Finishing the huge yew bowl
Early last year, I dedicated a couple of blog posts to chainsawing and rough turning the ‘huge yew bowl’. You may be wandering what became of this beast, but all will soon be revealed…
Over the last twelve months, I have been regularly checking this gigantic blank, which has been slowly drying in my shed. Tucked neatly away, I’ve been longing to get it back on the lathe and finished, but to be honest, the mere sight of it has made me a little scared! However, I’ve decided that today will be finishing day, so have plucked up all my courage and have eagerly sharpened my gouges.
Lifted out from the drying rack – this is going to be a stunner, when finished
Mounted back on the lathe and ready for final turning.
Fastened to the lathe, it certainly looks impressive! I started by cleaning up the edges and then truing up the inner and outer surfaces. Due to the weight and irregular shape, it had to be turned quite slowly. The rotating edge is also ideal for removing chunks of flesh, so care had to be taken when moving my hands inside! The final wall thickness ended up at 20mm, which seemed to be just right for the size of the bowl.
Truing up the edges
Using the Rolly Munro hollowing tool
The bowl turned to size without too many problems – I could only just reach the base with the hollowing tool, but this was to be expected. Sanding, however, was a little harder. The spinning natural edge looked far too dangerous for my drill mounted sander, so the orbital sander was used instead. In fact, sanding whilst the bowl was stationary proved to work much better and give a superior result – something to remember for next time.
Using the orbital sander
I finished by reverse chucking the bowl. Like all of my larger pieces, it has been mounted to a faceplate during all of the turning processes, so plugs were made to tidy up the holes.
I have to say the end result is unbelievable. This is without doubt the largest natural edge bowl i have ever made and a very dramatic piece in its own right. The last photo shows the first few brush strokes of oil - unfortunately you'll have to wait until the end of this week to see the finished piece!
Update March 2015 - The huge yew bowl has now sold and is no longer featured on my website, however I've a similar sized piece of timber drying and will be completing it soon. Do please contact me if you have any questions..
