I was recently rough turning a birch natural edge bowl, with white bark and some spalting, and was struck hard by something that is an inevitable issue with the outside of NE bowls.
In order to get a clean edge on the bark, you sometimes or often need to cut the upper part of the outside from the open side of the bowl. Since this is cutting into the end grain, tear out is worse than cutting up from the bottom.
Since this blank was a little punky, tear out was especially bad, so cutting up from the bottom was really important in getting a good surface. This worked fine up to the beginning of the natural edge, where the bark lifted a little, and the edge of the bark came out feathered, rather than cleanly cut.
So to those of you who do a good number of natural edge, bark on bowls--what tips or tricks do you have to manage these conflicting aspects of the project?
Thanks for the feedback.
In order to get a clean edge on the bark, you sometimes or often need to cut the upper part of the outside from the open side of the bowl. Since this is cutting into the end grain, tear out is worse than cutting up from the bottom.
Since this blank was a little punky, tear out was especially bad, so cutting up from the bottom was really important in getting a good surface. This worked fine up to the beginning of the natural edge, where the bark lifted a little, and the edge of the bark came out feathered, rather than cleanly cut.
So to those of you who do a good number of natural edge, bark on bowls--what tips or tricks do you have to manage these conflicting aspects of the project?
Thanks for the feedback.