Woodturning: A Photo Journal

Yesterday I finished my Woodturning and Forest Conservation class, which was held at the university's research forest. It was a wonderful learning opportunity, and it was so satisfying and refreshing to complete a class holding a useful product that I created, rather than just a bunch of papers and exams. The class was held four times on Fridays and Saturdays, and was a mixture of learning how to use a wooden lathe to create a wooden bowl, and also learning the basics behind forest conservation. The woodturning process started with bucking up chunks of wood from a down black cherry tree on the research forest's property, and cutting those chunks in half vertically. We debarked the chunks and the journey began to create a wooden bowl! See the photos below for the story. 

Choosing a template that fits the blank. 

Cutting the blank with the bandsaw.

Drilling a small, fairly shallow hole in the center that will go on the screw in the lathe. 

The "cake" is mounted onto the lathe. This picture was taken before any work was done. 

Working on getting the wood into a more manageable size. 

At work on the lathe. 

The outside is beginning to take shape.

Finishing the outside.

Now I flipped the bowl around to work on hollowing out the middle. 

A mandrel is placed in the chuck so that we can finish working on the bottom of the bowl with a detail gouge. 

After finishing the surface with tung oil, six unique creations were the fruits of our labors. 

With my wooden bowl.

Wood fired pizzas to celebrate the woodturning process. 

Yellow poplar (tuliptree) buds

Measuring basal area