Carving Large Bowls 5

Carving
Large Bowls
A Bowl Carving Tutorial Because I like the boat-like shape and growth ring lines on the sides, most of my bowls are formed with the split-down orientation. I carve fairly large bowls, about 7"-10" wide and 16"-30" long. Height at the handles ranges from 3"-7". For the bowl in this article, and an upcoming class that I'll be teaching, I felled a tulip poplar tree that was 14" in diameter at the base. # Saw a section of the log slightly longer than the bowl you will be making. Find a section that is free of knots, at least on one side of the log. The bowl I'm carving in the photos is 23" long. Study the cut log to determine where to split it. The split is always through the pith, but it could be at any orientation. Examine the endgrain at both ends, looking for rot and incipient cracks. If there is a small split emanating from the pith, you should consider extending this split to form the two halves. Lacking an existing split, you can look at the shape (it will seldom be really round) to decide where to make the split. If the log has any splits that are circumferential-following the growth rings-reject it. This is known as a wind check, and it could run through the full blank, even though it's only visible at one end. Use one or two wedges and a sledge hammer to split the log (6,7). Always wear eye protection for this operation. Use a well-sharpened axe to hew off the bark (8). For safety, your hand that supports the log should always be behind the surface being hewed. I also use a wide stance, with my right leg positioned back from the hewing stump-just in case I miss the bowl blank during a swing of the axe. In my opinion, an axe is the most dangerous hand tool. Use a water-soluble pencil to draw layout lines on the ends to indicate the bottom surface and the top of the bowl (9). (In the photo, the bowl blank is upside down.) The line passing beneath the pith will be the bottom of the finished bowl. This line should clear the pith by about 1/2". Use a level to draw these lines so that they are parallel at each end of the blank. Prop the log edgewise. Use a chalk line to snap lines along the length of the blank (10). You must pull the string straight up; otherwise you'll snap a curve that is out of plane with the penciled lines at the ends. Hew the bottom and top surfaces. First chop a series of scoring kerfs into the log at an angle of about 30° to the log. Follow up by hewing at a close angle (11). The axe is held so that the inner bevel is parallel to the surface being hewed. You could use a broad hatchet (an axe having a blade with one bevel-to the outside-and a flat plane on the inner side). For this bowl I did all of the hewing with a symmetrically beveled "sloyd axe" designed by Wille Sundqvist. Stop hewing about 1/8" above the layout lines. (You don't want to risk making any accidental scoring kerfs deeper than the final surface.) Next Page Country Workshops Home Page

E-mail:
Drew Langsner
Phone:
828-656-2280 (M-F, 9-6 Eastern time)