W.C. Turner said:
I use Ellsworth's gouge, his grinding jig, and have watched his video hundred's of times, at least, so it seems. I do not enjoy the success he achieves on the video.
Problem is with the outside of the bowl. Also, I failed to mentioned, the wood was Silver Maple, which is in good supply around here. SM, being a softer hardwood, is mostly the problem, I think. W.C.
You have conflicting information, as you see, which is a pretty good indication that neither method works on its own, but rather there is a third option which does. Andy wants water or oil, both of which soften the fiber, though letting the water dry will stand it up, while Wilfred wants Shellac, which fills the gaps and stiffens it. I also note from WC the answers of wax and lacquer. Once again, methods with opposite effects.
Answer is in the first paragraph, I feel. It's the gouge, the grind, and the position. Not owning an Ellsworth gouge or video, I use a large-radius gouge for my final trim. I'm not going to suggest the roughing gouge, which I use often, and which produced the surface on wet wood that you see upper left. No sense opening that can of worms any wider. The wood is soft maple (A rubrum) of our local variety, and if you look closely, there's a bit of tear left of center where I pushed a bit too fast. It's not pick-up, because it's on the laydown side of center.
The wood in the demo is yellow birch, which is perhaps even a bit pickier about fuzzing than soft maple, though harder. The gouge is not in use, rather held in one hand while I juggle with the other to get the picture. I think the shaving path, which is outlined in dust shows the orientation of use well. I cut above center, with the top of the gouge slightly rotated to about 2:00, and the handle down to give the angle shown. Makes the shaving tapered, leaving a feather off the trailing edge of the gouge. The bevel is
not rubbing full width, but rather along a considerable portion parallel to the edge. Slicing, mostly. You can see the curve formed by the gouge in the cutaway to interpret the lean.
The surface slice I took is, as you can see by the annual rings in the last picture, from the right of center, at the pickup zone where you have to cut uphill. It's an easy 150, or a slightly longer 180/220 to begin sanding. Speed of advance along the rest is slow, which leaves close ridges and lets the wood cut itself rather than pushing and potentially crushing it into its fellows. Since I'm not levering with the bevel fully in contact perpendicular to the cut, I get no heel marks from compression either. Soft maple and cherry are real buggers in that regard.
If you're bored, you might want to try something similar. You don't have to bend, because you're cutting slightly above centerline as you would with a spindle, following the progress by looking at the opposite edge. Same cut works inside, from below centerline, with nearly the same posture. Stand upright and following the progress opposite. Can't follow it on the near side anyway, because the shavings pile up so rapidly.
