Category Archives: holding

Dealing with Interlocked Grain

Trees do funny things.  This cherry was taken down a few months ago in a friend’s yard.  This section has a 4 1/2″ radius and 55 growth rings.  We tend to think of the fibers going straight up the trunk … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, cherry, figure, finding wood, green woodworking, holding, trees, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Catching up with the Bowl Horse

There are many ways to get to a bowl horse.  If you’re still thinking about adding one to your shop, I’ll recap some of the options, including some new possibilities. My first bowl horse concept, seen in the photo above, … Continue reading

Posted in carving, holding, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Little Hens

The walnut rooftop chickens I roughed out back in the spring are waiting for me.  Meanwhile, a friend took down a cherry tree in his yard and I used a piece to make a pair of mini versions.  It gave … Continue reading

Posted in bird bowls, bowls, cherry, green woodworking, holding, layout, patterns, sketch, tools, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 17 Comments

Back to the Hens

I remember first seeing The Serenity Prayer on a trivet that hung on my grandmother’s kitchen wall: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know … Continue reading

Posted in bird bowls, bowls, holding, layout, Uncategorized, walnut | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Hungarian Super Bowl

Now that the Super Bowl of American football is over, feast your eyes on some amazing feats of coordination and teamwork in Hungary.  I believe the narration is in Hungarian, but the video is multi-lingual.  Huge bowls like this seem … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, historical reference, holding, Uncategorized, video | Tagged , | 28 Comments

In the Beginning

Wanting to make another big cherry shrink pot like the one in this post, I put my big folding saw in my pack and walked to a nearby woodlot where a cherry tree had fallen a few months ago.  The … Continue reading

Posted in cherry, holding, shrink box, tools, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Bowl Horse at Fifteen

It’s been fifteen years since I built my log bowl horse, and it’s still serving well and regularly in my workshop.  I mentioned it in this article, but the focus there is more on building the more portable version from … Continue reading

Posted in holding, tools, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Rooftop Bird with 12/12 pitch

It’s been a couple years since I wrote this post about a bowl orientation I call a rooftop bowl.  In it, I discussed working with this type of blank and suggested experimenting with quarter-log splits and other angles.  Of course, … Continue reading

Posted in bird bowls, bowls, finding wood, holding, layout, Uncategorized, walnut | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Tampa BowlMates

Last weekend’s Fine Woodworking Hands-On event in Tampa was a rich experience.  Never having been to Florida, it was a bit surreal for me; temperatures in the upper 70s in February, palm trees, a manatee…like another world. Kate Swann, Carl … Continue reading

Posted in classes, events, holding, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Three Bears’ Bowls

Among the projects I’ve got underway are these three bowls that Goldilocks might find just right for pilfered porridge.  I made use of a central section of the big cherry log I split up a few weeks ago.  I wrote … Continue reading

Posted in axe, bowls, cherry, holding, layout, Uncategorized, writing | Tagged | 7 Comments