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ancestral skills

Burls - making a wood bowl without lathe

Posts: 6

Location: North georgia

posted 15 years ago

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Came across an old tree out back that has 4 good size burls on it. I am wanting to make bowls but dont have a lathe to turn it on and have never done anything like this before. I sure could use some advice/instruction from you good people, this is something I really want to try. I do have various hand tools.
Thanks Bev

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Chuck Freeman

Posts: 116

Location: Southcentral Alaska

posted 15 years ago

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We have a lot of spruce & birch with burls. I made few small bowls from them, I just use a knife and gouge to hollow them out. To flatten the bottom I use disk sander. I've seen one's that were hollowed out using hot coals to burn the center then cleaned out with a knife.

FrontierFreedom

Posts: 6

Location: North georgia

posted 15 years ago

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Thank you so much sounds do-able, I am anxious to get started.
Bev

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Posts: 6

Location: North georgia

posted 15 years ago

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One more thing, what do you use to coat the bowl when finished? Olive oil /varnish of some sort???

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Posts: 6

Location: North georgia

posted 15 years ago

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Found it, tung or linseed oil, varnish?? What was i thinkin??

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Joel Hollingsworth

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Posts: 2103

Location: Oakland, CA

posted 15 years ago

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An extremely old-fashioned method is to use hot coals to hollow out wooden bowls and spoons. This requires some patience and careful attention, but less capital equipment.

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Posts: 6

Location: North georgia

posted 15 years ago

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Coals, cool. Thank You all for your suggestions. This is one of many things I have wanted to try.

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Max Kennedy

pollinator

Posts: 491

Location: Englehart, Ontario, Canada

posted 15 years ago

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mustangsally17 wrote:
Found it, tung or linseed oil, varnish?? What was i thinkin??

Be careful of what quality of these oils you use. Many of them contain polymerization accelerators that aren't food safe. How will the bowls be used? If for salads then perhaps use walnut oil. It will need reapplication but is food safe. Also this question has been discussed in depth on many woodworking forums. I can recommend;

http://www.thewows.com/

Membership is free and the woodworking knowledge is phenomenal.

Enjoy!

It can be done!

Posts: 6

Location: North georgia

posted 15 years ago

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Thank You I will check out the site.
Bev

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