Cracked Pot

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Dave Fisher
DF Cherry Shrink Pot 2025, 10 1/2″ high x 5 1/2″ wide.

I roughed out this cherry shrink pot with split sides a few years ago. It cracked a couple days into drying, leaving a 1/2″ wide gap. It’s a rare occurrence, but sometimes you get lucky.

My first inclination was to burn it. After all, I’ve got lots of uncracked shrink pots waiting to be finished. But I kept it around, hoping for the right time and inspiration. I started thinking about a line attributed to Groucho Marx, a play on the Beatitudes: 

Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.

So, recently I returned to the long-neglected shrink pot. Although the bottom was still in its groove, I pinned the sides to the bottom board with some bamboo pins (skewers) to make sure it stayed that way. After checking that the bottom surface sat flat, I marked the top surface parallel by spinning it around against a stationary pencil point as in the photo above. Then I sawed and planed it to the line.

I wanted a cherry lid, but I didn’t have any dry cherry boards around. I grabbed a chunk of dry cherry from the firewood stack and sawed off both checked ends.

I flattened the short piece that remained with a drawknife, then a plane. With a coping saw and knife, I shaped the lid to match the irregular exterior of the pot, then carved a rabbet to match the interior. After working out the lettering through some sketching on paper, I drew it again on the lid and carved the words.

I returned to the firewood pile again and found a curving piece of dry hickory. I split out a thin piece and carved a tenon onto one end. The mortise is outlined in pencil on the lid in the photo above.

There it is in place on the finished lid. It’s a comfortable handle and finial.

These are the three tools I used to carve the lettering. The gouges just for the tighter curves of these small letters. The letters range from 1/4″ to 3/4″ in height.

To keep the lid from rotating at all, I inserted two registration pins into the lid. The bottom of the finial tenon can be seen on the underside of the lid, too.

The bottom of the pot and the bottom of the lid.

This one is available for purchase. The exterior is finished with linseed oil. The color of the cherry has already deepened a little beyond that in the photos after a couple days in the intense sunlight to cure the oil. 10 1/2″ high overall (6 1/4″ to the top of the lid) and 5 1/2″ wide at the base. $725 includes shipping. If you’re interested, please email me at dandkfish@gmail.com. Thank you. Update: SOLD

I’m planning to teach classes on (uncracked) shrink pots next year at Pete Galbert’s. I’ll get a course description together soon and get it posted to Pete’s site. Shrink pots offer many possibilities and I’m excited about it. I’m looking forward to making more designs in the coming months, so you’ll be hearing more about them.

Posted in cherry, Lettering, shrink box, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Blue Maple Bowl

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Dave Fisher
Maple Bowl 2025, 12 5/8″ x 7 7/8″ x 3″ ( 32 cm x 19.8 cm x 7.5 cm)

It started out as a red maple (Acer rubrum). The top half of the tree snapped off a month ago across the road. I hurried and started carving away on some of it. Maple doesn’t store well for long in hot weather.

Roughing out with the adze goes quickly.

Adze work finished.

For shaping the sides, I just went straight to the drawknife.

The bottom side of the bowl, with the outline of the foot.

Shaping the ends with an axe.

Then fairing the surface with a spokeshave before wrapping in an old towel to dry for a week or two.

After drying, the surface is oxidized and a bit mottled. The upper portion shows the new surface cut with a gouge after drying. Red maple has a consistency similar to fruitwood or even boxwood when dry. Clean cuts leave a burnished surface and it holds carved detail well.

There’s the whole hollow in the finished bowl.

I carved a series of parallel rows across the end panels, following the curve of the handle end. That’s a #3 12mm gouge.

Above is a video clip. I stop the carving about half way across. Later, I work back to that spot in the other direction from the other side.

There’s the finished exterior, painted with sky blue milk paint. The natural wood will turn more golden over time, complementing the blue.

I left a narrow panel to the outside of the rim and chip carved a pattern of graduated alternating triangles. I was so focused I forgot to take photos of that stage.

This bowl is available for purchase. Finished with milk paint and kiln-cured pure linseed oil, ready to serve. It is 12 5/8″ long, a little under 8″ wide, and 3″ high. (32cm x 19.8cm x 7.5cm). The price of $700 includes shipping. Update: SOLD. If you’re interested, please email me at dandkfish@gmail.com. Thank you.

One last photo for this post. A shot of a monarch butterfly caterpillar feeding on milkweed in the back yard today.

Posted in bowls, paint, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Before I Forget… A Few Things

Posted on July 17, 2025 by Dave Fisher

This post was going to be about using my favorite T-handle auger, the one I use to bore the hole to begin making a shrink pot. With a couple green lengths of tree available, I took a few photos as I honed and used the auger. As I was thinking of organizing the post, a thought struck me: “This seems familiar.” A quick search under “auger” in my own blog brought up essentially the same post, from nine years ago, that I was planning to write. There’s a message to me there. Anyway, here’s the link to that post. I read through it and agreed wholeheartedly!

Besides the shrink pots and things around the house, I’ve been busy with several projects in various stages including drawing a design for a lettered exterior sign, a door repair, a couple bowls, some spoons, and plans for classes. More on all of those in time.

Meanwhile, there’s an event coming up this Saturday that I want to mention. Living under my rock, I hadn’t heard about this until a student mentioned it to me during a recent class. Many of you probably already know much more about it than me. The event is known as Hand Tool Haven, a one-day gathering just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. It’s a fundraising event for Plane Wellness, a non-profit organization devoted to improving mental wellness through woodworking, founded just two years ago. They’ve got some big sponsors and it should be a special event. I’d like to make it there on Saturday myself; we’ll see if it works out.

While I’m on a roll, a couple quick book recommendations. First, a little book full of big ideas. Apprenticing: A Manifesto by Lance R. Lee. The compact size (5″x7.5″, 48 pages) encourages you to tuck it in your back pocket to read as opportunity allows, like the next time you find yourself waiting at the DMV or an outlet mall. A friend recently gave it to me as a gift, and I’ve been returning to it often, gleaning more and more.

Another that I’ve been meaning to mention is Good Eye by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. It goes beyond, and complements, Walker and Tolpin’s previous books, exploring all sorts of ideas such as asymmetry, patterns, ornamentation, and my favorite chapter: Playing with Curves. Packed with illustrations and exercises to get you thinking and saying “aha!”

Now, back to that T-handle auger for a minute. I love using the tools in my shop. It would be a pleasure even to just sit and drawknife a green branch away into a pile of shavings with no particular purpose. I love hewing, planing, slicing, gouging, and so on. They are not just means to an end. Using this auger is one of those wonderful sensory experiences.

I recorded a few clips as I bored the initial hole for a shrink pot from a black birch log this week. It’s harder and more dense than black cherry (which I featured in that post nine years ago). You can see and hear how the auger lips cut the end grain fibers as the auger is pulled into the log by the lead screw. I wish you could smell the wintergreen.

T-handle auger into end-grain black birch

Below, I’m much further into the log. I backed the camera up to show the handle in motion. You get into a rhythm.

T-handle auger handle motion

And one final clip in which I cut the bored section away and we peek through.

Cutting the black birch section for the shrink pot.
Posted in books, events, tools, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 12 Comments

The New Peter Galbert Workshop

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Dave Fisher
View from inside Pete’s workshop. Photo by John Britton

Two weeks ago, a bunch of us were savoring our last day of class together in Pete Galbert’s new workshop facility in Berwick, Maine. Pete’s old workshop was in a 19th century former mill building and it was a great place to work. The new workshop is better.

Peter Galbert’s Workshop. Photo Jay Jarman

The inside is spacious with a comfortable wood floor. Large windows fill the room with light and invite views of the countryside outside the shop. They also allow refreshing breezes to flow through, although the first three days of our class we opted to use the mini-splits to cut the humidity. We were able to concentrate on our carving during three brutally hot days.

This was my first bird bowl class, and it was also sort of a class reunion, as six of the students had been in my Bowl Explorations class together last August. They were eager to get back together and they welcomed three newcomers. The encouragement that students give one another, and the sense of togetherness that develops as we work side by side is a wonderful thing to be a part of. Joel Paul, on the far right, joined me as an instuctor with this class and his knowledge, understanding, and sense of humor were a critical part of the success of the class.

Above, Joel is guiding Gary through the sharpening of his drawknife.

Oh — and we carved bird bowls. Here is a ladder shot of nine goose-inspired bowls. I was thrilled with how the students tackled this challenging form and with the creativity and imagination they demonstrated. I emphasize not to be concerned with mistakes on the class projects, that we’re here to learn skills and concepts. But it is nice when it turns out well.

Another shot from a lower angle.

We also got our hen bowls carved with a few details and painting to finish up at home. There’s Joe carving the flute under the wing.

And Mac shaving the side of the tail.

There was also plenty of bird inspiration all around us.

Photo by Macauley Stubbs

The swallows love Pete’s barn.

One little bird even joined us in the workshop. This chipping sparrow couldn’t seem to find his way out and he was very cooperative when I was able to assist him in returning to the field and trees.

Pete Galbert, Dave Fisher, Frank Strazza. Photo Joe Bass.

You never know who’s going to drop in to Pete’s. I had been eager to meet Frank Strazza for a long time. One afternoon he just walked in to see Pete and we (me and whatever students hung around) got the chance to talk about all sorts of things, especially his incredible marquetry work.

A couple days later, Tim Manney dropped by and we we dove into tools and talked about all sorts of stuff. I’ve known Tim for almost ten years and every time I talk with him I learn something new about sharpening or woodworking in general. He’s got a weekend class coming up at Pete’s if you can join in.

Pete has a sitting area just outside the shop, and good coffee (so they tell me). Not a bad spot to begin the day.

When I returned home, I found the neighbor’s red maple tree had fallen in a storm. So I started on a few things while it was fresh, including this shrink pot in progress. More on that later.

I’ll be back at Pete’s in October with a few tweaks to the class procedure after the first run. Meanwhile, lots of projects in mind.

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Finishing Bird Bowls Just in Time

Posted on June 21, 2025 by Dave Fisher
Painted Hen Bowls, 2025

Thirty years of classroom teaching has taught me the importance of preparation. As I’ve readied for next week’s inaugural bird bowl class at Peter Galbert’s, one of my fun tasks has been getting bird bowl examples finished. There’s a few chickens above. If you see them crossing the road, you’ll know where they’re heading.

In a post last month, I showed these in the raw basswood stage. Plain basswood can be a little lackluster, so I played around with some different milk paint techniques and combinations. We’ll be exploring those in class. I’ve also used artist oils (linseed oil paint) before, but the dry time would make it inconvenient for a class setting as students pack their still-wet painted bowls into luggage.

Likewise, starting with green wood wouldn’t allow us to finish pieces during our week together. Starting with dry 4″ x 6″ basswood (a.k.a. linden or limewood) blocks, allows us to remove bulk relatively quickly and move forward to the finished piece. And the ease of obtaining material will make these designs more accessible beyond class as well. All of these chickens are 11-12″ long. A brief digression: There’s something about that photo above that reminds me of an 80’s movie:

Twins, 1988

The twins looking away.

A reminder to be careful in the heat this week.

There will be several other non-chicken birds going as well.

And even though we won’t be carving from green branch crooks, our methods will translate to that sort of work as well. So I’ll have some examples and we’ll be discussing the considerations for working with green wood and the possibilities presented by crooks. As an example, I carved this little goose-inspired bowl from a crooked bit of American sycamore. Like a spoon with a tail.

That crooked bit of American sycamore.

There’s a shot of the upper surface shaved and ready for some layout lines.

And, while on the subject of crooks, I finally finished a bowl I roughed out from a cherry tree crotch (above) a year-and-a-half ago. I wrote about that process in a post back then.

Cherry Bird Bowl 2025. 7 3/4″ high, 6 1/4″ long, 3 3/8″ wide.

There’s the finished bowl, above, along with a few more shots in the slideshow below.

This one will be flying close by my side on the way to Pete’s and back. We’ll be revisiting many of these birds on the blog, in time.

Posted in bird bowls, classes, finding wood, paint, patterns, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Walnut Tray/Bowl with Tree Footnotes

Posted on May 30, 2025 by Dave Fisher

When I finished carving this walnut tray/bowl last week, I had no particular plans for the foot. As I looked at the broad canvas of walnut wood, an idea came to mind for a representation of forest trees rooted along the sapwood-heartwood border. Below is a brief slideshow of how I went about it.

  • Single gouge cuts through the tape. The tape may lift a little at the exit sometimes, but that’s not a problem.
  • Painting the gouge cuts with milk paint. I used four different shades of green. I just played around mixing some blues and yellows (and some touches of other colors) from various sample packets.
  • After carving the trunks and painting them, the tape is removed and the surface cleaned up with very light cuts from a plane.
  • The oil deepens the color of the paint and surrounding wood.

I may be able to skip the tape for a wood species without open pores. I’ll have to experiment and play around with this pattern some more.

As for the tray/bowl itself, I roughed it out months ago from a piece (like blanks C and D in the sketch above) that I split from a walnut log. The blank was 2″ thick, so this design could also be made from a 2″ x 6″ plank of any lumber species. The layout of the top and the foot is the same sort of procedure that is used for the other bowl-from-a-plank designs, using compass and drawing bow.

Instead of rounding the corners during the layout of the hollow, I left them sharp. The bottom of the hollow is flat(ish) and the the side and end walls angle down to meet it. I worked the gouge in generally parallel rows. For the bottom, I worked from the middle toward the side walls.

The flat bottom is ideal for uses not typical for a bowl.

Or it can still do typical bowl duty.

The outer walls were carved with a gouge in three parallel rows. There’s a subtle texture left from the gouge cuts.

This one is available for purchase SOLD. It is 14 3/4″ long, 5 3/4″ wide, and just under 2″ high. If you’re interested, email me at dandkfish@gmail.com. Thank you.

I’ll end with a little reminder about another bowl, this bird bowl below:

It, along with works from 47 other people from 11 countries was on display in St. Paul, Minnesota at The AAW Gallery of Wood Art. All 48 pieces (individually) will now be auctioned. Bids will be accepted online beginning today at 5pm and on through the live auction event on June 14 at the AAW Symposium in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Here is the link to the online auction. I wrote a blog post about this bird in early March.

Posted in paint, patterns, sketch, trees, Uncategorized, walnut | 15 Comments

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