About myself

Adzes

I am a stay at home dad of a 2 yr old girl.  I started hewing bowls in the fall of 2010 when I asked another bowl maker named Robert Engelhardt to teach me, which he did.  A short time later I started buying my own tools and continued making my own bowls.  I still periodically get help from my mentor, since I have yet to buy the more expensive prep tools.

Shaving Horse

I make two different styles of bowls and many different shapes and sizes.  The majority of my bowls are pre-cut  shapes and forms or blanks.  These bowls are planed down in a thickness planer and are cut out from a pattern with a band saw and hewn with a bowl adze.  However, I also make some bowls completely by hand, I call the splits.  These bowls take much more time and skill to make.  For these bowls I start by splitting a log.  Then I plane the piece of wood using a draw knife and a custom made shaving horse.  Next, I shape the ends with a hand axe.  Finally, I hew the inside of the bowl with a bowl adze.
The bowls I make are from green wood that then has to be dried.  This process can take anywhere from about a week to several months.  A number of different things can make the dry time vary, from type of wood to when it was cut to size of the bowl.  To dry my bowls I place them in a plastic bag and turn the bag every couple of days until the bowl is dry.  I then sand my bowls and place my mark and number my bowl with a wood burn, I also burn what type of wood the bowl is made out of, on the bottom of the bowl.  Next, I apply mineral oil to them and let them sit overnight.  The following day or so I apply a homemade beeswax and mineral oil balm to the bowl and am finished.