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Do people buy rough turned bowls?

Chris Rauber

Chris Rauber

Joined
Sep 30, 2021
Messages
44
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11
Location
Canisteo, NY
I’ve seen a few turners selling rough turned walnut and cherry for around 12-15 $ a board foot. Not everyone has access to hardwoods or wants to deal with the mess of roughing out/coring. But I’m having a hard time thinking that many rough turned bowls are sold. I’m curious and half hoping you all tell me there’s no market just so I don’t try to Frankenstein my own Holland Bowl Mill.
 
I have no idea if I'm in the minority, but I have, once or twice. I was up in Vermont and the store was selling rough Cherry and Walnut cores in the 15"-18" range, which is larger than I can get around here. Especially since I don't have a corer.
 
Chris Rauber said:
But I’m having a hard time thinking that many rough turned bowls are sold.
Click to expand...
perhaps @dbonertz will jump in here. He may have a count to share.

I’ve never bought or sold a roughed out bowl.

I have given several rough outs away and later seen the finished product at a club show and tell.
I have a couple rough-outs that were given to me by someone who brought them to use in demo here and did not want to take them home.

here is a web site from a guy I know in Utah
www.acutabovebowlco.com

Contact Us — A Cut Above Bowl Co.

Premium Roughed Out Nested Bowl Cores for Woodturners
www.acutabovebowlco.com www.acutabovebowlco.com
 
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Last I knew Mike Mahoney sells cored stacked walnut bowls, but I haven’t checked in a while. Mike’s demos are great to watch, and his finished pieces are highly prized. The wood he uses is some of the prettiest walnut you will ever see In my limited opinion.

Needless to say the amount you can get for a roughed out bowl may have something to do with your reputation in the woodturning community and your source of wood.
 
There is a market. There are a lot of people who don't have access to or the ability to handle large logs. It is easier for them to purchase blanks and finish turn them for galleries, gifts or whatever, especially if they don't have time too rough and dry blanks before the event. If I did it full time I could sell everything I roughed out. When I did it part time I could hardly keep up with the demand. Beware thou it is a lot of hard heavy work and you have to have several good sources to keep yourself with logs. You will also need a good kiln that will handle a lot of blanks per load, I built my own kiln. Lots of chainsaws, chainsaw chains, bowl gouges, heavy duty bandsaw, big pickup 3/4 ton or better, heavy duty flat bed trailer (to haul logs), place to store logs and that is to name some of the more expensive and challenging things needed. It is not for the faint of heart yet rewarding as heck because you are helping people, at least it was for me. I'd still be doing it if my full time business hadn't taken off and consumed my time. As for a count I sold somewhere between 1000 to 2000 per year on a part time bases. Size range 6" through 20" with the majority being 10", 12" , 14" and 16". Happy turning
 
I have bought a few roughed bowls, and sold a few. For me, I don't rough any bowls I don't intend to finish, but I do have some that I'll never get around to finishing for one reason, or another. I can probably count the number of roughed bowls I've purchased on my fingers, so I'm definitely not opposed to buying one if I see something that appeals to me.....

-----odie-----
 
One thing to keep in mind when turning a bowl that someone else roughed out is that it's THEIR shape. A friend and I would occasionally give each other roughed out blanks and I had a really hard time not getting the transition zone too thin. Or even going through. What's natural for you and what's natural for the rougher will be different. You can still make a nice bowl, but you've got to pay attention and not just return it on auto-pilot.
 
Actually we have some rough turned bowls and cores from people that have coring systems that we sell at our club. A lot of the new turners buy them.
 
Karl Loeblein said:
Last I knew Mike Mahoney sells cored stacked walnut bowls, but I haven’t checked in a while. Mike’s demos are great to watch, and his finished pieces are highly prized. The wood he uses is some of the prettiest walnut you will ever see In my limited opinion.

Needless to say the amount you can get for a roughed out bowl may have something to do with your reputation in the woodturning community and your source of wood.
Click to expand...
I bought a couple of beautiful claro walnut blanks from Mahoney, as well as a couple of white oak platter blanks. I recently contacted him and he is no longer selling them.
 
Seems like the attachment point at the foot (tenon or mortise) could be a technical stumbling block for some. If I happened to sell one, it would be a 3-5" dovetailed tenon. The end user may not have dovetail jaws or the same size jaws that I used.
 
Monty Ivy said:
Seems like the attachment point at the foot (tenon or mortise) could be a technical stumbling block for some. If I happened to sell one, it would be a 3-5" dovetailed tenon. The end user may not have dovetail jaws or the same size jaws that I used.
Click to expand...
I don't see that as an issue. Whomever is finish turning the blank can aways jamb chuck it and size the tenon to fit their chuck, assuming of course they have a chuck with jaws that will go smaller than what you sent them.
 
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