...and I shall call you Patience...

When I first read about green bowl carving on Robin Wood's blog, I got very excited to get myself an adze, which I eventually did, from a local car boot. It cost me £15, which is more than I would ordinarily pay for anything from a car boot, but I knew I couldn't afford a Svante Djarv so it was a pretty good investment. After a little work (shortened handle and reground cutting edge - see previous post) I thought I should look into work holding methods - a subject on which there are many opinions and articles on the internet.

I made this one out of a length of pine, which was difficult as it has quite a twist and I got absolutley covered in sap. Anyway, it worked pretty well and I had a go at a couple of bowl, both of which were ok, but I never finised them.

 What I really love and would like to try some time is a dough trough - I saw this trough on holiday in an antique shop for £250 - it's about four feet long and absolutely beautiful!

Due to not getting lengths of wood in any quantity, I put my adze away for a while, but after seeing some smaller bowls recently, thought I'd try again. I was given a load of cut, seasoned wood by a friend for my log burner, but when I cut one log noticed it had a really distinct and pretty ring pattern that would come out really nicely on a bowl. Unfortunately, my bowl-mule is out of action due to an injury to one of the legs inflicted by my son and his friends whilst using it as a goal.

Instead I clamped the wood to the seat of my draw horse.

I began roughing it out with my adze, which worked quickly and well.

I then moved onto a chisel to clean up the tool marks a little. I began to shape the outside with an axe and realised I'd left far too much waste material on one of the handles so began to cut it off with a bow saw. When the blade began to drift in the wrong direction, I turned the work round to came at it from the other direction, but it wasn't quite working and I was getting cross that it was taking so long. In order to speed things up a bit I thought I'd use my axe to split down to where I'd cut with the saw in order to remove the material quicker - big mistake! Because I was being impatient I ended up splitting right through the bowl itself.

grain pattern like the stripes of chocolate in a Vienetta

I think it would have been a really pretty bowl, once it was smoothed and oiled, but it now sits in my back garden, slowly splitting apart, just to remind me that I shouldn't rush things if I want the best results.