Roughing and drying green soft maple blanks for winged emerging bowls

[Jon Moyer]

I have a bunch of green soft maple to rough turn or prep as is for drying. I would like to make some winged emerging bowls and wonder which method is likely to be successful.

1.Rough out the the shape including the wings, Anchor Seal and dry. Concern is the long wings will take much long to dry than the bowl shape and cracks will develop

2. Don't turn now, Anchor Seal the half round log (pith has been cut out) and let them dry for a year or more

3. Turn it to completion now (single turning). I have not done this style turning and sanding the wings seems daunting.

Which is the best method? Or is there another process? I got the photo below from the gallery, turned by Allen Axelopulus in 2007 (thank you sir). It is similar to what I would like to end up with.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

I made one of these emerging bowl once in a class. As I recall, we used method 3. Can't say my answer is definitive.

 

[Dean Center]

I haven't made one in a long time, but my best recollection is that we turned them green to finished. I checked Rudy Lopez' web site and in his handout on winged bowls, he doesn't mention whether it's green or dry. Maybe in one of his club demos, which you can access for a small fee, he covers that.

 

[hockenbery]

Turn it to completion now (single turning). I have not done this style turning and sanding the wings seems daunting.

Try to find a Rudy Lopez demo video

What I do is - very little sanding on the lathe
Just the areas where sanding off the lathe is too difficult
I would sand where the bowl meets the wing top and bottom bowl and wing to 320
Abranet works great on wet wood
If you have a foot detail sand that on the lathe too.

 

[Steve Saah]

I’ve done a number of them and have always done them in one turning.

Once turned, I keep them in a paper bag with shavings to slow the drying time down and have generally not had problems with cracking or checking.

The bowl part gets sanded on the lathe while the wings get done off the lathe.

Attached is my favorite of all the ones I’ve done so far. Best of luck!!

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I turned a bunch of square bowls with thin wings, some emerging bowls, but most not, here are a few samples of the types I turned.

Basically all got turned from green wood and dried in my brown paper bag routine, (no shavings or anything else with it) power sanding wings while holding the bowl with my hand (in the chuck) finish power sanding the rest after that.

These two were rounded the lower one later and opened up.



The top one is a one piece double winged bowl, bottom one a crotch turned with thin wings.



Here is a thin winged HF that is like an Apple floating in the water ;-))



This is the regular emerging bowl that I turned for a while but few takers for those.

 

[Jon Moyer]

Try to find a Rudy Lopez demo video

What I do is - very little sanding on the lathe
Just the areas where sanding off the lathe is too difficult
I would sand where the bowl meets the wing top and bottom bowl and wing to 320
Abranet works great on wet wood
If you have a foot detail sand that on the lathe too.

Thank you all for the recommendations! I found some Rudy Lopez demonstration videos and nice handouts on his website

 

[Jon Moyer]

I turned a bunch of square bowls with thin wings, some emerging bowls, but most not, here are a few samples of the types I turned.

Basically all got turned from green wood and dried in my brown paper bag routine, (no shavings or anything else with it) power sanding wings while holding the bowl (in the chuck) finish turning the rest after that.

These two were rounded the lower one later and opened up.

View attachment 60730

The top one is a one piece double winged bowl, bottom one a crotch turned with thin wings.

View attachment 60731

Here is a thin winged HF that is like an Apple floating in the water ;-))

View attachment 60732

This is the regular emerging bowl that I turned for a while but few takers for those.

View attachment 60733

Thank you Leo, I am headed to the shop to do a rough turn and bag method!

 

[Mark Jundanian]

The top one is a one piece double winged bowl, bottom one a crotch turned with thin wings.

Leo, I gotta give you a "Wow" on that one!