I thought I would kick off the new year by starting in on one of the chunks of black walnut that came my way during the summer. At that time, we chunked it up into manageable pieces with the chain saw. I then took one of those pieces and got four small slabs out of it, each about 8 inches square by about 4 inches thick.

(click photos to view larger on Flickr)

Today I took one of those small slabs, drew a circle on it and cut it roughly to that circle shape on the bandsaw. Next I screwed on a mounting plate and turned it to round, adding a small tenon on what will be the bottom of the bowl. I chucked up the tenon, then removed the mounting plate and reversed the bowl, hollowing out the interior.

I took it deep enough to leave about an inch at the bottom, not counting the tenon, and about 3/4 of an inch on the sides. This is as far as I will take it for now. I wrote the date on the tenon (this part will not be on the final bowl) and marked the location of the #1 chuck jaw, so I can get it as close as possible to running true the next time I mount it. The next step is to re-coat the piece with the same wax coating it had six months ago, then wait another six months before finishing the turning.

This long time-frame is a challenge for my tiny attention span, but I’ll turn some pens or something in between to keep myself amused.