If you would have shown me this picture and told me a month ago, actually, even a week ago, that I would make that, I would have never believed you. I kind of still can’t believe I was able to make a real bowl on the lathe, but I can say for a fact that I had the best time and also discovered that I have the bug for this machine.

This is where the process started: I picked up this “scrap” piece of walnut wood from the streets of DUMBO. I cut the corners off in order to make the turning a bit easier, but it was still really difficult.

So, the making of a wooden bowl (in this case at least) has two main parts. The first part is getting the general shape and bottom side round.

Once that side is done, it’s a good idea to make more room for the chuck to have room to fasten for the next step, so, using a really big drill bit, I carefully carved some more space on the bottom:

So, once that side is done, it’s time to flip the bowl and secure the bottom to the side of the motor and start carving the inside.

As you can see, carving a bowl makes a HUGE mess! However, slowly but surely, a bowl begins to emerge:

Once the bowl was finished, I sanded it with 3 types of sandpaper, from roughest to smoothest, and then, while the bowl was still on the lathe, polished and buffed it with tung oil.

And that’s it!

Someone said they would pay me $80 for the bowl, so I may be considering a new career path. 🙂