My first natural edge items

[Hy Tran]

Where the natural edge is intentional, as opposed to accidental 😉

Mesquite, still rather green. Done at my friend Rick J's house, about 45 minute drive from mine. I've been missing my lathe (3 hr drive), and have to feed & walk the dogs. Played hooky & went to Rick's house, and hung out; did a natural edge with his coaching.

I'm doing a bit of final hand-sanding and sealing with lacquer (nitrocellulose?) sanding sealer. Haven't decided whether to leave it just sealed, or to further finish.

This was fun!

Mesquite natural edge

• Hy Tran
• Nov 13, 2016

Turned on 11/12/16 at Rick J's house. Still unfinished.

Mesquite natural edge, bottom

• Hy Tran
• Nov 13, 2016

Bottom of mesquite natural edge bowl, turned 11/12/16 at Rick J's house.

 

[Jamie Straw]

That's nice, Hy, I envy you having Mesquite to work, it's a beautiful wood. Why's your lathe so far away, did it go to college?😛 Apologies if you mentioned this in a different thread.

 

[Hy Tran]

My lathe retired. I haven't, so I only get to visit and hang out with it every other weekend, or maybe once a month, depending on work.

 

[hockenbery]

Hy

you have a nice looking bowl.

Good student! good coach!

 

[Gretch Flo]

been a while since I have turned Black Locust. This looks similar. Any thoughts??? Gretch

 

[Hy Tran]

Mesquite (wet or dry) turns better than dry (honey) locust, from limited experience. I have no experience with black locust. From anecdotal evidence, mesquite is one of the more stable woods as it dries.

I like the really fine grain, and the speckles in the heartwood, like it's been sprinkled with fine ground pepper or cinnamon. I also like the transition from heartwood to sapwood with all woods that have visible transitions. (Yes, I know--in a hundred years, it'll all be brown, so focus on shape...)

I had a little tearout on the outside as I was going the wrong direction to preserve the bark edge, but that cleaned up pretty easily. Almost no tearout on the inside. I think I'd give myself a B+ for tool use, A- for shape, B- for guts in making it thin, A- for maintaining even wall without measuring, and I'd give my host A's all around for coaching and A+ for hospitality.

Hy

 

[egsiegel]

very nice bowl...
I love turning mesquite. I had a guy in Texas that would send me pieces the size of the flat rate shipping boxes at the post office for basically the cost of shipping plus a couple of bucks. Unfortunately, he got divorced and his ex-wife burned his stash. If anyone wants to ship some pieces to NY, I'd be happy to buy some.

 

[hockenbery]

I had a little tearout on the outside as I was going the wrong direction to preserve the bark edge, but that cleaned up pretty easily. Almost no tearout on the inside.

Great job on bowl 1.

Cutting rim to foot is probably the most common method to turn the outside of a NE Bowl.
It is one of the trade offs.
You get a rough surface and almost always keep the bark.

I usually use a pull cut foot to rim on the outside. It leaves a smooth surface. Almost always leaves the bark. Requires 2-3 more passes than a push cut. I usually take the bark off NE bowls.

 

[Hy Tran]

Gear job do bowl 1.

Cutting rim to foot is probably the most common method to turn the outside of a NE Bowl.
It is one of the trade offs.
You get a rough surface and almost always keep the bark.

I usually use a pull cut foot to rim on the outside. It leaves a smooth surface. Almost always leaves the bark. Requires 2-3 more passes than a push cut. I usually take the bark off NE bowls.

Al, are you using your phone (with creative spell check) to post? ("Gear job do bowl 1?")

My coach had me try both methods, as I was working the outside. I was working foot-to-rim as I was rough-shaping, and he said to try rim-to-foot, and look at the bark edge. We discussed whether I wanted to keep the bark, and if I wanted a crisp edge to the bark.

A couple of shots "in-process." One is a close up of the rough edge (still shaping, cleaning up the bark edge); the other is nearly finished on the bottom.

For those of you keeping track--the camera used was my Olympus Stylus TG-4 with the ludicrous-macro mode and iAuto mode.

 

[hockenbery]

@Hy Tran
You have a method that works for you. My suggestion is to use it for a dozen bowls and you will get better and better with it.

If you ever get a chance to see a David Ellsworth NE bowl demo you will see that he uses a shear cut to turn the outside rim to foot. This cuts with more of shear angle and minimal bevel pressure to produce a much cleaner cut than the flute held at 45 degrees. The shear cut works great in the interupted cut.
The pull cut has a higher shear angle and cuts cleaner still. There is a slightly higher risk of losing the bark. However the pull cut usually cuts the bark cleanly although their is only air behind the bark.