Small soap bowl turned from ash

 I have turned a couple of soap bowls using ash greenwood and also carved some rectangular ones. I thought I'd just remind myself of the process as we needed a couple more bowls.

I started with a log of spalted ash and sawed, chopped and chiselled a blank as usual. The wood was hard and not the easiest to turn but it all adds to the experience. I adjusted the arm rest on the lathe to get the tool in a good position and also released some tension on the bungy cord (it was taut because the previous job had been a large hefty bowl which needed a bit of muscle to turn). I attached a tenon mandrel and started turning the outside of the bowl and base including a plinth and concave shape as shown below.

Roughing out the outside with TU tool. The ash is spalted but hard.

I did the outside with a slight bulge around the centre.

Turning the centre was challenging because of the lack of space between the core and the inside. The photo shows the use of the cranked tool (double sided UP tool).

 

The inside of the bowl was  turned with the TD tool near the centre and then the TU to shape the rim and inside. I had the usual problem with the core but the cranked tool (as shown above) helped excavate the bowl. This was difficult because of the space between the core and inside of the bowl. I think I will make a smaller diameter mandrel for the small bowls as this will make the excavation easier.

When the inside was deep enough I decided to chisel the core out and release the mandrel. I guess this would be frowned on by traditionalists but to me it made sense not to risk damaging the bowl at this stage. This proved to be easy taking care to work across the grain when close to the base.

The soap bowl after finishing ( 8 cm diameter and 5 cm depth.)

After this I turned another soap bowl with another section of the spalted ash log but made this a wider diameter and shallow. I used the same tenon mandrel. This turned easier than the small deeper bowl shown above because access to the inside of the bowl was easier although removing the core was still very difficult and I need more practice with reducing the core to a small enough diameter to allow an easy break across the grain.

Larger diameter ash soap bowl (about 13 cm diameter and 3.5 cm depth)

Bowl turning on Pole Lathe- large ash bowl.

 I decided to try making another bowl on the pole lathe using a large ash log that had been felled last summer and left in the woods until removing in December (2020) and stored in my workshop until now. This is the largest bowl that I have tried (about 8 inches diameter) and I know that ash is not the easiest wood to use for bowls because of the "stringy" nature of the grain but I felt like a challenge especially as the wood had spalted and should produce some interesting effects that are totally unpredictable.

The start of the turning process on the outside.

The top of the bowl blank before turning.

The log was split in half and shaped for the lathe. This was difficult because the wood was hard and the final shape wasn't as good as I'd have liked. However, I made some final adjustments after starting the turning. A large mandrel was used and nailed into the blank. 

 I started by shaping roughly the outside with the TU tool and then the base with the TD and TU tools to produce a rim and a slight concave to the centre. The weight and size of the blank made the turning hard work but I knew this would get easier as the wood was removed !

After roughing the outside, the inside was started...a long way to go at this stage.

After some more turning the base is in sight. The rim and outside still need a lot of refinement.

As you can see, I kept the core diameter slightly larger than the mandrel so that I didn't risk breaking. From making other bowls I have always found it difficult to reduce the core diameter. I used the TD tool as much as possible to remove wood near the base of the core and in addition I now have a double edged cranked tool made by Ben Orford that makes excavation near the core easier but I found needs skill to use it - still working on that!

The  "cranked" tool on the right used to reduce the core

One change I did make was to lower the support arm on the lathe as I needed to work more at 6 to 7 OC and this was difficult with the arm high. I have made it more adjustable so that its vertical position can be changed according to the size of the bowl being turned. Ben Orford's videos on bowl turning were useful in judging the relative position of the bowl and arm.

I always find it difficult to judge the depth of bowls but this time I used a large caliper to get the sides about right; the bottom was more difficult but I tried for about 3/8 inch. I used the TD and TU tool to remove some of the core well below the nails of the mandrel. Use of the TD tool became impossible without scraping the rim of the bowl so I tried the cranked tool and it did do the job eventually but I need a lot more practice. The trick is to get the right angle but I kept snagging and when it did work, the sound wasn't pleasant. I sanded the rim and outside and burnished with shavings. Anyway when I got the core down to 1 inch diameter I used a chisel to reduce it a little further (scared of breaking the base) and then broke off the core across the grain.

The broken core still attached to the mandrel

The inside of the bowl after chiselling the remains of the core away. Some spalting and pink colouration evident on the wood.

The outside of the finished bowl. 

The base of the bowl showing the rim and concave base.

The bowl was dried slowly in a paper bag with shavings and then left in a cold workshop after coating with walnut oil.

A smaller bowl was also made from the same log of ash. This went straight forward and produced something that resembled a cereal bowl.

Another ash bowl ready for drying.

The last piece of the ash log was used to make a top for a steel jar and a small bowl. As always I had difficulty reducing  the centre core before breaking it off.

Reducing the centre core before breaking off. The ash was pretty dry having been in the workshop for about 18 months.

Small cereal bowl or similar. Not much sign of spalting on this section of the ash log. 

Side view of the same bowl  before treating with walnut oil.