If you have no idea what the title of this post is, I STRONGLY suggest you find some way to watch the movie UP!. It’s a Disney/Pixar movie that will literally make you laugh, cry, and love life again. If you’ve seen the movie, then you’ll understand where I’m going…
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the garage, trying to shuffle through the remaining crap that’s blocking my ability to start the final phase of getting the shop fully functional. That’s all good, and I’m just about to the point of being able to call the garage door people in for a much needed replacement. I was making progress. Serious progress! Then I opened a box marked “unfinished projects”. It might as well have been labeled “a box of squirrels”. Many of the partially completed items I remembered starting, remembered why I quit, and remembered what needed to be done to finish them. Some, however, are complete mysteries. To be brutally honest, some I don’t even remember starting and figure they must have been from an all day “bowl rough out” session thinly disguised as a poor excuse to just make a mess.
One of the projects I remembered. Kinda… It’s a piece of White Oak from a co-worker (thanks again, Lisa) that I started on a day when I was in a particularly bad mood and thought some shop time would help. It did, along with the companionship of my friend Bob who let me use his shop. Looking at the bowl now, the bottom of the bowl was grotesquely thick. It’s been YEARS since I had done such a poor job keeping the overall thickness of the walls uniform. Either it was left that way for a reason, or I just sucked that day! My best guess is It went into the box for three reasons:
- Shame. If this was a rookie mistake, a beginners face-palm, or something you know someone will pick it up and ask “why is this bowl so heavy”, the best you can do is hide your mistake and stash it away.
- Logistics. I was pretty sure there was enough meat left in the bottom to salvage a decent bowl, but it was gonna take some to figure out how to make it happen. Do I use a tennon or a recess? Do I take the extra heft from the inside or the outside? Do I… Figuring out the “how” part – especially when applied to fixing a failure – could be just enough to make me pack it away.
- Laziness. One of the most true things about woodturning is it’s always easier to start a whole new project that has a very high liklihood of success than it is to fix a bad project that has a much lower chance of paying off. Could be there was a new blank sitting in the shop, so this one could wait.
Squirrels, however, seem to have a magical property, especially if you catch one! When I picked this one out of the box, the logistical problems were gone. I instantly knew exactly how to remount the piece – by gripping the rim of the bowl with my monster jaws, so there was no need for either a tenon or a recess. I knew the extra weight would be removed from the outside of the bowl, and a bonus revelation that the extra thickness could easily be turned into feet. I also vaguely remember talking with Bob about leaving it thick to accommodate the carving of feet, but I couldn’t remember if we were talking about this specific bowl. That took the shame away, because now I could lie to myself about plausible deniability. the laziness melted when I looked at the potential project in my hand, then quickly at the mess and chaos that is the garage and decided “Yeah, this squirrel needed chasing”!
The turning part didn’t take that long. Since my big chuck already had my monster jaws attached, and since I’d already changed the spindle adapter for the big chuck to fit my new, big, lathe, I decided this would be the first project completed on my new toy! White Oak, when it fully dries, is HARD! Even though I had to stop twice to resharpen my tools, I was still able to get the extra thickness of the bowl turned down to a ring that would become feet in about 20 minutes. The carving part didn’t go as fast. It took about an hour to get the rest of the wood removed and another hour sanding to get rid of the tool marks.
Overall, I like this one! The legs provide a little “lift”, without making it look like the bowl is on stilts. There was also a branch trying to grow through the blank, and I kinda like the way both ends of the branch can be seen. This one’s a keeper!
