With the new Nova Comet II midi lathe and Nova G3 50mm scroll chuck, I only lacked a couple of decent bowl gouges to get started turning some small bowl forms. I also added a Rikon 1/2 HP low speed grinder and Oneway Wolverine Grinding System to maintain sharp edges on my lathe tools. After watching lots of videos from accomplished wood turners like Stuart Batty and Ashley Harwood, it was time to attempt to turn some firewood into bowls. Then I made my first mistake …

I had two cherry logs from my brother, and decided to turn them into a bunch of bowl blanks for rough turning. My mistake was cutting out over twenty bowl blanks all at one time, and then almost literally watching them split and crack as I turned the first few to prepare them for drying. I should have left the logs intact, only cutting one or two blanks at a time, so I could immediately turn them to a uniform wall thickness in their green state, and set them aside for drying.

I will add to the images below as I learn, practice, and no doubt, make more (hopefully different) mistakes.