Saving a ruined bowl.......

[Odie]

This past week, I was working on this Maple bowl.......a tribute bowl to the three daughters of a friend. I put a lot of effort in this bowl, and it was virtually finished......until I flipped it over and did the bottom. I must have made a miscalculation on the bottom thickness.....and broke through when doing the final touches! I'm sure I uttered a few choice words when that happened!

In disgust, I almost threw this bowl away.......but, got to thinking about making a base plug. The dark wood was a piece of scrap that was gathering dust in the shop......am not really sure what species it is, but now this is a bowl I'm feeling some pride in!

Just goes to show that sometimes all is not lost.

In profile, the dark wood plug resembles a "T".....worked well, and I'll be sure to remember this if I ever make the same mistake again........that's likely to be a probability!!!! The "T" was put in there upright, but I suppose it might have worked out just as well upside down......as long as the fit was tight.

Anyway......just thought I'd share.......so, don't throw those "blew its" away.....use some think work, and some of them can be saved.

otis of cologne

PS: I don't suppose anyone can identify the dark wood......can they?

 

[Gretch Flo]

Good save

Good save, Otis. Looks nice. I am sure the girls will appreciate. I too have done such on a large spalted maple platter, and I had a large (6"?) green marble tile (Craft supplies) that I can insert.-so I made a secondary recess in the topside of the hole to "contain". This is now MY platter and not for sale!!!! Such gorgeous wood, Gretch

 

[Malcolm Smith]

I think that at some point, most or all of us have made the miscalculation mentioned and ended up with a hole in the bottom of a bowl. If one plugs the bottom, it looks like one made a mistake and had to plug the bottom. If one applies the same wood to the rim of the bowl, the bowl will look like a design choice has been made.

Malcolm Smith.

 

[Jake Debski]

I think that at some point, most or all of us have made the miscalculation mentioned and ended up with a hole in the bottom of a bowl. If one plugs the bottom, it looks like one made a mistake and had to plug the bottom. If one applies the same wood to the rim of the bowl, the bowl will look like a design choice has been made.

Malcolm Smith.

Thank you Malcolm, I have a box elder bottomless pit bowl, that I've been debating about plugging for quite a while now. Your suggestion just might fill the bill.

And thank you Odie, for bringing up the subject.

 

[Jim Stoppleworth]

LOML confiscates all bottomless bowls and makes flower planters out of them. I must say I thought they'd be ugly and a distraction from her flowers. Like so many times in that arena with LOML I was wr...................o.................n....................g.😀😀

 

[Odie]

If one plugs the bottom, it looks like one made a mistake and had to plug the bottom. If one applies the same wood to the rim of the bowl, the bowl will look like a design choice has been made.

Malcolm Smith.

Malcolm......

You know......I wondered the exact same thing......would this be viewed as a repaired mistake, or not????

I took the bowl to work today, and delivered it to the friend (also, a co-worker). Just about everyone in the shop saw it, and not one person thought it was a repaired mistake. I think you and I, and other woodturners would probably guess the origins of the dark plug, but it doesn't look like non-woodturners have such insight. I did tell a couple of people what had happened, and they were astonished to learn that this bowl was actually a "blew it"!

Although, I've made bowl bottoms too thin before, this is the first time I've done a repair.......or, at least one, in my memory, that actually worked out well!

I think that's a very good idea of yours to add more of the wood to the rim. As you said......it would look more like a "design choice". If I had done that, I might even have fooled you!

Thanks to all for the comments.

otis of cologne