe

I thought I'd put a few thoughts down on my development of bowl carving with a pole lathe. I have being using a pole lathe for a few years now, mainly turning spindles for different projects. I made my own lathe from a design similar to design from the "Association of Pole Lather Turners" and this has the usual headstocks with the one on the right having an adjustable pin so that the work is held tight when turning. With spindle work, this seems to be important as often the spindle works itself loose making progress impossible so you soon get into the habit of checking the tightness when you are turning.

Pole lathe made for spindle turning.

The lathe is easily dismantled as it does not have glued joints or screws and depends on a set of bolts that hold it in position very firmly. I designed my own adjustable tool-rest using pine dovetailed with a strip of oak where the tools actually rest when turning. This has worked very well and I have turned several types of wood including beech (kiln dried and green), oak, alder, birch, rhododendron, ash, box, elder, sycamore and field maple.

More recently, after moving to Devon, I did a course with Sharif Adams in Dartmoor using the pole lathe to make bowls. This was a one day course and covers a lot of information. During the day I made a bowl from beech a great experience and I can thoroughly recommend the course. In addition Sharif has made a series of videos going through all the steps of turning and also sharpening the tools.

 I soon realised that my set-up for spindle turning wasn't going to be suitable for bowl turning and I needed heavier headstocks and ironware to hold the bowl. The spindle tool rest was not adjustable enough and so a new tool rest was needed. However, I don't have room for two pole lathes and as the lathe I made was basically quite bulky and sturdy, I decided to make new headstocks using the iron ware from Sharif. He also makes the tip-up and tip-down chisels and runs courses to make the tools as well but I bought mine from him a few months after the course. With new headstocks, it would be relatively easy to change from bowl turning to spindle turning by changing the headstocks and tool supports. Another difference I noted was that most of the bowl turners take the cord that wraps around the mandrel directly from above so that the cord attaching to the bungee (or pole if you have one) is vertical. The mandrel attaches to the bowl and together with the paracord, drives the bowl so that you get about two and half turns per push down on the treadle.

My first beech bowl made on the course. Centre stub still to remove.

First I made the headstocks so they fitted the lathe and provided enough mass and bulk to hold the bowl blanks. I used epoxy resin to hold the tips and made sure they were in line with each other.

New headstocks with adjustable tool rest.

The next job was making some mandrels to attach to the bowl for turning. I used some ash wood that I turned on the spindle lathe, one larger one, about 2 inches diameter and 11 inches long and a smaller one for smaller bowls about 1 1/2 inches diameter and 8 inches long. I made the smaller one so that it attached to the bowl  blank by a cylindrical tenon joint about 1 in long and 3/4 in diameter. The corresponding mortice had to be drilled to the right depth in the bowl top. The other mandrel was made to attach by four spikes that were then used to penetrate the blank and hold it in position.  I drilled vertical pre-holes into the flat end of the mandrel, one in the centre and three at 120 degrees. Using large screws (70 x 5 mm) with no threads near the head, I screwed them in place with the centre one protruding more than the others and then sawed the heads off at an angle (to make a chisel end) and all facing in the same direction. The longer central screw (placed in the central hole made when turning the spindle) made it easier to place the mandrel in the centre hole of the blank before hammering the rest of the spikes. I guessed the mandrel would hold better if the spikes were hammered in with the chisel ends across the grain of the wood of the blank. The outside spikes protruded 2.2 cm, useful to know when undercutting the core!

The large Ash mandrel with spikes in place. Note that I have enlarged the mandrel diameter near the headstock end to help keep the cord in place.

I'm not going to say much about the cutting tools as they are covered in Sharif Adams Blog. The two I bought were the "tip-up" tool with the cutting edge on the left with the tip facing up and used for most of the turning, and a "tip-down" tool used with the tip facing down and the cutting edge on the other side.. I made some Ash handles from a quarterised log of Ash, again setting the irons in place using a tight fit with epoxy resin and treating with linseed oil. These should last a few years if the tip are protected.

"Tip-up"cutting tool all ready to go (I hope!)

Close up of the "tip-up"

First attempt at a small bowl.

I'm just going to go through how I got on with my first "solo" bowl. This will give you some idea of the problems I faced as a novice and the stages.

Close to the source of the birch tree that was previously felled and available.

I used a log of downy birch I had obtained from Scotland in the summer so it had been sitting around outside for a while and had the start of some spalting where the wood had started to decay but not of course rotten in any way. I chopped a blank and set-in the mandrel with a mortice and tenon joint so it gave a very tight fit.

The small downy birch bowl with mandrel attached.  This is my first attempt at forming the outside of the bowl.

I used the "Tip-up" tool to shape the outside but had some difficulty because the bowl wasn't very symmetrical and I seem to get a lot of scraping action rather than fine peeling. From this I decided that the cutting edge wasn't sharp enough as I tried different cutting angles. I also found that I needed to wrap the cord around twice to get a decent grip on the mandrel. I then tried a leather strap around the mandrel (Chlorino Chromnylon belt, LL1, 3000x10 mm from George Lodge and Sons, Hull)) and found this gave a more positive drive.

My first attempt at the base using the "Tip-down" tool to form the stub and cut the slightly concave base and then "Tip-up" tool to get a smoother finish. More work to get a better finish is needed, so work in progress. Some nice spalting detail is visible.

Made a rough rim with "Tip -up" and started the inside of the bowl using "Tip-down" near the centre and "Tip-up" going down hill starting in centre region and working out.

The "Tip-up" tool wasn't as sharp as the "Tip-down" so I bought a DMT diamond conical sharpener, extra fine and used this on the inside and a small extra fine flat diamond on the outside keeping the outside surface perfectly flat. I then cut the rim using this tool and at last got some nice fine shavings.

Next I made an initial attempt on the bowl using the "Tip down" tool to excavate near the mandrel and by twisting the blade so that I was using the edge nearer the tip, and brought depression towards the outside. I then used the "Tip up" chisel to gradually move the hollow to the outside by starting near the lip of the depression and moving to the centre but stopping where the curvature went uphill. To my relief this was easier and I was able to produce some nice fine continuous shavings.

The next step was to excavate again near the mandrel and extend the mandrel cylinder further into the bowl. I found this difficult with my lathe set-up as to get a good angle the tool was operating close to the rim and that meant I had to change pushing legs and move to the left. I also found it important to move the tool rest closer to the bowl.  I think the most important lesson so far is that, with both tools, you need to get the tool touching the wood so it isn't cutting (back face to the wood) and than then make a slight twist to start the cutting. Anyway, I stopped at this stage to revise my progress and also to rearrange the lathe to make it more comfortable to use.

In desperation with the bad weather including continual rainfall, I moved the lathe into my workshop. It just fits and allows me to continue indoors at a leisurely pace.  I continued to smooth out the outside of the bowl but found one section very tough as it was ripping the grain. I also included some channels using the 'Tip down' tool around the outside to add some individual character . I also made a rim to the bowl with a chamfer to the outside and continued excavating the inside, firstly removing material from the core with the "Tip down" and then using the other tool to move from the bottom inside of the bowl (at about the 7 o'clock position) towards the centre (fixed pivot on the tool rest) and then moving into towards the core. This also involves pulsing and rotating the tool to get the optimum contact with the wood. The birch was by now fairly dry and hence hard to work compared with the beech I'd used on the course. I finished the inside with the "Tip down" tool with the nose on the wood and a slight twist to get a nice cut. Working from the outside this produced a good finish. It also enabled me to go close to the core and also reduce the core from the side with the tool almost touching the top edge of the bowl. I found that it was impossible to get good contact with the core in this way as the angle was too steep and the blade kept digging into the core. I tried the 'Tip up' tool to work at the base of the core and this was more successful in removing material without snagging. Eventually the blade cut through to the mandrel tenon and I was able to break off the core from the bowl without any difficulty (the diameter of the core was less then an inch).

Finally I cut off the remaining core in the centre of the bowl and on the outside with a gauge and skew knife ready for further drying and treatment with walnut oil.

Bowl carved ready for further drying and treatment with Walnut oil. It is about 100 mm diameter and carved from a section of  Downy Birch I collected in Scotland in the summer of this year. This is the first bowl made without the watchful eye of Shariff Adams

Bowl after drying for a week and three treatments with walnut oil.

Second attempt making a small bowl.

I found a quartered log of Ash freshly felled that looked suitable for making a shallow bowl. The wood seemed quite dry (I think the water content of Ash is low even when green). I roughly shaped it using a hand axe and saw followed by a roughing or scrub plane to get the top and base flat. After this I scribed a circle 16 cm in diameter for the top and 7cm diameter for the bottom. I then mounted the blank on the larger of the two mandrels (two inch diameter) with the chisel edges of the spikes across the grain for better anchorage. This is where the longer spike in the centre of the mandrel was useful as it allowed me to position the mandrel in the dead centre of the scribing point. I estimated the centre on the bottom by rotating the blank balanced on the top centre and adjusting the bottom point to give a smooth rotation. I will play with the bottom point when the weather is dry and I can do this on the pole lathe. As I haven't any fixed plans for the shape yet apart from the fact that it will be fairly shallow so it needs a reasonable wide base for stability but this could be less than 7 cm without any problems.

Bottom of bowl roughed-out ready for lathe work. Notice that there is a flat area that I'll need to watch when I start the lathe work and this to an extent will govern the outside diameter of the bowl.

Top of bowl before turning. This looks fairly ideal with about 3/8 inch spare from the line all round.

Bowl on mandrel held with spikes. The blank isn't as symmetrical as I would have liked. The flat rim at the top of the bowl is about 3/4 inch wide

After finishing the small birch bowl, about a month later I continued with the larger Ash bowl. It had been stored in a plastic bag in a box in the workshop (December, so it was cold in there). I decided to follow Shariff Adam's sequence and cut the outside curved surface of the bowl first. The flat area was a nuisance and needed quite a lot of work to get the a clean cut around the outside of the bowl. To start with I did a fairly rough cut around the bowl from my inner circle line and going to the outside edge. The shape more or less formed itself with steep sides near the rim of the bowl. I followed the technique taught by Shariff of cutting with small arcs with a pivot on the rest bar and moving along the bar to the outside of the bowl, The wood felt dry and needed a sharp blade. Once I had a fairly clean cut on the entire external surface my plan was to go on and form the base and stub of the bowl and return later to refine the curved surface and rim of the bowl after sharpening the "Tip-Up"  blade. I can now appreciate that doing the external curved surface of the bowl as the first job allows you to get a feeling for the best shape for the bowl and this in a way determines how you progress with the rest of the bowl.

The Ash bowl after the first session "rough cutting" the exterior curved surface. The wood colour and detail in the bowl are beginning to appear. The next jobs are cutting the base and foot followed by the rim chamfer.

After another session I had made an attempt on the base and foot and started on the rim and inside of the bowl. I couldn't do the rim without first flattening the top with the "Top-up" chisel. I tried a bevel on the rim but it was not good and couldn't get a clean cut. The wood seems very fibrous and tears easily so I suspect I need to get the cutting edge sharper. I used the "Top-down" chisel to get a wider flat rim and so I will see how it develops once I have done the inside.

Outside of the bowl after cutting the base/foot and tidying up the rim and top surface.

Starting to excavate the inside of the bowl.  The wood seems very fibrous and it is difficult to get a clean cut on every surface. The wood is dry and so I stopped and took some time to sharpen the chisels before progressing.

I continued to excavate the bowl, deepen the core and also the steepen the side near the rim of the bowl. Sharpening the chisel improved the cutting and carving was fairly trouble free.

After another short session, the inside of the bowl is starting to take shape. There is still a lot of wood to remove but I won't go too far without improving the finish on the outside.

Then I tidied up the outside and rim of the bowl with the "Tip Up" tool and continued working on the inside until I was satisfied with the shape and wall thickness. At the rim this was about 8 mm. I found the core difficult to deepen because the tool handle caught on the rim when turning the core down. In the end I excavated the core near the bottom with the "Tip Down" tool about 1 cm wide channel being careful not to cut into the bowl bottom. I then used the "Tip Up" tool to deepen the channel below the main core until it was less than 1 inch diameter and ready for breaking. This was below the reach of the nails in the mandrel (a disadvantage in using this type of mandrel is that care is needed not to make contact with the cutting edge of the tool).

Ash bowl ready to dry, now 178 g.

Ash bowl after a few days drying and treating with walnut oil.

Here are a couple of spalted ash soap bowls that I've made. I used the tenon (7/8 inch diameter) mandrel to attach the bowls. They have been treated with Danish oil and will next be treated with polyester resin to make them waterproof. The bottoms have a concave base and rim to allow water to drain. The holes are 7/16 inch diameter. I am still finding the undercutting of the central core difficult but will practice!!

Soap bowls turned from spalted ash wood.

Spalted ash bowl, trying another shape mainly dictated by the blank.

I have included an account of my experiences in the techniques : 
BOWL CARVING…some notes

Introduction

This book is perhaps more of a diary of some of my more recent projects and lays out my experiences tackling different constructions. Sometimes things go wrong and I learn and I can't say the way I've done things is the best way or indeed the only way. It's just what I've done and hopefully this will help and encourage the you to have a go. It is a collection of my experiences in woodworking and in particular green woodworking, a more recent interest.  I can't say I'm an expert in any of this, indeed my career had been in science research and in particular physical chemistry and in later years, the pollution of our environment. My idea is to set-down some of my experiences in using hand tools on various projects in the hope it will help to guide others in developing skills and the use of some of the traditional woodworking tools.

The book covers some aspects of green woodworking including projects using a pole lathe for spindle work and also bowl carving. The lathe I built is sturdy and with a change in the head stocks, is suitable for both spindle work and bowl carving. Other topics include spoon and kuksa carving, making stools both from green wood and dried wood and making frame saws, It also outlines my experiences making long lampstands from greenwood, soap dishes, picture frames from green wood and a rustic mirror frame. I also delve into making tools from kiln dried beech such as try sqaures, marking gauges, bar clamp,  dual screw wooden vices, Dubuque wooden clamps and other wooden clamps, kerfing planes, spokeshaves and garden rakes. Finally some projects making house furniture with ash and beech, sets of side tables from beech, an ash bathroom cabinet and a shoe rack. 

 I have been guided by other authors such as Boz Rozaieski and Paul Sellers and also through short courses around my home village of  Dartington here in Devon, England by Sharif Adams and Felix Kary.  I have acknowledge their help in the appropriate sections.

 Right from an early age I have practised woodworking and mainly with a selection of hand tools. My father helped in this of course and I recall making a variety of things from the old orange boxes that had thick sides making them a source of wood in those days. The tools were simple such as a panel saw, tenon saw, chisels, mallet, brace, bits and oil stone that I recall and I have to say, took for granted. My formal education, for want of a better description, was at Tuxford secondary school in the late 50s when the boys did woodwork or metal work and the girls needle work and cookery. I'm afraid, for me, it was not a great success as woodwork was the only subject that a disliked and even thought of skiving from school on woodwork days (usually half a days lesson). To this day, I'm not sure why because the teacher was I think good but for some reason I felt he disliked me and thought I was hopeless with my hands.  I don't know about that but I tended to be more academic than my classmates. Putting on that white wood working apron was not a pleasant feeling for me.

Apart from some skills I undoubtable picked up, I recall the correct way to handle tools and more importantly, put them down so the blades were not damaged. Putting them in the store cupboard the wrong way meant I found a piece of wood flying across the workshop in my direction. I also remember the hide glue and the pot simmering on the teachers desk with that distinctive smell. I still have one of the first things I made at school, a small wooden holder for chisels and it hasn't yet fallen to pieces. At home I did some carpentry connected with an aviary and hobby for a few years before I left for University.

I followed an academic career but at Technical College at Newark, I did further woodwork for an exam and I really enjoyed this. We did subjects like engineering drawing and also geometry as separate subjects and these fitted in well with woodwork. I got on well with the teacher and he had a more relaxed attitude and encouraged us to design and then find ways to make the items. I recall a bookcase with hidden dovetails that I was proud of and this stayed with my mum for many years. It was designed have a sliding glass on the front, but I never got that finished I think because of the cost. I also designed and made a coffee table with ends that curved upwards. I recall finding this challenging although it worked out fine but had to be sold because I couldn't afford it at the time. I also had to do a written project and I chose the structure of different woods. This fell in nicely with my new hobby of photography and developing prints.