Today’s bowls are Cherry and Eastern Red Cedar, both of which I have worked with before.
Cherry has long been one of my favorite woods with which to work as it cuts cleanly, sands easily, and has a very nice scent as well. This piece had the advantage of pale sapwood pieces on either side of the platter and I think that adds considerable interest to an otherwise fairly plain piece of wood.
Cherry 10.5 x 2
Eastern Red Cedar probably isn’t the first wood to come to mind for turning since it is quite soft, however, it cuts remarkably clean and sanding is a breeze. Plus the fragrance is intoxicating as well. I don’t put a finish on Cedar because I have never found one that works, and by leaving the wood raw the scent continues to persist whereas a final finish would seal the oils that provide the odor.
Eastern Red Cedar 11.5 x 3.5
In the interest of full reporting, I had to toss three blanks today because they had rotted out and wouldn’t hold the screws of the faceplate. They literally pulled off the face plate while on the lathe and that is a rare occurrence. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I know that all of the punked out woods came from NCWood and I no longer purchase from them because I have found that their wax seals leave much to be desired such that air drying over time isn’t practical. Thankfully, I don’t have that problem with woods from any other vendor. Live, purchase, and learn.
All major cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool system on my Robust American Beauty lathe, although I do use Robert Sorby bowl gouges for light final passes before sanding. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck, while reverse chucking was done using the Big Easy Jaws from Easy Wood Tools. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks. Final finish on the Cherry is Odie’s Wood Wax.
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!