A Change Bowl

 

Here is a small "change" bowl I made this week end. It measures 5 inches in diameter and 1.5 inches high. A "change bowl" is kept on a gentleman's bureau to keep the contents of his pockets when emptied at the end of the day; change, keys, etc.. The base is made from White Oak and the side of the bow is a layer of segmented sections; the lighter colored wood is Poplar and the thinner darker wood is Mahogany. What is interesting about this bowl is the treatment of the interior of the bowl: I made a kind of stain which was used in colonial times in the US. It is made by dissolving iron in a vinegar solution. When that is applied to wood which contains a lot of acid, like Oak and Mahogany, it turns the wood very dark; in the case of Oak it goes black. As you can see here, it is very black indeed. It darkened all the wood on the interior. No further finishing was done to this bowl. 

Spalted Maple Bowl w/Eye

 Yet another spalted Maple wood bowl. This one is 8 inches in diameter and 2.75 inches high. I wet sanded it with mineral oil then burnished it with wood shavings. That small knot in the exact center of the bottom of the bowl doesn't come out through the outside of the bottom of the bowl. It wasn't visible until I cut down to the bottom of the bowl on my lathe. From some viewing angles the knot looks like an eye. This block of wood was from near the outside of a large log which had a lot to do with determining the curve of the bowl shape.

Small Sycamore Bowl

Here's a simple Sycamore wood bowl measuring 4 inches in diameter and 2.25 inches high. It's been wet sanded with mineral oil and burnished with its own wood shavings. Sycamore is a nice wood to turn; lovely fine grain. A hard wood but cuts nicely on the lathe. This wood is from a neighbor's tree when it was pruned a couple of years ago. I like the beauty in this simple shape, the quiet dignity of it's humble, unpretentious utility.