The cracked cherry burl natural edge bowl...

is almost finished. This weekend I took the severely cracked bowl, and filled the cracks with a deep red colored chalk and CA glue. Then I sanded the whole thing from 80 to 400, and put two coats of Watco Danish Oil on it. I must admit, it looks pretty good. After I buff it I'll share some photos. That won't be until later this week so the oil can cure before buffing.

Repairing cracks

I did the final turnings on a natural edge cherry burl bowl this morning. The blank had cracked a lot during drying, since it was one of my first rough-turned bowls and I didn't turn it very evenly. I really like this piece of wood, so I want to save it and make it as attractive as possible. I used some 100 grit sandpaper to clean the inside of the cracks, and that's where it stands now.

I think the cracks are interesting as-is, but it would look good inlayed with a turquoise product, like Inlace. I'll probably give it a shot, and I'll post photos when I finish it. FYI, so far this is sanded only, with no finish applied.

A couple of updates...

I had a few things to post about in separate posts, but forget it.. I'll do one big update here:

After my chainsaw fiasco (see other post) I finally got my new Husqvarta 142-18". Sweet! Haven't fired it up yet, but will soon. (see below)

Our neighbor took down a box elder while I was at work. My wife called me for the heads-up, and as I was coming home around 8:30 with almost no daylight left the crew was removing it all! I grabbed 3 large logs, 2 small logs, and thanked the crew for being patient while I loaded my car.


I got the 3" beall bowl buffs to go with my buffing system. They're balls that can be used to buf the inside of bowls, where the 8" wheels won't fit. (see below for an example)

I FINALLY buffed the large ambrosia maple bowl, and I did the cherry bowl while I was at it (using the new bowl buffs for the inside). They each received watco danish oil (several coats) first, and dried for about a week. The buffing process consists of three steps: first a tripoli rouge, followed by final smoothing with the white diamond, and then application of carnuba wax (which, incidentally, is food-safe). Here are some quick photos of the final products. Check out that sheen!


I turned another nostepinne from 2 types of wood. I used rosewood for the shaft, and black & white striped ebony for the handle. This handle feels nice in the hand. This was sanded to 12,000 grit, followed by 2 coats of danish oil and a three-step buffing. The wife was happy to add this to her collection.


That's it! I have a few other things that I'm working on now... I'll share them soon.

Buffing system

Today I received my 3-wheel buffing system from Don Pencil. It's awesome! It's so easy to use, and it gets the same great finish that I can get with the Liberon lathe polish and wax, and I can do it after the piece is off the lathe. Here is the cedar bowl and the beech bowl sanded and refinished with the buffing system. Wow!

Cedar bowl update

Here's the cedar bowl I mentioned after it got 3 coats of oil and 3 coats of wipe-on polyurethane. I'm not really impressed with the polyurethane, because it seems VERY difficult to get a nice finish with no bits, even in a clean environment. You cant really see it in these pictures but the finish doesn't feel glassy like I want.

It's much easier to get a great glassy finish with buffed wax (like this), I think. Following that logic, I ordered a lathe-mounted 3-wheel buffing system from Don Pencil the other day, and I'm eagerly waiting to try it out. That way I can oil, wax, and buff my turnings off of the lathe, which lets me do any hand finishing first, before I start waxing. I'll gloat some more when it shows up!

From the chainsaw to the finishing table

Tonight I cut up a cedar log I had in the garage (mostly dried), and took it all the way to a sanded bowl. I feel like I've got a method down that I like for turning bowls, and the key is doing the outside finishing cut as a push cut (bevel in contact) from the base upwards with the tailstock removed, before ever remounting on the chuck to do the inside. The grain really cooperates when I do it this way.

I applied some Watco danish oil to the new cedar bowl and WOW did those colors pop! I won't post a photo yet, but I'll follow up after I get some polyurethane on it.

I also did two coats of wipe-on poly on my beech test piece and it looks good so far. I'll post pictures of the finished product later this week. Maybe then I'll be brave enough to put a finish on that big ambrosia maple bowl.

Hand finishing with Watco

I made my first start at hand finishing, with Watco Danish Oil and a small beech bowl. After drying, I'll wipe on a few coats of satin-finish Watco wipe-on polyurethane to protect the wood and add a bit of shine. I want to use this method on the large ambrosia maple bowl, but I want to try it on a test piece first. This piece isn't perfect, but it actually looks pretty decent when the oil makes the grain features pop. The photo here show a few coats of oil only. I'll follow-up with photos after the poly is applied.