I've been asked how to make a bowl. So here is a collection of pictures of a bowl being made.

Start with a chunck of wood. A friend gave me several pieces of butcher block counter top. Butcher block counter top is made up of strips of wood glued together. I'm not sure what type of wood this is. If I had to guess, it's a hardwood like maple. However, the wood in this bowl did not behave like hard maple. It seemed to be softer like poplar but with the coloring of maple.

Since the counter top came in larges pieces, I cut it up and made 3 squares of about 10" x 10".  Then I stacked them, glued them, and clamped them together.  The piece I ended up with was approximately  10" x 10" x 7" high. Since Butcher block counters are made up of strips of wood glued together, to make things interesting, I alternated the direction of strips for each layer. The top and bottom layer strips ran "north south" and the middle layer strips ran "east west."

Once the glue cured, I took off the clamps and marked the center of the blank. Then I drew the largest circle I could fit. From here I took it over to the band saw and cut out the circle. While you can start with a square turning blank, the bandsaw step saves a lot of time and wear and tear on your tools.

After I cut out the circle, I attached the "flange." The flange is a cast iron plate with screw holes and a threaded center. This flange will thread on to the drive shaft and will hold the wood horizontally. Since this is a relatively light weight blank, I was able to use just Four 2" wood screws to attach the flange to the blank.

Once the blank is mounted to the drive shaft, I slide the "Tail stock" up to the wood and extend the quill so the "live center" presses into the wood. The tail stock/live center support the wood from the non-powered end of the lathe. The tail stock gives the wood a bit more support while I shape the outside of the bowl. In the picture above, you are looking at what will be the bottom of the bowl.

In this next picture, I've started to shape the bowl. First I made it round and eliminated any flat spots. Then I cut a taper to make the shape interesting. At the very bottom of the bowl, I cut a "tenon." The tenon is about 3/8" deep and 3" in diameter. When I'm done shaping the bowl and light sanding the outside, I'll flip the bowl around in the lathe and use a special chuck designed to grab the tenon and hold the bowl blank in place while it spins.

Here' a picture of the chuck and jaws that grab the tenon. On the lathe bed below the chuck is the key for tightening the jaw.

And here is the "Chucked" blank. You can't see the tenon because it's hidden by the jaws of the chuck. The bowl has its basic shape and I've done a bit of sanding.  This is a simple bowl. Tapered bottom and straight sides.

And if swing around to the opposite end of the bowl, you can see that I've reengaged the tail stock/live center. The tail stock will make the wood more stable while do the next step - gouging out the bowl center

Here I'm ready to start the gouging. You see the tool rest and resting on the tool rest is the bowl gouge. The tool rest needs to be close to the wood. If the tool rest is too far away, the lathe tools will grab or "catch." Catches are exciting but often fatal to a bowl (and can hurt the turner).

And here you see I've started to hollow out the center of the bowl. Noticed I've left a column of wood in place so the tail-stock can continue to support the bowl. Shortly, however, I'll have to get rid of the center post to finish the inside of the bowl.

Eventually, the bowl gets too deep to use the straight tool rest so I switch to a curved tool rest. The curved rest projects into the bowl gouge supported near the wood.  You'll also notice that the tail stock is gone. At this point, it is in the way of finishing the bottom so I slid it out of the way. However, since the bowl is much lighter, the chuck is more than enough to hold the bowl in place.

Because this is a deep bowl for my curved tool rest, I had to go back and use the straight tool rest and get creative about its orientation so I could to do a nice job smoothing the inside bowl bottom.

At this point, the outside and inside turning work is done except for the tenon. I'll address that in a moment but now it's time to start sanding. Depending on the wood, I may go down to 400 grit or 1200 grit. The harder the wood, the finer the grit. My goal is a hard smooth finish. Because of its tight grain, Maple will sand down to a glass like surface. Oak is softer and coarser so it does not sand down as smooth.

Unfortunately  I stopped taking pictures but if you recall there is still a tenon on the bottom of the bowl. To get rid of the tenon, I take the bowl off the chuck, put a rubber coated block of wood in the chuck then turn the bowl around and press its inside up against the rubber surface. The rubber surface drives the bowl with friction. On the other end of the bowl, I slide the tailstock back up to the bowl set up the tool rest, and turn off the tenon and clean up the bottom of the bowl. After turning the bottom, I'll still need to do some clean up with a chisel.

From here, it's time for finish. First I brand the bowl with my logo then, because this wood was unevenly colored so I used a light stain on it. And for the last step, I sealed the bowl with a food-safe salad bowl finish.

And, since I pay for the wood I get with bowls, I gave the bowl to Angie. Here's a picture she sent me of the finished product.