Nested Black Cherry Bowls

Brian was called by a friend a few weeks ago with an offer of wood from a cherry tree that he was taking down.  As Brian picked up the three 18 by 18 inch logs, he was already planning his approach to roughing out each log to make nested bowl blanks.

Brian cut the logs with a chainsaw vertically, not horizontally, to prevent warping and cracking of the wood. 

Each slab was then roughed round, centred on a faceplate and mounted on the lathe.

Brian used a chisel to take the bark off the outside of the log.  Cherry wood is a light pinkish-yellow when first cut but with time it deepens in colour to a rich reddish brown.  Cherry has a fine, straight grain and a smooth texture which makes it perfect for making bowls.

As the wood rotated on the lathe, Brian used the gouge, a very sharp tool, to create a round, bowl shape.  He felt a vibration and ticking on his gouge and soon discovered the problem.  Years earlier, someone had hammered a nail into the tree, but Brian was able to extract it from the wood.  Not good for the gouge,  but he was able to sharpen it again.  Having sharp tools is essential for a woodturner.

This bowl has lots of character with the contrasting colours of the heartwood and sapwood. Added to this is the stain on the wood which was left by the nail. This photo shows the nail sitting on the edge of the base of the bowl.



Brian flipped the cherry bowl blank and securely fastened the bottom to the lathe with a chuck. From the single piece of timber, Brian was able to core out 4 bowls with curved coring tools.  Instead of having a single large bowl with the rest of the wood shavings sitting under the lathe, there are four progressively larger bowls nested, one inside of the other.

Because the tree was just cut down, the wood and the shavings are very wet.  If Brian was to finish the bowls now, they would warp and not maintain their round shape.  It is a slow process as wood dries at the rate of about one inch a year. 

The high moisture content of the bowls can cause cracking if the wood doesn't dry evenly. Brian paints an end sealer onto the outer edges of the bowls to ensure an even rate of evaporation.  The bowls are now in their basic shape but left one to two inches thick.  After a year of drying in the wood shed, Brian will mount each individual bowl on the lathe and complete the final turning, sanding and oiling. 

There is much satisfaction knowing that the Huntsville cherry tree that had recently fallen will eventually live on as three sets of beautiful nested bowls.