Carve a Bowl from a Board

Synopsis: David Fisher has designed a bowl that may be carved from a dry 8/4 board and labored on a typical workbench. On this article, he shares step-by-step directions for crowning the highest, laying out the handles and the hole, carving the hole, refining the hole, creating the aspect curves, and shaping the underside. All of the work is finished with hand instruments. In a separate Handwork piece, Fisher shares his method for including an ornamental carved tree.

No log, no axe, no downside. Many bowl carvers (I occur to be amongst them) usually work with wooden break up inexperienced from a log and do their carving with the clean on a chopping block and a bowl horse. However this bowl might be carved from dry lumber and labored on a typical workbench. You should use nearly any species of wooden to make it; I used butternut for this one. You’ll save your self some hassle by choosing a transparent, knot-free board with no fancy determine. In case your plank is oversize, I recommend that you simply start by trimming it to 2 in. thick, 6 in. vast, and 21 in. lengthy. That mentioned, the size within the plans are simply adaptable.

Flatten the underside, crown the highest, curve the edges

Begin the bowl by flattening the underside of the clean with a hand airplane. Then strike a longitudinal centerline on the underside from finish to finish. With a sq., lengthen the centerline up each end-grain surfaces. Utilizing your fingers as a gauge, draw a line alongside either side 7/16 in. down from the highest.

On the tip grain, draw a good arc from the tip of these strains as much as the middle of the clean. Then with a drawknife and/or a hand airplane, take away the wooden above these strains, giving the clean a gently arched high.

Lay out the handles and the hole

Now the format of the handles and the hole can start. Mark a lateral centerline throughout the clean’s curved higher floor, and carry this line down the edges and throughout the underside. Along with your pencil compass set for a 10-1/2-in. radius, place its level on the intersection of the centerlines on high and strike an arc throughout every finish of the bowl clean. These arcs symbolize the ends of the handles. Reset the compass to 7 in. after which strike two extra arcs from the clean’s heart level. These symbolize the ends of the hole.

You’re now able to outline the curved sides of the bowl. Set the compass to 2-5/16 in. and place its level on the heart of the deal with arc at one finish of the bowl. Strike tick marks throughout the deal with arc to either side. Repeat on the opposite finish of the clean. Set the compass to a 3-in. radius, place its level on the clean’s heart level, and strike tick marks throughout the lateral centerline. These tick marks offer you three factors on both sides of the bowl, one representing the widest level of the bowl and two representing the corners. Join these three factors utilizing a pencil and a drawing bow. You should buy a drawing bow or simply make one from a slat of wooden or a steel rule and a size of string or tape. Regulate the flex of the bow till it creates an arc that passes by all three factors. This arc is the skin fringe of the bowl.

Now mark the aspect of the hole in the identical approach. Along with your compass set to 2-11/16 in. and its level on the heart of the clean, strike tick marks throughout either side of the lateral centerline. Reset the compass to a 2-1/16-in. radius and make tick marks throughout the arcs on the ends of the hole. Join these marks with the drawing bow and a pencil to create the aspect borders of the hole.

Around the corners of the hole subsequent, both drawing by hand or utilizing a portion of a French curve. The nook curves ought to merge with the arcs of the edges and ends seamlessly. You may make marks on the French curve itself to make sure you’re utilizing the identical portion to spherical every of the 4 corners.

Carve the hole

To carve the hole, you’ll want one or two bent gouges (generally referred to as long-bents). I like to recommend an 8/30 (#8 sweep 30mm vast) and a 5/25, however the same mixture may work simply as effectively. For those who can solely have one, go together with the #8.

Safe the bowl clean on the workbench and start hollowing by making an preliminary trench throughout the middle of the bowl utilizing the #8 bent gouge and a mallet. This may solely be perhaps 1/2 in. deep on the heart. Then, working with the grain (perpendicular to the ditch), make a sequence of side-by-side cuts into the ditch ranging from 2 or 3 in. again. These chips will launch once they meet the ditch. Do that from each instructions, then repeat the process. Every time, the cross-grain trench will get deeper and the tip cuts will get deeper and can begin nearer to the ends of the hole. Whenever you start to marvel how a lot wooden is left underneath that trench, take a second to measure utilizing a straightedge alongside the highest and a rule extending down into the middle of the hole. Cease once you get near 1-3/4 in. You wish to go away about 1/4 in. of wooden on the backside heart when the hole is completed. As you form the hole, take into account that it ought to be steep on the edges and transition to a shallow central space.

When nearing the ultimate floor, put the mallet apart and change to paring cuts, utilizing your physique weight to propel the gouge in easy actions, elevating or decreasing the deal with to manage the depth of minimize. The #5 gouge, with its flatter curve, will go away a extra delicate floor, particularly within the flatter central areas alongside the size of the hole. Work with the grain from each ends, being cautious to take gentle cuts the place the grain path merges throughout the middle. I favor to go away the floor straight from the gouge, however should you’d wish to scrape or sand the floor easy, that’s an possibility.

Refine the hole

Create the aspect curves

With the hole completed, start on the outside by shaping every of the lengthy sides to a curve. Use a drawknife, probably adopted by a block airplane or spokeshave, and hold the minimize plumb at this level. Then, utilizing your fingers as a gauge, draw a pencil line alongside the aspect, 3/16 in. under the highest.

Form the underside

Now you may lay out the underside of the bowl and the foot. Set the compass to a radius of 1-1/2 in. and strike a circle on the heart of the underside.

The place that circle intersects the lateral centerline is the widest level of the foot. Reset the compass to a 4-7/8-in. radius and place the purpose 10-3/8 in. from the middle. (This will likely be only a smidge in from the tip of the clean, however I’ll name it the endpoint; it’s labeled A on the high of the drawing.) Strike an arc throughout the underside. Repeat on the different finish.

With the drawing bow, draw two arcs, every connecting each endpoints with the widest a part of the foot. Subsequent, draw a gently curved line on the end-grain floor connecting the endpoint to the decrease corners of the deal with.

Holding the bowl on edge in a vise, take away the wooden between the outer line of the foot and the road on the aspect close to the lip of the bowl, all over the tip of the clean. This floor ought to be barely convex in each instructions to reflect the type of the hole. You may go away the floor straight from the drawknife, or end with a spokeshave or block airplane.

Extra excavation beneath

Slightly extra format guides the shaping underneath the handles. Draw a line on the tip grain of the bowl that’s 3/8 in. under, and parallel to, the curved higher floor. On the edges of the bowl, draw a curve by eye from the nook of the foot as much as the decrease nook of the deal with. Now you’re able to carve.

With the bowl the other way up on the bench, take away the majority of the wooden underneath the handles with the #8 gouge and a mallet. Subsequent, form the ends of the handles to an arc, trimming them to the compass strains marked on high. Then redraw the road on the end-grain floor 3/8 in. under the highest. Refine the realm underneath the handles with paring cuts from the #5 gouge, leaving the floor barely concave in each instructions.

Flippantly airplane the foot to take away any marks and to verify the bowl sits evenly. End by freshly planing the higher floor with a pointy and finely set block airplane, leaving the arched high ever-so-slightly faceted. Ease the sharp corners throughout the bowl by creating crisp chamfers with a knife. Take your time, and make gentle cuts.

For those who plan on doing a little ornamental carving on the handles, now’s the time. Then end with a food-safe drying oil. I usually use pure refined linseed oil or a mix of linseed oil and beeswax. Now your bowl is able to serve.

-David Fisher works wooden in Greenville, Pa.

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