red oak | MowryJournal.com

I’ve been in a smaller mood lately.

I’d made several big bowls, big cutting boards … it was time to go small. I made 20 small routed bowls from Hard Maple, Red Oak and Black Walnut. Some very interesting grain patterns here.

The “large” bowls are 6″ diameter. The smallest bowls are 3″ diameter. The oblong pieces are 5″ long x 2-1/2″ wide.

In round 3, I created a few patterns for personalized bowls … in this case, Velda drew the pattern for her “perfect sourdough loaf” bread bowl.

After hogging out the waste on the drill press, the routing begins.

Here the routing is about half done; I’m through the top layer of Red Oak and just beginning to route the Walnut.

I made two versions. The bottom one was from a single White Oak board, and the other was made from two pieces of 4/4 Red Oak sandwiching a piece of 1/2″ thick Walnut.

This blank is two glue-ups of 4/4 Black Walnut sandwiched around a glue-up of a wonderful old piece of 8/4 Black Walnut.

The perfect snack companion for a football game!

One of my favorite pieces, made from Yellowheart, Teak and Walnut. I was able to piece this together out of scrap, and the results were very unique.

Here’s the same pattern made from two very different wood combinations. On the left, 4/4 Purpleheart and 8/4 Red Oak gives a very different result from the yellowheart/walnut/teak version.

This large square server was fun to make from Hard Maple and Purpleheart. The problem is always that Purpleheart burns SO EASILY when you are sanding or routing. These pieces were still wet (they hadn’t dried out in the workshop for a few months before I machined them), so I believe that made the problem worse.

I made two of these small, shallow bowls. Woods are Koa (in the middle), Cherry (next to the Koa) and Tigerwood. Rather spectacular, and the Koa changes colors as you rotate it in the light.

This simple bowl is made from Honey Locust (on top), Walnut and Cherry. The color variation in the Honey Locust is due to sapwood in the piece that I used … that’s a feature, not a defect!

Same blanks were used for all three: 8/4 Hard Maple with 4/4 Purpleheart. The one on top shows more of the passionate color when filled with candy. Your preference?

I found some wonderful Padauk on sale at the Pasadena Rockler store for just $5.99/board foot. This large bowl is a sandwich of two glue-ups of 4/4 Padauk surrounding a third White Oak glue-up, planed to 1/2″ thick. This bowl used 3 board feet of Padauk and 1-1/2 board feet of White Oak (most of which became sawdust, unfortunately!).

The color is not re-touched. It’s really that orange.

Walnut oil was used to finish all of these bowls. And, oh my, does the color pop on this one!

Padauk is photo-reactive. Over time, UV light will change the bright orange to a warm brown. Better keep it in the dark until Hallowe’en!

This multi-wood blank is destined to be a pretty bowl. After I glued up Jatoba, Cherry, Walnut and Tigerwood, I ran it through the planer to get what will become the bottom of the bowl absolutely flat on both sides.

With the bottom of the bowl flat, I can attach it to a second glue-up of Honey Locust, that will be the rim of the bowl. I used cauls across the top of the bowl to ensure the Honey Locust was glued to the bottom blank at all points.

Colorful shavings when you drill out the not-a-bowl.

You begin to see the ultimate look of the bowl as it is routed out.

All of the bowls got their bottom edge rounded on the router table.

Some got a smooth bottom edge, but this bowl got a relieved bottom, making the bowl appear to float above the table.

The wonderful grain pattern on the outside of the bowl is a piece of Jatoba.

This brand goes on every piece … but Velda has claimed this one!

This bowl has different sections routed to different depths. The blank is two pieces of 4/4 Hard Maple sandwiched around Purpleheart, that I planed down to just 1/4″ in thickness.

All of those scallops were a challenge to get clean and pretty, I assure you!

Now that’s a bowl ready for Christmas!

More

Round Three: The Bowl Adventure

A Day Of Finishing

I Was Working Too Hard….

Round Two: The Bowl Adventure

Football Snack Bowl

Making A Snowman

This is round 2 of my creation of routed bowls. Below are links to a couple of pictorials showing the “making of” a pair of the bowls from round 1.

Round 2 of the routed bowls, in their raw, unfinished state. All will be coated in walnut oil. Yes, that’s a big bag of sawdust on the left side of the photo.