For November, we were treated to a second demonstration by Frank Bowers.
Frank turned two bowls for us. The first was a typical natural edge bowl and he was very informative about how he balanced the bowl for aesthetics. The blank was mounted between centers to allow repositioning.
Once the blank had been turned round to reveal where the peaks of the rim would fall, Frank tilted the blank to balance the peaks
Once the rough shape of the bowl is established, the “valleys” of the rim can be balanced.
Next, Frank spent time shaping the outside of the bowl. He pointed out that many turners rush the exterior, but it is the exterior which defines the shape of the bowl – all you do with the inside is make it parallel to the exterior.
Frank is careful to achieve final thickness at the wings before removing much wood from the interior of the bowl. This maintains proper support for the wings as they are turned to a thin wall.
Once the interior was completed, Frank reverse chucked the bowl and trimmed the base.
Generally, Frank tries to keep the bark on the edge. However, the bark had already delaminated from the wood along the trunk at the two places where it separated.
Author’s note: Unfortunately, the camera batteries died at this point. I was lucky that they recharged enough to get 2 photos of the finished product.
The second bowl was made with the blank in the opposite orientation. Instead of turning a standard bowl form, the sides were flared out in a trumpet shape so that the cut edges of the bowl helped form the rim.
The resulting bowl was a very interesting shape due to variations in the contour of the trunk.
