Woodturning Large Ash Bowl – What’s Not To Love
by Alan Stratton on Friday, December 27th, 2019 | 2 Comments
This video is also posted on YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook. Best right here.
This block of ash was freshly cut last June when I received it in my club wood exchange. I love turning fresh wet wood – except for the part where I have to wait for it to dry.
Well, I turned it rough and thick leaving plenty of wall thickness expecting it to warp. I’ll need that thickness to turn it round again once it is dry. When I finished it, I counted it with a green wood sealer, “Wood Saver” from Craft Supplies USA.
Then it rested, and rested, and rested, in my office. Periodically, I weighed it and recorded the date and time. When it stayed near the same weight, it was ready to finish.
The bowl is 13″ diameter and 3″ high, finished with walnut oil.
Enjoy!
Alan, I like large bowls too and like you I find it hard to find large wood. However recently I completed a large cottonwood bowl that I let dry for almost two years. It became very hard, not fun to turn, but in the end quite beautiful with some interesting burl on one wall.
Now I have a very large piece of redwood to turn, but it too will need to be twice turned as it is very wet.
Alan so right on, find bowl turning(making)so therapeutic, large wood is not so difficult to come by here in the Adirondacks but the market for such bowls is so I don’t make them as much anymore so consequently have a basement full of blanks over 10 years old. Glad that people like Mike Mahoney, Glenn Lucas are you still out there sparking my interests after more than 50 years of turning.