Sectional Bowl
Nick Arnull creates an experimental sectional bowl
1.The finished bowl
This article is, I feel, one that is going to be either loved or hated. I have no emotional attachment to the original piece, which is unusual. The work I produce generally gives me a great deal of satisfaction to create but this piece left me pondering as to the direction it should be taken next. I have been left with more questions than have been answered, however the process is now available to build upon. To this end I have made others using the same method to show other ideas. This is a clear case of sketchbook and more thought required or maybe input from other creative minds to help the piece evolve.
I am going to touch on a contentious subject - art or craft. I have on numerous occasions tried to get involved with art groups in my local area but with no success. I do not want to call my work 'art' but I am constantly looking for creative input from other disciplines to help me broaden the approach to my work. Unfortunately what I am met with is "your work is craft-based and not art."
health & safety[/sh]
In this project I have used two pieces of equipment - the bandsaw and the belt sander. Both of these pieces of equipment need to be treated with the respect they command, as they will cause injury if used without appropriate care. The biggest danger while using these types of machines is your hands/fingers.
When using the bandsaw never let your hands work in line with the blade. Always have a flat surface on the work and place this face down on the table so when the work travels through the blade it will be stable. When using the belt sander watch where your fingers are at all times. Wood soon disappears using this machine - 80grit eats wood but 60grit just vaporises it.
Always protect your both your eyes and your lungs.
Glossary
Rollover a term to view its definition
- Bowl Gouge
Glossary
Bowl Gouge
A cutting tool with a deep flute and a heavy cross-section. These are normally made from round bars and the flute is milled out. The round bar fits into the handle thus giving the tool a great deal of strength to enable it to overhang the toolrest a long way in order to hollow out deep bowls. Its primary function is for faceplate - or bowl turning - but it can also be used in spindle work. The bevel angle is ground to suit the user but is anything between 40 degrees and 80 degrees. Traditionally, bowl gouges are ground straight across, but many turners prefer to grind the wings back. There are many terms for a swept back bowl gouge - fingernail grind, O'Donnell grind, Irish grind, Ellsworth grind, lady's finger - to name a few. There may be subtle differences in these grinds, but generically they are all bowl gouge grinds where the wings have been ground back.
- Parting Tool
Glossary
Parting Tool
As the picture shows, there are several different types of parting tool - three of which are shown here. On the left is a narrow (3mm) parting tool which is very useful when parting work where the least amount of grain mismatch is desirable, for example when parting the lid from the base in box making. The middle tool is a straight sided, standard parting tool and the one on the right is a diamond parting tool where the widest part of the tool is at the cutting edge. This can be advantageous when cutting deep grooves because it means less of the tool is rubbing on the sides of the groove. Parting tools primary task is to part wood off in spindle work but they are also used to cut tenons or spigots and grooves. They can also be used to cut beads.
- Skew Chisel
Glossary
Skew Chisel
An extremely useful tool but has a reputation for being difficult to control. Certainly you can get some nasty catches with it but it is worth mastering. It is used mainly in spindle work and produces a very fine finish from the tool, requiring little, if any sanding. Planing cuts, peeling cuts and slicing cuts can be made with the skew as well as turning beads, coves and 'V' cuts. Typically, the cutting edge is ground at 60 degrees to the axis of the tool - hence the term 'skew' and the tool has two bevels whose inclusive angle is anywhere between 25 and 45 degrees. Skews are now made in three styles - rectangular section, oval section and rolled edge section.
- Bandsaw
Glossary
Bandsaw
Bandsaws have a relatively small footprint and are often the first choice of machine as they can perform a variety of operations. A good quality machine accurately adjusted, with sharp blades can do rip cutting including deep ripping or even thick veneers, it can cut tenons for joints and various awkward shapes including tight curves if a narrow blade is fitted. For solid timber it is usual to fit skip tooth blades, these have a gap between each tooth thus allowing waste to clear quickly. For thin ply or MDF a fine tooth blade is needed.
- Bowl Blank
Glossary
Bowl Blank
The prepared wood before shaping starts. A bowl blank will normally be cut as a disc from a board or plank using a bandsaw
- Shear Scraping
Glossary
Shear Scraping
This technique uses a conventional scraper or a specialist shear scraper where the cutting edge is held at approximately 45 degrees to the surface of the wood. This peels the wood off, rather than just scrapes it, and produces fine, spiral shavings
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A pair of finished bowls (PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE ARNULL)
cutting method
Cutting needs to be kept simple - it's so easy to get wrong and I am really not very good with maths. How you cut up will depend on the size of your bowl. With finished bowls of 150mm (6in) diameter: First cut: 50mm (2in) you now have a sq face to work from
Second cut: 50mm (2in). At this stage you will have three bits.
Third cut: cut the two end pieces at 25mm (1in) taking care to keep fingers safe.
