Natural Edge Bowls

[LANKFORD]

I bought some wood on e-bay and the seller gave me a free-bee of a small 1/4 log section of Blkack Gum. It became my first ever natural edged bowl about 4" diameter and that deep. It's not a very pretty wood but interesting. Hard and really heavy grain. About half the bark fell off but enough left to make it interesting.

My son just gave me a half-log from about a 20" diameter trunk. It's spalted maple and air dried at least 10 years. It looks pretty solid inside. I want to try another bowl with it. Any special cautions I should consider regarding the spalt and the bark? I have turned some old dried spalted stuff and am aware of the bad soft areas.

Also, are there certain woods especially suited for natural edges, ones where the bark will stay put?

 

[woodwish]

Personally I have better luck in getting bark to stay on if I turn it green. If it's dry I always check to see if I can peel it off by hand first. I have tried to glue some back on if only a small piece comes off, but not always successful. If it is 10 yrs. old I can't imagine the bark staying on long while turning.

The one problem with heavily spalted wood is the mold spores that caused the spalt will sometimes cause respirtory problems. Wear a good mask and use DC at least while sanding. You already mentioned the problems of hard and soft spots. If your first NE bowl was only 4" and the next is 20" learn to be patient, 20" is a lot of waste to cut off slowly. Even after 10 years I would imagine it is still a little wet inside, if so let it dry slowly so it doesn't crack. Post a picture when finished!

 

[Bill Boehme]

Once you get the outside turned, apply a bit of thin CA along the cambium layer using a micro tip on the glue bottle. This will generally be sufficient to hold the bark onto the wood while you turn the inside. If you need to glue some bark back onto the edge and can't easily find it in the shavings on the floor, just have some bark from the same log set aside for this purpose. Cut a piece to fit and then finish fitting by sanding and turning. No one but you will know the difference.

Bill

 

[KenN]

Lankford,

I've been turning nested natural edge bowls from Black Oak and Black Walnut
felled 3 and 2 years ago respectively. In my experience, if a live tree is felled November through January or early February (in dormancy), the bark stays on pretty well - if felled while the leaves are on and the sap is up, it flies off. It may have to do with the condition of the cambium cells when dormant. You have a lot of hogging ahead of you for a single bowl from a 20" blank. Be patient.

 

[LANKFORD]

To clear up one point. The piece I have is 20" but I ain't about to turn a bowl that big. About an 8" bowl is what I am looking at. My turning at the moment is on a Delta Midi lathe.

 

[KenN]

Lankford,

Looks as though you might have two natural edge bowls and a couple other pieces as well.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Bark stays on better if you can keep the forces of decay at bay. This means wood with the sap down, which provides less chow and dries faster because there's less water tends to do best. Cambium is the only living part of the tree, so that's where it's happening. The forces of decay don't work well in dry conditions, so generally if you have spalt, an indication of wet in the past, keeping the bark is a fool's errand, as firm as it may seem initially.

If the bark is too wet you can have other problems, even if you cut thin and dry fast. The bark sometimes stays while the wood moves. If the spongy layer just above the cambium is very thick, it can contract sufficiently so that nothing short of abrading with the 80 grit can give you a smooth transition from wood to outer bark.

Best answer to bark is to go thin early, and reinforce not just the cambium, but the underbark, where it's visible, to bulk it out a bit. Then try to keep prospective buyers from picking it up by the edge!

If the bark falls off, char the edge and get rid of irregularities. Looks OK on a lot of stuff. The maple at the upper left and middle right have been charred, because they are from firewood splits. The tall cherry upper right, where the sapwood has cooked some extractive in, darkening the whole thing, would never have allowed me to save the bark, while the frest cut with bright sapwood right foreground came along pretty well, even at <1/4 thick. Thin equates to fragile, so make sure you're glued up before you reduce to final!