Seeking Inspiration

[John Peachey]

I was recently given 4 boxes of blanks from a turner that had recently died. I have a mixture of commercial blanks and other timber, including some very pretty yew. All of it is quite old and dry. It has been stored well. Some of the pieces have got me wondering what to do with them especially the part turned pieces

One of the pieces is an ash bowl blank 9/ 1/2 inches across 5 3/4 deep. I don't often see bowl blanks that sort of depth. Which got me thinking, what to do with it? Just turn it into a single deep bowl, or convert the blank into two shallower blanks? Hollow form would be a possibility, but I don't have the kit to tackle something this size.

If you had a blank this size and shape what would you do with it?

Thanks for your thoughts.

John

[bodrighywood]

A deep calabash style bowl, or perhaps have a look at Michael Sinclair (the Orkney Turner) and see the sort of thing that he does. Ask nicely if you want to copy mind LOL. Hollow forms can be done with  basic tools just not super thin so worth havig a look at sone of the oriental shapes in ceramics? Also thi k about an ogee type of bowl where the rim is thin and the bowl is a lot smaller than the overall diameter. Plenty of scope

Pete

[John Peachey]

Thanks Pete,

Having looked up to see what a calabash bowl is I quite like the idea, but also like the idea of the ogee bowl.

A lot of the timber is of sizes/shapes i wouldn't normally think of acquiring, and so pushing me out of my comfort zone (which is no bad thing).

I think pen and paper and see which idea grabs me

Thanks for starting the old grey cells !
John

[seventhdevil]

any blanks over 3" deep and wide enough i usually core for a pair or nest of three or four bowls.

if you can borrow one you will quickly realise that bowl savers are well worth the money (as long as you turn enough bowls) and a very useful tool to have in your arsenal...

[Paul Hannaby]

Here's an idea for a deep bowl. This one is she oak and was from an 8x6" blank. An ogee shape would also work with those dimensions.

One source of ideas is the book "500 wood bowls". You're welcome to borrow my copy.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

John just because you have a bowl blank does not mean you have to turn a bowl. With a blank that size you could cut it up and make 4 or even 5 nice boxes, or the bodies of pomanders perhaps?

[burywoodturners]

I assume that you checked the blanks thoroughly, I had a similar gift and found lots of lovely woodworm!
Ron

[John Peachey]

All,
Apologies for starting the thread, and then disappearing, but my machine decided to do a Win 10 upgrade, and made the machine almost unusable for net work.
Seventhdevil  - I don't really do enough bowl turning to warrant a coring system, though I agree cores are a good way to save precious timber. I did wonder about doing a very basic core for this blank. To save some of the wood.

PH Thanks for the picture, it is an unusual shape, on a very similar sized blank. I think  will take up on the book offer. I see they are still about on Amazon, for a fairly reasonable price(not new ones though).

TBHT I did ponder splitting the blank, but I very rarely get large blanks so perhaps a chance for me to do something different to what I normally do - that's not to say I might not chicken out and do some smaller projects with it!

BuryWT Thanks for the warning,I did check the blanks carefully before putting them into the store. There was one blank that did look to have WW holes but when I tried to push a a bit of wire in found that they are small hard black dots, not sure whats caused them, and haven't worked out what the timber is yet either, as it wasn't labelled.

Thanks for your help and ideas, I'll try to remember to post a picture of the finished article when done.

John