Birds, Birds, Birds

Posted on May 23, 2025 by Dave Fisher

What’s the matter with me? I… I got to get birds off my mind. Maybe I’ll take up a hobby.

— Sylvester The Cat (Mel Blanc) in Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981)

My workbench has looked like a bird sanctuary, or maybe a barnyard, lately. I’ve been carving examples for my bird bowl class at Peter Galbert’s late next month. One of the styles we’ll be working with is hen-inspired bowls. Even though I’ve carved many of them over the years, getting ready for teaching it in a class has me thinking about the design in fresh new ways.

My notebook is filling with thoughts and sketches related to bird bowls and such.

This renewed effort has been spurred, in part, by limitations. It may be counterintuitive, but limits inspire creativity and can lead you to surprising places. We experience this in many ways in our daily lives, even during a short power outage.

In this case, I’m keeping a few things in mind that make the design more practical and accessible in a class setting and beyond; things like tool requirements, wood availability, and carving experience. This doesn’t necessarily require aesthetic compromises. In fact, some subtle departures from my past designs have resulted in elements that are more reasonable to execute while still making sense aesthetically and functionally. Of course, some of my attempts have ended up as firewood, but that just goes with the territory. As these bowls get finished, I’ll share more of the details.

One of the techniques we’ll be working on is designing and carving flutes. Not the musical kind, the concave channel kind. And there’s no way around that steep and deep hollow, which brings me to a short tool diversion.

Most of the bird-inspired bowls that I carve have hollows beyond the reach of a long-bent gouge. In the photo above, you can see a typical progression of tools that allow you to cut an increasingly steeper hollow. The straight gouge at the top will only cut a shallow dish before the shank and handle are in the way. Moving down the photo, the long-bent gouge can tackle all of the usual bowl designs I carve. Next, the spoon-bent gouge gets much steeper and deeper, but for shallow hollows it’s much more cumbersome to use. Use it only when it’s needed. At a certain point, hook knives and scorps of various types allow you to manipulate the tool more freely within a space, since there is no shank or handle at all trailing the cutting edge. Shown is one of my favorites for deep bowls, an e-bend double-edged crooked knife (my handle) from Kestrel Tool. Each tool has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Tools in the spoon-bent sort of range come in all sorts of varieties and shapes. Here are just three. A standard spoon-bent gouge from Pfeil, a swan-neck gouge from Nick Westermann, and a dog-leg gouge by Hans Karlsson.

After yesterday, those bowls on my workbench are a little further along. It rained all day which is great for carving in the shop and looking out the window.

Sprinkle a few seeds on the fence rail and inspiration flies right over.

Posted in bird bowls, design, quotes and excerpts, sketch, tools, Uncategorized, workshop | Tagged | 14 Comments

Streamside Treasure in the Allegheny National Forest

Posted on May 9, 2025 by Dave Fisher
Yellow birch seedlings growing at the feet of eastern hemlocks in the Allegheny National Forest, May 2025

Over the weekend, a friend and I headed to the Allegheny National Forest, less than a two-hour drive from my home in western Pennsylvania. We hiked up along a small stream, fishing a little along the way. A steady light rain soaked us and we didn’t catch a single fish. It was great. The yellow birches alone were worth it.

Yellow Birch and her rock.

This is the sort of scene that I marveled at all along the journey. A huge yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) growing atop a rock, a bit of light visible beneath its trunk. When I returned home, I read this in one of my favorite tree books:

Fortunately, yellow Birch produces great quantities of seed, and it travels miles, on the autumn winds, by its little winged nutlet coats... If the lodgment of the seed is no more than the moss rime on an old rock, the sapling sends its roots straddling down the boulder till the soil is reached.  A favorite forest site is an old log, which is straddled in the same way as the rock; when the log decays the Birch is left on stilts of its own roots.

-- A Natural History of Trees by Paul Culross Peattie, 2nd Ed., 1966

There, above, are a yellow birch in the background and an eastern hemlock in the foreground that have both pulled off the same trick as described by Peattie at the end of the excerpt. The birch around a fallen log, and the hemlock over a stump, both long since gone.

Continuing the timeless cycle, young birches were showing off their new leaves all along the stream side.

I’ve been reading a book recommended to me by my friend, Marie Pelletier. Thoreau and the Language of Trees by Richard Higgins is a collection of, and commentary on, Thoreau’s writings related to trees. One section references a journal entry from 4 January 1853. Thoreau wrote about a large stand of yellow birches he encountered in Concord:

I must call that swamp of E. Hubbard’s west of the Hunt Pasture, Yellow Birch Swamp. There are more of those trees than anywhere else in town that I know. How pleasing to stand beside a new or rare tree! And few are so handsome as this.

Thoreau goes on to describe the bark of the yellow birch, the same bark I was looking upon streamside, in glowing terms:

The top is brush-like as the black birch; the bark an exquisite fine or delicate gold color, curled off partly from the trunk, with vertical clear or smooth spaces, as if a plane had been passed up the tree. The sight of these trees affects me more than California gold.

Here is a link to the full journal entry if you’re interested.

Beneath the birches, the ground was rich with composting leaves and a thick carpet of moss, peppered here and there by the triple hearts of wood sorrel…

… and the red of partridgeberry.

Can you hear the brook trout laughing?

Walking back with the flow of the brook, water dripping from the brim of my hat, I thought of these lines by Gerard Manley Hopkins (and also of not rolling an ankle):

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

-- Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Inversnaid", (1881)
Posted in books, nature, quotes and excerpts, trees, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

A Pair of Walnut Bowls (From a Plank)

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Dave Fisher

I carved these two walnut bowls from a radially-split piece of fresh black walnut, but the design is well suited to be carved from any 2″ thick plank of wood. Compared to my usual Bowl from a Plank, I guess these are “BFAP: Short and Stout.” I drew a simple page of plans for laying out this bowl and added it to my Make a Bowl from a Plank materials. Thanks to all of you who have purchased already; the new plan is there for you now.

Before I go on, I’ll mention that these two bowls are available for purchase; more on that later.

The shot above provides a sense of scale. 11″ long, 6 1/4″ wide, and just under 2″ high. Large enough to serve as a serving bowl or centerpiece without taking up too much real estate on a small table. Lots of possibilities.

In the photo at the top of the post, you can see that the two bowls were made on the same plan, but I used two different techniques for the surface of the hollows. For the one on the left, I experimented with working across the grain in roughly parallel rows. The steepness of the sidewalls required a spoon-bent gouge (in this case, a #5/16mm). In the three-shot slideshow above, you can see the progression of the gouge position as I cut from the rim to the middle of the hollow.

For the other hollow, I used a long-bent #5. I decided to finish by using just a small portion of the gouge width, leaving a subtle texture of long shallow cuts.

The exteriors are the same. I might normally make a foot with four corners that would correspond to the corners of the upper surface. That would result in four distinct exterior surfaces, and is a good option. In this case, I nixed the corners and went with this “rectoval” shape echoing the perimeter of the hollow. I finished the surface by creating a bold gouged texture that runs around the bowl following the shape of the foot.

I painted a design on each bowl foot, with carved lines separating the simple blocks of color. Walnut tree leaves turn brilliant yellow in the fall.

Two different decorative designs on the handles. As I mentioned, both of these bowls are for sale. If you’re interested, email me at dandkfish@gmail.com. UPDATE: Both bowls have sold. Thank you.

I sketched a page in my notebook to show how I got the blank for these two bowls out of a log. This sort of blank works especially well for bowls like this when working with green wood, but you’ve got to have a larger log, in this case, at least around 14″ diameter. Of course, you don’t need a log at all for this design, just any 2″ plank.

This old post may also be helpful in understanding my thinking about various possibilities, and technique, when splitting bowl blanks out of a big log.

Posted in finding wood, layout, patterns, plans, sketch, Uncategorized, walnut | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Bowl from a Plank: Plans, Patterns & Procedures

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Dave Fisher
Step-by-step tutorials lead you through the process.

I started developing the design for what I call the “Bowl from a Plank” two and a half-years ago. I wrote about the beginning in a post in 2022. My goal was to design a beautiful bowl that could be carved even by those with limited access to green wood and/or specialty tools and equipment.

That same cherry bowl finished.

I’ve made many bowls of this design since then, while playing with elements such as wood species, paint, and decorative carving. I’ve written about it and taught students in person as they’ve carved it. All of this has reinforced my confidence in the value of the design and accessibility. A beginner can carve a bowl to be proud of, yet the design will continue to be engaging with each attempt, regardless of one’s experience. I know it has been for me.

Reference directly from the full-size plans for layout, or transfer directly from the plans onto the wood.

I made high resolution scans of my paper-and-pencil plans at full scale. The plans are for the bowl itself and for two different tree designs for the handles. Since then, I’ve been working on step-by-step tutorials with hand drawn illustrations and detailed photographs, going into more detail than is possible in an article. Check out the details HERE.

Posted in bowls, classes, patterns, plans, teaching, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

A Poem

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Dave Fisher

My paternal grandmother kept for decades a tattered scrapbook of poems she had clipped from magazines as a girl in a little coal mining town. Later in life, she and my grandfather would visit nursing homes to offer some entertainment and comfort to the residents. He played tunes on the harmonica, she read poems aloud. Not at the same time.

Often, when a poem I’m reading strikes me, I jot it in my notebook. A couple days ago, it was a poem by Michael Chitwood, and I thought I’d share it. Nobody wants to hear me play the harmonica.

Posted in quotes and excerpts, sketch, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Walnut Spoons

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Dave Fisher

Having some nice walnut around, I decided to make some spoons from it. I’ve got seven here for sale. The two longest ones, #3 and #5 were made with a pair of salad servers in mind, a pair of matching opposites, but each could be a good general use spoon as well. They are 14″ (35cm) long. The compact and curvy serving spoon in the middle, #4, is 8″ (20cm) long. The other four are 11″-12″ long, good for general kitchen duties, cooking, stirring, serving. All surfaces are straight from the cutting edge.

There’s a shot of the back side of them. The ones in the middle were carved when the log was absolutely fresh and the white sapwood holds its color for some interesting contrast. The two on the outer edges were also carved right on the heartwood-sapwood border, but after a couple weeks in the log. The sapwood had begun to mellow in color. #2 and #6 have a light green milk paint on the handles and #7 has the same on the ball finial.

Here are the handles closer up (not in the same order as the other photos). You can zoom in to see more detail.

And a close-up of the backs of the handles.

There they are again, with a metric and imperial measuring stick for scale. The prices listed below include shipping. If you’re interested, email me at dandkfish@gmail.com. Let me know if you’d like to send a check or receive a PayPal invoice. Thanks!

  • #1, #2, #4, #6, #7 are $160 each.
  • #3 and #5 are $350 for the pair.

UPDATE: All of the spoons have sold. Thank you.

Posted in patterns, spoons, Uncategorized, walnut | 2 Comments

Two Duck Signs

Posted on March 31, 2025 by Dave Fisher
“Duck” Signs 2025. 10 3/4″ and 20″ long

I had an unusual request recently to make a pair of signs, one for each side of a doorway between rooms in an old house. Apparently, the low height of the doorway has claimed the forehead of many a guest. The signs, hanging just above the doorway will serve as a playful warning/reminder.

The longest part of the process occurs before I pick up a chisel. I played around by drawing several design possibilities. Ultimately, I carved the two on the left.

The one above, at just under 11″, will hang on the side of the door with a little less open room. These letters (and duck elements) were just freely drawn.

The other sign, nearly twice as long, is inspired by classic Roman lettering. More specifically, the forms from the base of the Trajan Column, carved in Rome early in the second century. The Roman alphabet had no U or K, so those letters have been designed to harmonize with the rest of the letter forms.

The Trajan inscription has been studied by many lettering experts. Possibly the most important studies were conducted by Father Edward Catich. His books on the subject are referenced at the link on his name.

Among other great sources is the book (photo above) Roman Lettering by L.C. Evetts, first published in 1938.

Evetts offers a geometric context to the construction of the letters, but also discusses and demonstrates, through his clear illustrations, the important and consistent deviations from strict geometry. The book was recommended to me not long ago, and I’ve loved diving into it.

Carving setup. That’s the handle of a carver’s screw at the bottom of the photo.

When it came to the carving, I prepared two pieces from a relatively dense butternut board. I painted both pieces with a thin mix (not strictly black, more of a dark Payne’s Grey in reality) of acrylic artist paints. Then I carved through it.

The shots above and below provide a better look at the painted surface. Thinning the paint made for an even coat that allowed the grain of the wood to read through. The detail on the edge of the larger sign was done by first shaving a large bevel, then carving across it with a gouge.

After the carving was done, I hit everything with a coat of paste wax. Ready to save heads. As usual, there are a couple details I wouldn’t mind revisiting, but overall I’m pleased with how they turned out. A fun project.

Posted in books, holding, Lettering, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Getting Colorful at Pete’s

Posted on March 25, 2025 by Dave Fisher

I returned home a week ago from the most recent Bowl Exploration class at Peter Galbert Workshops. This was the third time I’ve taught this class and each iteration has seen a change or two. This time around, we carved basswood and we also explored milk paint as an option. All of the students chose to paint their bowls before carving one of two tree designs. Only Lew decided to go au natural.

Bowl Exploration Class, March 2025

The basswood worked out well. It’s quite carvable, yet holds detail well. The blanks were consistent with no unwanted surprises inside. Compared to carving dry tulip poplar, we were able to move through the stages with the dry basswood more quickly, leaving enough time for us to explore another form, a squarish little bowl I called an ice-cream bowl.

Student bowls 2025

The bowls represent opportunities to learn and practice skills and concepts that will lead to many more bowls of all sorts after everyone returns home. Still, it’s always good when the class bowls themselves turn out this nice. I was thrilled to see them side by side.

We carved sample boards with various patterns using knife and gouge. When it came to the handles on the long bowls, all of the students but one chose to carve my original tree design. There’s Bix’s in blue.

Dan was the lone carver of the thumbnail tree.

With the long bowl and the sample boards under their belts, it was great to see everyone taking what they had learned and applying it in their own creative ways on their ice cream bowls. Nice corner detail there by George, whose daughter requested a purple bowl.

That orange that Jesse is applying looks pretty bold. But the milk paint dries quickly to a more muted shade, plus there was an undercoat of black beneath.

Jesse sent these photos, above and below, once he had rubbed the bowl down.

There was a lot more where that came from in terms of student work and ideas, but I was only able to get so many photos.

As always, I learned more than anybody and it’s a special thing to be part of a group of people coming together for a week of camaraderie and creating together.

“Hi. I’m Dave and this is my brother Peter and that’s my other brother Peter.” (Peter Follansbee, Dave Fisher, Peter Galbert) Photo courtesy of Lew Kohl.

I was also thrilled to catch up a little with some old friends. Peter Lamb, Peter Follansbee, Peter Galbert, and even some others not called Peter.

There won’t be any more photos for me in that shop that will hold good memories. When I return in June, we’ll be in Pete’s new shop which is coming along well. Pete’s vision and tenacity is amazing, and the new workshop is the latest result. Looking forward to it.

Posted in bowls, classes, finding wood, paint, patterns, teaching, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Round Brown Bird Bowl

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Dave Fisher
Walnut Bird Bowl 2025, 6″ x 5 3/4″ x 4 3/8″

One of the reasons I keep a notebook is to play with ideas and save them for future reference. When I revisit an old notebook, I sometimes wonder what I was thinking, but sometimes I realize the circumstances are right to bring the old idea to fruition. That was the case with this bird bowl.

The notebook on the left is from 2018. I had been noticing the plumpness of the backyard birds and I looked up a photo of a chickadee and drew it in ballpoint pen. Then I started to think about a translation of that form and sketched a little idea on the opposite page. Then I did nothing about it for eight years. Then, this year, an exhibition request for a piece that had to fit within a theoretical 6″ cube got me thinking about that design again. I started playing with the idea some more, considering things like grain orientation and the forms of other songbirds as I doodled in my current notebook. That’s one of the recent sketches on the right.

My first experiment beyond the sketchbook was in butternut (above), a practice piece of sorts. Although I wasn’t happy with many of the details, it did give me a chance to learn and gain a better understanding of the form, how best to go about shaping it, and what changes I wanted to make. Also, this particular piece of butternut had some soft patches. I think a little decay had begun to settle in those areas while the log was still green. Even the more sound areas were a bit too soft to hold the edges I wanted for this form.

I reached for a walnut log. I split a piece from the log with the lighter sapwood at the top. The way that chunk is sitting, the bird’s tail is down against the chopping block and the breast is at the top.

I sketched on a few guidelines and began blocking out the form by splitting down to a couple saw cuts, then some shaping with an axe.

After lots more shaping with knives, chisels, and gouges, I started carving the deeply undercut hollow. Lots more to remove from in there when the photo was taken. When I was finished excavating the hollow, I let it dry for two or three weeks. By that time, it had stopped losing weight and was ready for the final carving stages.

Plenty of knife work. The smooth surfaces of the wings up through the top of the head were achieved through a sequence of carving followed by fairing with a rasp and card scraper, then finishing up with very fine sandpaper. The other surfaces were left straight from knife and gouge.

This vise proved handy as it often does.

From March 16 through May 28, 2025, this bird, along with works from 47 other people from 11 countries (including one of my mentors, ,Jögge Sundqvist), will be on display in St. Paul, Minnesota at The AAW Gallery of Wood Art. Then all 48 pieces (individually) will be auctioned. Bids will be accepted online beginning May 31 and on through the live auction event on June 14 at the AAW Symposium in St. Paul, Minnesota. If you would like to receive an email reminder when online bidding opens, you can sign up at this Jotform link set up by Tib Shaw, AAW (American Association of Woodturners) Curator.

I’ll finish this post with two more photos, below.

Posted in bird bowls, events, holding, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Adze Geometry Addition

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Dave Fisher
Bowl Adze Bevel Geometry Guide

In my “Bowl Adze Primer” article (Part of the Adze Owner’s Manual materials), I discuss adze bevel geometry. After receiving a good question via email yesterday, I’ve just added this illustration to clarify the geometry that has worked well for me. So, while (as I explain in the article) there may be situations where deviating further from this would be advantageous, this is a good general guideline. I’ve added this illustration to the sharpening slideshow as well, because it fits in with the rest of the material there about how to establish/shape these bevels.

Posted in adze, sketch, tools, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments