Winged Bowls

Very nice! Not that easy to do, I know I have tried a few, neat knuckle busters though if you are not careful!

Beautiful pieces Brian. They show your skill. I vote on the Banana Split Bowl. It just has a simplicity to it that I like. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice .

Brian, very unique pieces. They look like a real challenge. Do you end up selling them? My turning skills are not up to trying anything like this, yet. I like the walnut piece the best.
-Don

Good hands, my friend. Your sharpening skills must be "adequate" too. Congratulations on great work.

very nice series Brian, well done
Pete

First, thanks everyone, for the kind remarks ;-)

Bearpie: I have not busted my knuckles … yet, knock on wood. I find the style of tool rest in photo #6 helps since it hides some of the danger zone and provides a safe zone that I use when using it as a straight guide. From there, as long as I do not "cross the line" I am OK.

amagineer: #4 and #5 are up for sale, #3 I gave as a gift, and #1 and #2 will be up for sale soon. I am not making a living at selling bowls, but I have to do something to save my house from overflowing with turnings. LOL

Here are a few tips that I have picked up that make turning these bowls much easier to do

1) This is by far the most important. The key to negative-rake scraping to clean up the wings is to have the sides of the negative rake scraper sharp so that it can cut ahead of the scraping. Otherwise, you have to use too much pressure into the wings which will cause vibration and wear down the burr in just seconds. Instead, most of the pressure is on the side of the scraper, pushing into well supported wood that is much less likely to vibrate. The larger burr area barely kisses the surface to clean up the grooves cut by the side. This technique also make it easy to make straight cuts, since the barely cutting burr edge acts like a guide.



2) The second most important tip is that you can you can usually do one side of the wing all at once, but the second side of the wings has to be done in steps (about one inch at a time), from outside toward center, otherwise the thin material will simply vibrate too much. In other words, bring down the next one inch section to thickness with a gouge, then follow up with the negative rake scraper and never go back (except for a little overlap to blend the previous section). Repeat until you arrive at the bowl section.

3) And finally, use your fingers agains the tool rest as a straight guide.

Maybe I need to make another video…