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The American Association of Woodturners explains the best methods for harvesting bowl blanks from a tree, and how to maximize the grain patterns you want.
It’s the grain pattern
Bark up centered on the pith you get ovals inside and a sort of wavy warp on the rim when it dries
Pith side up you get the hyperbola grain pattern and the rim warps with peaks at the end grain sides.
Most people put the rim at the pith. Get a bigger bowl from an 18” tree.
When I run across a tree with a flat side, I like to use this for traditional bowl turned once bark to the rim.
The wavy rim is pleasing and with a little planning get sapwood on the rim
For a wood with heavy medullary ray patterns, like oak or sycamore, you want the pith side to be the bottom of the bowl to best display the ray pattern. Sycamore is pretty boring otherwise. This is also referred to quarter sawn wood. For most other woods, to get max useful pieces from the log, you cut with the pith being near the rim of the bowl, and the bark to be the bottom of the bowl.
One bowl that definitely put on more of a show with the pith at the base is Ambrosia Maple. The streaks reach up to the rim rather than lay flat in the bottom of the bowl.
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