Walnut Rough Turning

[Lucas Askland]

Hello! A neighbor of mine gave me a pretty large chunk of walnut that he had felled on his property about a month ago. This is bowl #1 of 4 that will come from the chunk and just wanted some feedback from the group to see how I'm doing so far. The other 3 blanks have been coved with Tree Saver, and this rough turning has a light coat of it as well.



Left the rim and main body about 5/8" thick and the tenon was large enough to use my 100mm jaws with room to true up once its dried out in about 7 months or so.

One question I have about first turnings though. How thick should I leave the bottom between the tenon and what will eventually be the foot of the bowl? On this one I left about 3/4" to give me some wiggle room on design, foot size/depth, etc. Is this too much? Not enough? Or is it more of turner's preference? Thanks for any input/advise!

Luke

 

[Ed Weingarden]

Many people use 10% as a guide to wall thickness for the rough turning; the wall thickness would be 10% of the diameter of the bowl. In other words, if the bowl has a 10" diameter, the wall thickness would be 1".

 

[Ron Solfest]

Agree with Ed. I roughed many bowls from walnut logs and always used the 10% rule (actually erring on the thicker side for the sides and a little thinner for the bottom). Then painted them with anchor seal, and a second time on the end grain. One set of logs had ring shake and I lost several, but other than that very few have had cracking problems. Your's looks a little thin, hope it turns out for you as that looks like some pretty grain.

 

[hockenbery]

How thick should I leave the bottom between the tenon and what will eventually be the foot of the bowl?

What I do is make the thickness of the bottom with the tenon about the same as the wall thickness

So 12” bowl the 10% wall will be about 1.25”. The botttom 1/2” for the tenon plus 3/4” for the bowl foot an bottom wall.
The bottom doesn’t warp much it will shrink in thickness - almost all in the radial direction so
The dried bowl - tenon depth shrinkage is negligible Bowl bottom thickness shrinks about 1/32

A 2.5” diameter tenon will shrink oval to about 2.25 x 2.5

Be sure to control the drying. Paper bags work well for me.


The cleaner surface you have in the rough out the easier the returning will be.
When you make the entry cut on the inside wall do it real slow flute at 3 o’clock with shallow cuts this will make a clean square corner. I round this edge slightly with a shear scrape.
On the bottom keep riding the bevel for a smooth surface- Grinding the heel off the gouge makes this easier.

Bowl has a nice shape

 

[Lucas Askland]

Thanks for the advise!!

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Beautiful wood and nice bowl shape! I’ve been advised to soften the edges, inside and out, of the rim rather than have the sides meet the rim at a sharp angle. This will lessen the likelihood of a crack developing from a thin edge and growing down into the side of the bowl. I hope I’m explaining this well. My experience has borne this out. When I’ve seen cracks develop from the rim, it’s often because I haven’t rounded those corners enough.

 

[Lucas Askland]

Beautiful wood and nice bowl shape! I’ve been advised to soften the edges, inside and out, of the rim rather than have the sides meet the rim at a sharp angle. This will lessen the likelihood of a crack developing from a thin edge and growing down into the side of the bowl. I hope I’m explaining this well. My experience has borne this out. When I’ve seen cracks develop from the rim, it’s often because I haven’t rounded those corners enough.

Just went down and knocked the edges down a little bit!! Thanks for the tip!

 

[Dean Center]

You've got a good start, Lucas. Make use of these few pointers and do 48 more, and you'll have figured it out.

 

[William Fordham]

That's a beautiful piece of walnut. One of my favorite woods to turn. Be sure and share when it is completed.