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.

Cherry firewood log split in half

Preparing cherry log bowl blank

Cherry bowl blank mounted on wormscrew and supported by tailstock

Rough shaping a cherry bowl blank

Formed recess for expanding 2″ diameter scroll chuck jaws

Forming the finished bowl without a proper bowl gouge

Spray finished first bowl attempt with Deft

Load of fresh sawn cherry from my brother, John’s house

Large cherry turning stock

Hand sawing cherry logs into lengths for bowl blanks

Several lengths of cherry logs

Sawing debarked cherry log sections on the bandsaw with a board screwed to the side as a guide

Sawn cherry log sections

Preparing a batch of small bowl blanks from small diameter cherry logs

Bandsawing half log sections to bowl blank lengths

Big batch of cherry log bowl blanks ready for the next step. BTW, it was a huge mistake to prepare so many bowl blanks. They should be rough turned immediately after being prepared.

Pilot holes for mounting blanks on the wormscrew held in the scroll chuck

Using the wormscrew pilot hole as a pivot point to bandsaw each blank into a roughly circular shape

With the bandsaw table tilted, a rough outside bowl shape was produced, reducing the amount of material to be removed on the lathe

Side view of bandsaw table tilted, with pivot point clamped to table

View of bowl blank with conically bandsawn sides

Rough shaping the outside of a bowl blank, after acquiring my very first bowl gouge

Push cuts with a sharp bowl gouge produced satisfying piles of shavings

First blank rough turned with an actual bowl gouge

The goal of rough turning is a uniform wall thickness so moisture can escape relatively uniformly

Benjamin’s Best 5/8″ bowl gouge with a swept back wing grind

Not sure I’m making wooden bowls or just piles of wood shavings

A second round of rough turned bowl blanks

Outside of a rough turned bowl blank with 2″ diameter tenon for chucking

More rough-tuned blanks for the second batch of bowls

Rough-turning another bowl blank

Second set of blanks, rough turned from the logs that didn’t split too badly, ready for drying in the garden shed

Sawdust and shavings have always been a major product of Marietta Wood Works

First batch of rough-turned cherry bowls drying in the garden shed

Temperatures at the upper parts of the garden shed often reach wood-drying kiln temperatures in the summertime

Open wire shelving allows plenty of airflow around drying rough-turned bowl

After about three months of drying in the garden shed, the first batch of rough-turned bowls are ready for final turning

Reverse view of my work area, with bowl blanks in various stages on the workbench

Rough-turned and dried bowl blank chucked and ready for finish turning

First bowl from a dried, rough-turned blank, cut with a proper bowl gouge,, and friction finished with Aussie Oil

New Cole jaws mounted on the Nova G3 scroll chuck

Finished bowl mounted in Cole chuck for turning and finishing its bottom

Side view of finished bowl mounted in Cole jaws

Bottom tenon removed and bottom of bowl sanded and ready for friction finishing

Completed bowl bottom

First completed bowl using a more proper sequence of roughing, drying, and final turning

Side view of ~5″ diameter cherry bowl

Reverse view with various blanks and tools

Finish turning another cherry bowl in process

Ready for final cuts on the inside

Finished bowl chucked in Cole jaws for bottom finishing work

Finished cherry bowl with Aussie Oil friction finish applied

A lot of work and process steps go into making a finished bowl from a log destined for the fireplace!