Bowl Turning

Process

I usually start with a blank of some hardwood. I have done various glued blanks as well as standard single species bowls.

For a single species bowl, cut the blank into a square piece of stock. I have used 8/4 thick wood before and find this to be an adequate thickness for a bowl and minimum. This can be done on either a miter saw or bandsaw depending on the size of the bowl. The diameter of the bowl will be limited by the lathe. I typically aim for a 6 to 8 inch diameter bowl currently.

Prepping Stock

Take the square stock and cut off the corners as shown below. This speeds up the roughing pass on the lathe and helps with the splintering that can happen.