Experimental WINGED BOWL

Read on to find out how to turn a winged bowl.

- Yuval Lahav

This bowl is titled experimental since I've taken on a type of woodturning I've never done before. Yet I documented the process enough to be sure I could pass on to you, the reader, enough insight for you to make one of your own!

This bowl is made by turning a whole piece of log on its side, and this presents the woodturner with many obstacles to overcome, starting with the mounting of the log to the lathe, and ending with the fact that the bowl will present two large knots (which are the centre of the log, a part of the wood we try to avoid mostly in woodturning for its tendency to crack while drying), with a few more surprises between those.

The skill level you will need for this project is low to medium, and it has just a few more points to be aware of while turning than your normal bowl-turning technique.

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Mounting your log 

Since this turning will be done on a whole log, instead of what we turners call a 'blank', it presents a few unique problems to overcome. Branches, uneven bark and the general shape of the log might prevent us from simply mounting the log and spin it freely.

First, if the length of your longest diagonal on your log is longer than the swing of your lathe (mine is a 12-inch roughly 300mm - swing lathe), you will need to trim the edges of the log so it will spin without hitting the lathe bed.

Next we need to find the centre of the log by width and length (using one of two rulers), once we decide which side will be our top (that side will get tapped with the drive centre) and which is our bottom (will be held by the tailstock with a live centre), we can tap our drive centre into the log (some like to flatten a spot for this, or even drill a small indentation using a forstner bit, but if the bark is not too thick, you can just hammer the drive centre to it well and make sure it grabs wood).