End-grain maple bowl

Here's an end-grain maple bowl I turned last night. End-grain (as opposed to cross-grain) bowls are traditional in Scandinavian countries, while cross-grain bowls are more traditional in England, the US, and Australia.

I was finish-turning a dried bowl when I made one cut that was too aggressive and the whole side blew off. So, feeling like I had to redeem myself I grabbed a piece of green maple and powered through this in about two hours. The wall thickness is pleasantly consistent, and the diameter at the top is about 5 inches. The inside shape is great, and the outside shape I like except for a few nitpicky things. I also enjoy the color variation and the other small grain features. It's sanded to 400, then polished and waxed with Liberon.

Thin goblet from green maple

This is a small goblet that I turned from green Maple, based on the one in Turning Green Wood by Michael O'Donnell. It's about 5 inches tall, and the stem is about 3/16" thick. It was turned green, very thin, and the base was carved and hand-finished to a non-circular shape. The piece is sanded, but unfinished, until I decide whether or not to stain it. The lean is natural, and results from the warping of the wood as it dries. This was oriented end-grain, and the pith is in the goblet, but the center of the goblet was intentionally offset from the pith in order to have robust fibers for the stem.

This was a great exercise in learning to turn delicate objects. It's fun to finish an object the day I start it, and this one especially since it was one of my first endeavors in end-grain turning.

The results of mentoring

I turned this ambrosia maple bowl from a rough-turned dried blank that my extremely patient mentor provided. I did it on his lathe, with his help and guidance at every step. (Notice the dramatic improvement in quality over anything else I've ever done, and that's the effect of having an expert give you directions!) It took three turning sessions to finish, about 10 hours total. It measures 12 inches in diameter, 5 inches high and has a 2 inch base. The thickness is a consistent 3/8".

I'll write more about the mentoring experience later. It's way too late for me to be writing about anything, but I'm so excited about this bowl that I just have to post a picture.