As one of two bowls I made today as I continue to work toward clearing an entire shelf in my wood storage area (not to worry, I am now storing drying green turned items there) I made this nice White Ash bowl. It isn’t my first time working with White Ash.
Ash Bowl Interior
White Ash is a common utility wood but it works nicely on the lathe. It is hard so it cuts fairly clean but the cross grain areas, coupled with the very coarse and open texture, will present difficulties in achieving a very smooth sanded finish. Expect it to take some time and some investment in sandpaper.
The White Ash took a brilliant finish and I was very pleased with that since the other project for today, the River Birch, was difficult to finish nicely.
This White Ash piece measures 8″ x 3″.
Ash Bowl Side View
All cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool system on my Robust American Beauty lathe. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks. Final finish is Shellawax.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever your wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!