essentÊrving±11

C A R V I N G A Bo V L

Taking Inspiration from

THE SHAPE OF THE WOOD

Sometimcs a burr or an irrcgularly shaped piece of wood suggests a bowl (Fig 10.10). A burr usually makes rhe form of the bowl elear but a weird or suggestive shape in a piece of wood may entice you into beginning a sculpture which works well from all but one or two views. It will need special carc in the planning. Burrs and irregular picces may also contain dead knots, inclusions of bark and internal shakes. The grain, too, is unpredictable, and morÄ™ wood may split away than one expects.

SELECTING THE PlECE

of Wood

Where the wood does not suggest the shape but the design comes first, the wood needs careful selection. If the bowl is to be thin all around then it may be carved in green wood provided ii is done quickly. There is so little wood left that evcn if the wood does move the whole shape distorts rather than splits. This means that tough timbers such as beech, ash and sycamore, hard to carve when seasoned but easy when green, are suitable. It is tempting to look at a log split or sawn down the middle and see the curved outsidc of a bowl already there.

There are pitfalls here: the sapwood of timber is the least durablc and attractive part, yet the sides and bottom of a bowl carved from a half-log in this way are mainly sapwood; heartshakes too tend to develop in the rim at each end. Well-seasoncd timber should be safe. If the bowl is taken from quartcr-sawn timber without the heart in it, it will probably be stable, but the figurÄ™ may appear mainly as stripes, usually darker on the heartwood side. An cxcellent method, although it does make for a smailer bowl

Fic; 10.11 Halflogs repositioned as they grew; the bowl is being carved witb heartwood running along the base to eliminate most of the sapwood. This piece of beech bas interesting drought stress marks. (See also Fig 10.8.)

and greater wasce, is to use a half-log with the heart running through the base of the bowl (Figs 10.2, 10.11). Parts of the rim will probably havc sapwood in them but the better colour and figurÄ™ will cover a larger area.

A bowl may have the grain running vertically. This makes for difficulties in carving siÅ„ce much of the cutting is against the grain and there is great risk of shakes in unseasoned wood. However, when a bowl is successfully madÄ™ out of a round sawn out of a log the annual rings can be very striking.

Relation between Available Tools and S i ze of Bowl

The size of the bowl depends on the available timber, your purpose in making the bowl and your tools. A chain saw and an angle grinder with a special wood-carving disc make rcally big bowls feasiblc and casc cutting down against the grain if it is vcrtical. Their size affects the size of the bowl (Figs 10.12, 10.20). Both chain saw

_ 111 _