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 an ordinary 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 facet curves, and shaping the underside. All of the work is finished with hand instruments. In a separate Handwork piece, Fisher shares his approach 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 may be carved from dry lumber and labored on an ordinary workbench. You should utilize nearly any species of wooden to make it; I used butternut for this one. You’ll save your self some bother by choosing a transparent, knot-free board with no fancy determine. In case your plank is oversize, I counsel that you simply start by trimming it to 2 in. thick, 6 in. huge, and 21 in. lengthy. That stated, 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 aircraft. Then strike a longitudinal centerline on the underside from finish to finish. With a sq., prolong 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 top grain, draw a good arc from the top of these traces as much as the middle of the clean. Then with a drawknife and/or a hand aircraft, take away the wooden above these traces, giving the clean a gently arched prime.

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 prime and strike an arc throughout every finish of the bowl clean. These arcs signify the ends of the handles. Reset the compass to 7 in. after which strike two extra arcs from the clean’s heart level. These signify 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 all 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 purchase a drawing bow or simply make one from a slat of wooden or a metallic rule and a size of string or tape. Regulate the flex of the bow till it creates an arc that passes by way of all three factors. This arc is the surface fringe of the bowl.

Now mark the facet of the hole in the identical method. 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 facet 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 can also make marks on the French curve itself to make certain 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 (typically referred to as long-bents). I like to recommend an 8/30 (#8 sweep 30mm huge) and a 5/25, however an analogous mixture may work simply as properly. If you happen to 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 can solely be possibly 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 top 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 beneath 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 if 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, understand 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 clean actions, elevating or decreasing the deal with to regulate the depth of lower. The #5 gouge, with its flatter curve, will go away a extra refined floor, particularly within the flatter central areas alongside the size of the hole. Work with the grain from each ends, being cautious to take mild cuts the place the grain course merges throughout the middle. I desire to depart the floor straight from the gouge, however should you’d wish to scrape or sand the floor clean, that’s an possibility.

Refine the hole

Create the facet curves

With the hole completed, start on the outside by shaping every of the lengthy sides to a curve. Use a drawknife, presumably adopted by a block aircraft or spokeshave, and maintain the lower plumb at this level. Then, utilizing your fingers as a gauge, draw a pencil line alongside the facet, 3/16 in. beneath the highest.

Form the underside

Now you possibly can 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 probably be only a smidge in from the top of the clean, however I’ll name it the endpoint; it’s labeled A on the prime 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 facet close to the lip of the bowl, throughout the top of the clean. This floor ought to be barely convex in each instructions to reflect the type of the hole. You’ll be able to go away the floor straight from the drawknife, or end with a spokeshave or block aircraft.

Extra excavation beneath

Slightly extra format guides the shaping beneath the handles. Draw a line on the top grain of the bowl that’s 3/8 in. beneath, 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 wrong way up on the bench, take away the majority of the wooden beneath the handles with the #8 gouge and a mallet. Subsequent, form the ends of the handles to an arc, trimming them to the compass traces marked on prime. Then redraw the road on the end-grain floor 3/8 in. beneath the highest. Refine the realm beneath the handles with paring cuts from the #5 gouge, leaving the floor barely concave in each instructions.

Evenly aircraft 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 aircraft, leaving the arched prime ever-so-slightly faceted. Ease the sharp corners throughout the bowl by creating crisp chamfers with a knife. Take your time, and make mild cuts.

If you happen to 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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