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How Its Done
 | It all starts here The piece of “Walnut” shown here was cut from the trunk of a small dead tree. As a there is still a lot of moisture in the wood, the piece needs to be dried before being used. To prevent the wood from drying out too quickly at the ends, thus causing shakes and checks to form, they have been coated with a layer of wax. The formation of these defects will be markedly reduced through this process because it will slow down the loss of moisture at the ends and even out the drying process. |
 | The Rough Timber is Prepared for Mounting on the Lathe A short length of “Birch” log was cut lengthwise down the centre. Each piece was end-sealed and dried for two years. This piece has now been cut round to prepare it for mounting on the lathe. Depending on the designs being considered, it could now be turned with the bark side as the top or bottom of a bowl. If used as the top, the result would be a “natural edge” bowl; otherwise a bowl with true edges would result. |
 | The Outside Shape is Established The outside of this piece of Maple has been turned to the finished shape of the bowl design. Note that the design will incorporate the “bark” side of this bowl as a “natural” edge. In this example, the outside surface has also been sanded to a fine finish. |
 | Turning the inside of a Bowl This picture shows how woodturning gets its name. Here you see the inside of a bowl being shaped and finished as it spins on the lathe. The outside has already been completed. In this view the piece has been reversed on the lathe so the inside can be hollowed out to match the contour of the outside. |
 | Laminating In order to create pieces with different textures and colours you sometimes laminate different species of wood together. The Ash and Ebony plate shown here is a simple example. |
