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Footed Bowl

Emiliano Achaval

Emiliano Achaval

Administrator
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Joined
Dec 14, 2015
Messages
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Location
Maui, Hawaii
Website
hawaiiankoaturner.com
I have been waiting for the right candidate, finally today, this Koa bowl told me he wanted some feet to lift a little off the table.
I read about this on a AAW magazine from 1994... This is my first try... Now that I know how, I can go for longer feet...
Jim, (last name coming soon) he is from Minnesota, he spent all day at my shop, helping me, sharing ideas and having fun. I started live streaming, I'm using ustream.tv an IBM company. I had 32 viewers today... Had people from as far as Argentina watching us work on the bowl...
C & C welcome.... IMG_1374.jpgIMG_1378.jpg

This is my first adding pictures, not sure if I'm doing right...
Aloha from Maui.
 
Very nice. YOu need to pay attention to how the grain runs if you want longer or skinnier feet. It looks like it's side grain somewhat in that piece and that would leave a weak foot. Same is true with handles on bowls. when I teach carving feet I show them how the grain runs on a side grain bowl vs an end grain bowl and how the carved parts might be changed to strengthen the weak grain areas.
 
Footed bowl end grain

Never thought of looking at grain orientation... I followed the aaw article about it. Only mentions how to divide the circle in 6 then pick every other one, giving you the reference for 3 equal distance feet. Is it posibke to have 3 feet all on end grain? How do you teach how to choose where the feet go? I had fun doing my first one, I see more in the future!!! Thanks for your help. Aloha.
 
Well each piece of wood is different. Your piece has the grain running in different directions which makes it difficult. In my demo I mention mostly side grain vs end grain bowls. In that orientation it's fairly easy to see how the grain runs through your design for a foot. If you notice that you have short grain running through part of the foot then it's pretty easy to redesign it to make it thicker. Same is true if you want handles on the rim. A side grain bowl for example will have strong handles because the grain runs parallel to them. The same bowl might have weak feet if they are long and thin because you have short grain running across them. The feet on your bowl are pretty thick and short so there's no problem at all. I'm just warning you that in future pieces pay a little closer attention so they will be strong enough not to break easily.
 
Nice foot/feet. I think that it would look nice to have some kind of crisp detail to serve as a breakpoint between the body and the foot.

I don't know anything about koa, but with many hardwoods having the pith pass through the wise is risking a crack develop as the wood dries.
 
Pith in bowl. End grain. Divider line.

I just started using a 2 part epoxy marine. One coat is as good as 6 or 7 sanding sealer coats. Also, it penetrates the wood very deep and it hardens. That bowl now has the strength of a surfboard, and I'm expecting that it will never crack, even in the pith. I applied the epoxy to another bowl the other day, I was having a hard time cutting a combination of spalted and end grain, the next day it cut perfect, glassy all the way around! When I did the inside, instead of calipers I use my nose! Epoxy penetrated evenly about 1/4 Beware, stinks and you don't want to breathe that, wear a mask.
I was trying to blend the curve of the bowl with the curve in between the feet, not sure how it would look with a line there, I have the designing capabilities of a chimpanzee, so, I might try that, do you mean maybe a bead?
Not sure if I understand, end grain bowl? Like on a island Norfolk pine? But, I do get the point. Don't think I will make the feet any more than one inch, that should work even on side grain you think?
This is great advice. Thank you everyone!! Aloha.
 
Emiliano Achaval said:
I just started using a 2 part epoxy marine. One coat is as good as 6 or 7 sanding sealer coats. Also, it penetrates the wood very deep and it hardens. That bowl now has the strength of a surfboard, and I'm expecting that it will never crack, even in the pith. I applied the epoxy to another bowl the other day, I was having a hard time cutting a combination of spalted and end grain, the next day it cut perfect, glassy all the way around! When I did the inside, instead of calipers I use my nose! Epoxy penetrated evenly about 1/4 Beware, stinks and you don't want to breathe that, wear a mask.
I was trying to blend the curve of the bowl with the curve in between the feet, not sure how it would look with a line there, I have the designing capabilities of a chimpanzee, so, I might try that, do you mean maybe a bead?
Not sure if I understand, end grain bowl? Like on a island Norfolk pine? But, I do get the point. Don't think I will make the feet any more than one inch, that should work even on side grain you think?
This is great advice. Thank you everyone!! Aloha.
Click to expand...

I am not sure any wood is worth coating with epoxy. Besides glassy is not what most people are looking for. John has stated before that galleries do not take pieces with CA and I would guess that also applied to epoxy. I have used it to fill knot holes on flat work and with the curing you should wait a day before working it.
 
I know several people who do epoxy finishes. There's is done right and looks like a regular finish but is water proof and very tough. I've also seen very bad epoxy finishes that look like a layer of plastic or even have runs. So you gotta learn to work with it.
What I was refering to as end grain bowl is one in which the grain runs parallel to the bed of the lathe when it's mounted. This would be like cutting off a limb and then mounting the faceplate on one end. What we call a side grain bowl is one where the grain runs perpendicular to the bed. This would be like spliting a log in half and mounting the faceplate on either the bark side or the face side. Hope that makes sense.
 
Grain orientation

Yes it makes sense now. The only time a do a bowl with the end grain is with the island Norfolk pine. Never with Koa. The epoxy I use it as sand sealer and or wood stabilizer, not as a finish. I apply marine varnish after that. Both reduced by half with turpentine. Some I do Danish oil and buff. The pine then is a good candidate for long feet!! No matter what I do gmail won't sent thru the emails from aaw forum. Any ideas? Aloha from Hawaii.
 
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