A large walnut logs got here my manner a pair weeks in the past, and I’ve been busy roughing out a number of issues from it. One in all them might be a giant open spherical bowl, 18 or 19 inches (46-48cm) in diameter. Within the picture above, The pith of the tree is up, bark aspect down. I break up the decrease portion of this half log for an additional bowl clean. I chainsawed the corners off to type a tough circle, then hewed and planed the higher and decrease surfaces flat and parallel, working throughout the grain with the aircraft.
This walnut is inexperienced, stuffed with moisture. Because it dries it can shrink throughout the grain however not with it. If I carve a circle, I’ll find yourself with an oval. So I laid out an oval with a view to find yourself with a circle. I’ve talked about this form of format earlier than, however I believe these marked-up images might make it extra clear.
As an alternative of utilizing one central focus for the compass, I established two focal factors 3/4″ aside from one another alongside the cross-grain heart line. The yellow and blue strains symbolize the radii forming the proper and left boundaries, respectively. The 2 sides are sketched collectively within the space of the inexperienced packing containers. The three/4″ distinction is a hopeful estimate. There are tables with easy shrinkage percentages for varied wooden species, however there are all form of confounding variables at play (what time of yr was the tree harvested, how lengthy has the log been sitting round, variations in particular person timber, and so on.).
I’m assured it can shrink no less than that a lot, possibly a little bit extra. At any price it can find yourself nearer to a circle than it might have in any other case.
For a bowl this huge, I started hollowing with this long-handled adze. I hadn’t used it shortly, however I wrote about it a pair years in the past in this submit.
After way more adzing on the within and axing on the skin, it’s a lot additional alongside now. It’s wrapped in a pair outdated towels to regulate the speed of drying and I’ll preserve my fingers crossed.
In the meantime, I’ve been roughing out extra items from this identical walnut log. One in all my methods for storing inexperienced wooden is to keep away from storing it. Inside cause and when doable, I tough out a bunch of items in succession, then return to them every time it’s handy, after they’ve dried. Above, I’m shaping up a quarter-log clean that ought to turn out to be a hen bowl. And there are a pair extra in-process nearly prepared to start drying. We’ll see all these bowls sometime.