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Bowl TurningBowl Turning is *not* the same as spindle turning and requires special tools and techniques. It's easy to come across this information, but I found it much harder to find out exactly why. For a long time, I thought that having to get inside the piece being turned was the key difference. But now I don't think it is. I think the important difference is the direction of the wood grain. For spindle turning, the grain of the work piece can be expected to run more-or-less along the axis of the lathe. Cuts are made between the grain fibers (a gross over-simplification). For bowl turning (excepting segmented bowls) the direction of the grain is at right angles to the lathe axis. At one instant the cut will be along the grain fibers (still over-simplifying) and a fraction of a second later it will be across the fibers. Tools and techniques that are fine for spindle work give rise to dangerous situations in bowl turning. End-grain meeting a cutting edge can separate, resulting in a loss of bevel support and the tool "diving into" the wood. A simple catch on a skew chisel is nothing compared to this. Index to Pages About Bowl TurningBowl Turning Practice - A diary of my learning how to turn a bowl. Turning a Basic Bowl - The step-by-step process that I used to turn a basic wood bowl. Push Cuts With a Bowl Gouge - An in-depth look at the most important bowl gouge cut. Pull Cuts With a Bowl Gouge? - An in-depth look at an alternative cut with a bowl gouge. Scraping Cuts in Bowl Turning? - An in-depth look at using scraping cuts on bowls. Bowl Turning Videos - Videos that I've found educational plus the reasons why. |