last summer I traded that segmented cedar
bowl I did a while back, for some cedar logs destined for a fire wood pile. They've been piled up in my shop ever since
then. I actually even used a couple in my wood stove
last winter. So I finally dug through the pile and I found
one with a pretty good shape, and I decided to make a natural edge bowl. I found the best place to maximize the log's
size, and found the center of the circle I needed to cut, and then I drew the circle
just to make sure. Then I drilled a hole for a 1/4 inch dowel
that I would need to use in my circle cutting jig for my band saw. The jig is a simple construction, just plywood
with a guide for the miter slot, and a stopper to ensure the center of the dowel lines up
with the front edge of the blade teeth. And it's just a matter of pushing the log
forward and then spinning it slowly. and here you can see I went a little bit wider
with my circle on the log just to preserve wood. Right about here is when I started to get
excited about this grain, it's just gorgeous! And here I'm attaching the face plate to the
bottom of the bowl. Here you can see the lathe wobbling. It's due to the wood being out of balance,
and out of round. So I set my lathe to about 400 RPMs and I
used my tail stock for extra support. I did that until it was more steady. Compared to all the hard woods I've been turning
lately, turning this cedar is like cutting through butter with a hot knife. Look at this grain! I mean it is just beautiful! Here I just need to make a small at least
partially flat area, in order to find center so I can drill a hole for reverse mounting,
with a worm screw. When I tighten it up, the chuck will have
something flat to rest against, and hopefully that will keep my bowl straight. And now I flip the bowl around and reverse
mount it to start shaping the bottom of the bowl. I'll add the mortise for when I reverse mount
it again, to work on the top side of the bowl, and the inside. These screw holes that you see there, I end
up filling with a mixture of dust from the bowl and wood glue. And once the bottom was done, I reverse mounted
it again, just using the expansion mode with the four jaw chuck. Here I'm just using my hands as calipers to
gauge how deep I need to go on the inside in relation to the outside, and also to make
sure the wall thickness is uniform. When shaping here, I leave the bottom of the
bowl flat and wide. I did that to end up with a floating bowl
look and I'll demonstrate that with paper at the end of the video. I sanded most of this bowl by hand because
of the uneven natural edge, and I sanded up to 320 grit. Man, so beautiful! I'm just using butcher block oil on this piece,
it's food safe, it's not shiny. I kind of thought the glare or reflection
of a finish would take away from the spectacular grain. So amazing, so colorful. Firewood is like a box of chocolates, you
never know what you're going to get! Here's a shout out to all my subscribers,
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