Woodturning bowls...similar, yet different

For my birthday, my wife got me a gift certificate to Woodcraft (see "Easier to shop for", an earlier post...it is already reaping dividends!). I decided to use some of the money to take a "bowl-turning" class. Bowl-turning is still woodturning on a lathe, but the similarity between it and spindle turning pretty much ends there. Spindle turning (which is a broader category that encompasses pen turning and other woodturning that is "between centers") results in long, thin, cylindrical crafts. Bowl turning uses different gouges and scrapers (not used for pens at all), and is done by taking a basically square bowl blank, rounding the outside with the inside piece screwed into a chuck on the headstock of the lathe, and then hollowing out the inside while the bottom is attached to the headstock. If you are confused, don't worry. You are not alone.

It was a pretty cool class, and we learned a lot, but because the bowl turning is SO different from the pen turning, I have decided to try and master the spindle turning basics (at least) before attempting to do another bowl class, or attempting to do a bowl in my woodshop. I have already spent so much money on this hobby that I do not want to shell out for MORE tools, and there are several that I would need to start bowl turning at home.

For those of you that are curious...here are the first Meltzer-turned bowls. My wife's is the larger one on the right - I shaved off too much wood before I started shaping the bowl:



The cool thing is that these are made from a relatively cheap wood - poplar - and yet, because of the grain, they look pretty good. As I have seen with the pens, cheap wood (money-wise) can result in a good piece of work.