A spiral-effect bowl technique

[willstewart]

This may be of wider interest.  It was inspired by a demonstration to our club (Tudor-Rose) by Margaret Garrard.

[Les Symonds]

I just had a good look at your link, Will....I'm assuming that the bowl shown with the petal shapes is Margaret's and I must say that I prefer the effect that you have achieved. In my mind, yours is a fine bowl.
Les

[willstewart]

Thanks!  Indeed the petal bowl is Margaret's and looks pretty good for a demo piece!  Quicker to do than mine...

[malcy]

Nice job, Will. I have read through your write up about how this was done.I have made many Celtic cross condiment mills and a lot of segmented pieces, so what follows is from experience with these. You mentioned about feeling the veneers, even after finishing. You will probably find that they will feel worse or protrude more after a short time. When pieces are glued like this the moisture in the adhesive causes the woods to swell. When it is dried on the outside it is still ‘damp’ inside. Turning down exposes the dampness and although turned smooth will swell somewhat during the drying. Leaving it for a while and then returning to the lathe for a final finish usually improves it. Having the grain in the different woods running in different directions also does not help.  The swelling happens a lot with segmented pieces, where after finishing, you can feel the glue lines as they have swollen up with the retained moisture in the wood. Refinishing after a while usually resolves this.

[willstewart]

Malcy - interesting info.  I can still mount it of course so may be able to re-finish later, I will see what it does. It did have only 12 hours or so for the glue to dry. I did think of the grain angle issue but the limits of a commercial veneer cut make it not possible to line it up with the bowl wood in all directions.  FWIW the 'feel' is much the same all round although the differential grain direction varies quite a bit.

[Bryan Milham]

I've seen routers used various ways, but not this way. And I think your derivation of it, using the bandsaw is a great interpretation. With a bit of experimentation this could lead you to a whole new range of decorative effects.

Please post your experiments and finished pieces.

Great work as well.

[John Plater]

Hello Will,
Two immediate thoughts.  First, you have produced an excellent piece of work as instanced by the photographs and it sounds as though you have plenty of good advice to rectify the problems you have found. I too prefer your version to the initial inspiration. Second, it is great that one can see a demonstration and for that to inspire original thought.
ATB John

[willstewart]

malcy - FYI I have now re-finished the first bowl, which used Titebond, and indeed the 'feel' on the veneer sections seems to have largely gone away.  So perhaps moisture is the key - certainly the epoxy does not show any feel - see my later posts (on follow-up).