Manufacturing Wooden Bowls

Manufacturing Wooden Bowls

With all of today's mass produced tableware, the hand crafted wooden bowl has become somewhat of a specialty item that shows significance on the table. This skill has almost become a lost art because of the production industry like the ceramics we learned about in this class. To create a wooden bowl takes much concentration, skill, and training. You can't become a professional bowl maker over night, but with enough practice, you can produce a stunning piece of dining ware fit for nearly any home.

Every hand crafted wooden bowl is made from a single piece of wood, usually a hard wood. In order to have the right wood conditions for a bowl the log must be shipped from the forest directly to the maker, keeping the wood fresh and green. This ensures that each piece of wood is still damp which makes the process a little bit easier while turning. Each log is then cut into what are called blocks; the length of each block is determined by defects in the wood such as knots, checks, splits and wood quality. Also the size of a block will determine how many bowls will be made from that block. The block is then shipped over to a rip saw operator who then lays out the best way to cut the block, trying to ensure the most effective and efficient cuts. A half circle is used as a stencil before the block is cut so the manufacturer can start to see a rough shape and size of the bowl being produced. These bowl shaped pieces are called bowl blanks, and are proportionally bigger to the final product about to be turned down on a wooden lathe by a skilled artist.

Once the block is cut into bowl blanks the blanks are then moved over to a wood working lathe that will sculpt the shape of the bowl. This is where the fresher woods will show themselves to the lathe operator as they will be easier to shape and manipulate. Once the blanks are at this point the entire rest of the project is dependent