Two Maple Bowls

The first bowl is the 9 x 2 Ambrosia Maple.  It was a dream to make as it cut cleanly and required very little sanding.  Not only does this Maple have the Ambrosia pattern but it is also curly which is a nice added bonus.

Ambrosia Maple 9 x 2

The second bowl is the 8 x 3 Hard Maple.  It was a NIGHTMARE to work with.  It cut terribly and required a full 30 minutes of sanding to be acceptable while not perhaps perfect.  For such a plain piece it was an incredibly investment of time and resources.  The sanding process burned through FIVE sanding pads which retail for $9.95 EACH.  At some point, it isn’t economically feasible to invest that amount of resource into a hum-drum plain Maple bowl.  I’ll never be able to recover what is in it and in the future I will NOT be choosing to work with Hard Maple that is plain.  There will have to be some distinguishing figure to even remotely make it worth my while.  I found this experience to be extremely frustrating and disheartening, especially since the exterior of the Hard Maple was relatively reasonable to work with (it was the interior that was so difficult) and even more aggravating when considering how easily the Ambrosia piece was to cut and finish.  Turn and learn.

Hard Maple 8 x 3

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 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!