A Calabash bowl is of African descent and was originally made from Calabash gourds. Today it refers to any round bottomed bowl.
This Calabash bowl is made of Poplar and is around 8″ in diameter and just over 3″ tall. It was finished with a good soaking of Walnut Oil and then when dried it was lightly sanded and soaked again with Walnut Oil. This gave the usual almost white color of the Poplar to take on a mellow yellowish hue.
Because it is made of Poplar the bowl is very light and because it has a round bottom the bowl can be easily rocked but it always rights itself, sort of like a Weeble. 🙂
Here are some more photos:
Here you can see a bit of the ovoid shape that the bowl took on as it dried:
Here you can see a bit more:
This is the bottom of the bowl:
And here is a side view:
We mentioned in the last post about the Mike Mahoney seminar that everyone went home with at least one bowl. We were given two bowl blanks so that we could make two bowls. Unfortunately we got caught up in the turning frenzy and blew the side out of the first one. 😉
We were more than happy to come home with this one. 🙂
Back to the shop…
Josef Touet
I am craezy about wood and as i child after chool i wasa stoped by on
old building and the window was open and thee i watched the old men was working on a lathe and the lathe was powered by the foot like a sewing machine.i am from germany and my trade was TOOL&DIEMAKER.this is a good helper.in 1991 was fierd,and started my hobby.the first thing
i made was Secritary Desk.my wife gave my a picture witth a this piece.
i went to a wood dealer and my selection was Maple hard wood.the piece cam out very good,and i was proude to make this.after this i was making
Lamps out of domistic& exotic.now i am 88 years old and the work as a turner.in my basement i have 4 pieces of wood all wood is 5-1/2 thick x
12″x 12″.black walut east india rosewood,black oak.thelast piece is Madrone from the westcoast Oregon.when it get warmer i go and do my like,hobby.i am now on the est caost,Massachusetts.the town is Stoneham
i you like i can send you pictures from pieces i made.my last job i made bed for my son out of ash it was a wood i dit not like but it came
out good.Olive wood from south africa and Lignum Vitea from the Bahams
i wish you luck at you work.best regards Joe touet
Woodworker's Guide
Joe, nice to hear from you! And nicer to hear that you’re actively woodworking and turning! Sure, send some photos along, love to see them!