A wide walnut logs came my way a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been busy roughing out a few things from it. One of them will be a big open round bowl, 18 or 19 inches (46-48cm) in diameter. In the photo above, The pith of the tree is up, bark side down. I split the lower portion of this half log for another bowl blank. I chainsawed the corners off to form a rough circle, then hewed and planed the upper and lower surfaces flat and parallel, working across the grain with the plane.
This walnut is green, full of moisture. As it dries it will shrink across the grain but not with it. If I carve a circle, I’ll end up with an oval. So I laid out an oval in order to end up with a circle. I’ve mentioned this sort of layout before, but I think these marked-up photos may make it more clear.
Instead of using one central focal point for the compass, I established two focal points 3/4″ apart from each other along the cross-grain center line. The yellow and blue lines represent the radii forming the right and left boundaries, respectively. The two sides are sketched together in the area of the green boxes. The 3/4″ difference is a hopeful estimate. There are tables with simple shrinkage percentages for various wood species, but there are all sort of confounding variables at play (what time of year was the tree harvested, how long has the log been sitting around, variations in individual trees, etc.).
I’m confident it will shrink at least that much, maybe a little more. At any rate it will end up closer to a circle than it would have otherwise.
For a bowl this big, I began hollowing with this long-handled adze. I hadn’t used it in a while, but I wrote about it a couple years ago in this post.
After much more adzing on the inside and axing on the outside, it’s much further along now. It’s wrapped in a couple old towels to control the rate of drying and I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, I’ve been roughing out more pieces from this same walnut log. One of my strategies for storing green wood is to avoid storing it. Within reason and when possible, I rough out a bunch of pieces in succession, then return to them whenever it’s convenient, after they’ve dried. Above, I’m shaping up a quarter-log blank that should become a hen bowl. And there are a couple more in-process almost ready to begin drying. We’ll see all these bowls someday.
David Fisher, Carving Explorations 
David I am sure you know about green walnut
but green walnut is full of acid and will rust all
of your tools. I learned that years ago when I was
Kansas City
turning green wood. In
Kent Townsend
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Kent, interesting. I don’t recall seeing that on the one small piece of Walnut I carved back in 2012/13. But the 2 woods that I have seen produce copious amounts of acidic, steel-staining blue-black tannins are: oak (2 or 3 different varieties) and Sweet Chestnut, which is often used here as a cheaper more readily available (e.g. coppiced) alternative to oak for outdoor projects. Not a problem usually, just clean, sharpen and rub your tools with oil after use (and ideally before!).
That said, I carved one big bowl that became badly stained with tannin while drying :(. I was able to remove it with “wood bleach”, i.e. oxalic acid (fairly mild but handle with care ;)).
LikeLike
That’s interesting, Kent. I’ve never experienced any problems with walnut and rust. I wonder if it’s more of an issue with the high speed steel typically used for turning tools. Just a guess.
LikeLike
As always, amazing work. These posts are impeccable.
with Love,
Evan Mathers
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dave,
You never cease to amaze me! Thank you so much.
Whenever you get the time, please send some pics.
Pete Magoon
LikeLiked by 1 person
A nice article about your thoughts on drying and laying out the bowl. Walnut is a rare timber in Australia
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice *big* bowl! I like big wooden bowls 🙂
I also really like walnut but it is unusual round here. I associate it with quality shotgun stocks. I was once given a little as firewood when they cut down the only walnut tree I knew, at my old Primary school.
I carved a much needed handle from the walnut, for my grandfather’s old billhook. It now fits my hand perfectly 🙂 I left it with the carved facets, which I think improves the grip and appearance, to me anyway 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
ooh, useful idea about allowing for shrinkage, thanks :). I’ve only carved one big round bowl, out of English oak. Probably a bit out of round now but not really noticeable, the size is the thing you notice more 😀
2 focii? Sounds like an ellipse 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
looks awesome, how thick do you leave the sides while it dries?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just took it out of the wraps to measure for you, Jack. The thinnest part of the walls on most of my bowls is midway between the rim and the foot. On this particular bowl drying now, it measures about 3/8″ there. I try not to leave much at all to remove after drying — just surface carving. Here’s a link to a post in which I measured parts of a finished bowl to give you a better idea: https://davidffisher.com/2021/05/05/measuring-up/
LikeLike
thanks so much! That’s super helpful, your work is a huge inspiration and your blog has helped me so much on my wood carving journey!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Finishing the Big Round Walnut Bowl | David Fisher, Carving Explorations