KY Yellowwood Bowl!

Earlier this week my friend Chris Marshall at Woodworker’s Journal mentioned in the Weekly that I had come into the possession of some Kentucky Yellowwood. It was a species that neither of us had heard about before and Chris was a bit jealous that I was going to get the chance to put a piece on lathe to see how it worked and what it looked like shaped and with a finish.

Trimming the log section to square up the base of the Y-section.

I promised Chris, and you folks here on the blog, that I would get a bowl turned by Friday.  Thankfully, I just made it! You would think a mostly retired guy would have unlimited time to get in the shop and turn a bowl. This week just got away from me with my wife getting ill and needing transportation to her physical therapy, my dog getting sick and needing to stay overnight at an emergency vet (yep, that cost a penny or two), plus I had a commission job to crank out. What happened to bingo and a Tee Time?

Cutting the Y-section in half. I’m using a 1-inch-wide carbide tipped band saw blade.

The good news is that I got the bowl turned today and it was a lot of fun. I had a “Y” section of the Kentucky Yellowwood and chose that to make my first blank. I trimmed it up and then bisected it on my band saw. It is still full of water having just been harvested. Even so, the wood seemed to hold a lot of water, more than I expected.

Examining the turning blanks created by bisecting the Kentucky Yellowwood bole.

After I split the Y-section in half, a large bark inclusion remained, with some dark coloring surrounding it. I decided to keep the inclusion in my bowl rather than try to cut around it. I drew a circle on the blank and roughed it out for the lathe. Boring a 2-1/4” diameter hole to mount it on my scroll chuck gave me my first peek at how the lumber would machine. It gummed up the teeth on my Forstner bit but cut pretty easily.

With the blank mounted to my lathe, I got busy roughing it out. The bark did not come loose from the bole easily. I couldn’t peel it off before I started, so I needed to cut that off as I roughed out the bowl.

Roughing out the turning blank. Here I am using a carbide tipped tool Note that there is still some bark to be removed.

If I’m going to make a project that has a significant natural component to the shape, in this case the bark inclusion, I like to used sharp angles and graphic lines on the rest of the piece. I think the contrast highlights both components of the design. (But that is just an opinion … mine!)

On many of my turned bowls, I like to use a shellac-based friction polish. It is fast, easy, and beautiful. But in this case, I used aerosol rattle cans of nitrocellulose lacquer. A sanding sealer coat followed by a high gloss topcoat. I was pleased with the results.

The Kentucky Yellowwood was easy to turn while the wood was green. I used high speed steel cutters as well as carbide tipped tools and both did well. As to its appearance, I leave that judgement to you.

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