Silver Birch bowl

Bob Hamilton saved this one. I was having terrible problems with tear-out in the pith wood but the same day Bob uploaded a video showing his technique for shear scraping with a bowl gouge. It works! Thanks Bob. The final shape was dictated by the tear-out. 10.5" x 5"

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Brendan McAreavy

Registered: September 2008
Location: Ireland
Posts: 586

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Date: Sat June 27, 2009
Views: 881
Keywords: silver birch bowl

Comments

Rev. Doug Miller

Rev. Doug Miller

Love that dark streak. Is that an inclusion of some kind? 8-)

#1 Sun June 28, 2009 4:41am

Brendan McAreavy

That's part of the pith Rev. It was that part that was breaking my heart. When I cut the wood open I saw that the pith was darker than the surrounding wood so I tried to keep some of it in the piece. I sealed the inside and outside heavily with sanding sealer and wrapped the blanks in newspaper. They dried well and moved less than I expected because it is very soft wood - lovely to cut wet. However, when it dried the endgrain and pith became like bunches of straws and I had lots of tear-out, especially in the pith. I have a dozen more blanks to turn but now that I am using Bob's shearing method I feel a bit more confident about tackling them.

#2 Sun June 28, 2009 5:20am

Bill Bolen

Great job on a difficult piece of wood Brendan! That is the most troublesome part of the process for me also. You just never can tell when one spot wants to tear out and mess up the entire piece.Great recovery here...Bill..

#3 Sun June 28, 2009 4:50pm