David J. Marks Woodworking School

Paul Rothaus selected a nice piece of dry Sycamore for his bowl and he wanted to work on an undercut rim. After roughing out the shape and turning a tenon, he reversed the bowl and began to work on hollowing the inside with a bowl gouge. As he got to the rim area, I offered him several different tools and added that the quickest and best bet that I would use is the Pro Easy wood tool Hollower because the curved bar (Swan Neck) gets right up to the inside of the rim. I also have Hunter carbide tools which can be rotated for more of a shear scrape but since the sycamore cuts so cleanly, the Easy wood hollower worked well. He had wanted to try adding something to the outside which would be clean and elegant and he decided to use the point tool for some clean grooves defining a band. After reversing again,he used a jam chuck to hold the bowl in place and turn the bottom. Paul added two V grooves for definition using a point tool. The small nub was carved away when he used my Foredom rotary tool with a round carbide burr. Paul did a fine job sanding and applied a hand rubbed oil finish using Arm-R-Seal. He was very happy with the results. He also had enough time to start on a second piece with an unusual design.
He liked the figure in some of the Bocote wood that I had and glued it onto a piece of Wenge which will create a black rim after being hollowed. In order to maximize the full 2 inches of the Bocote,we glued on a "waste block" so that the tenon could be turned in it. Paul took it home to complete it and I look forward to seeing the finished bowl.

Stefan Benton worked diligently on his box. It was a challenge turning this very dense but beautiful Pernambuco wood and as his teacher I was there to help when he needed it. He painstakingly shaved off material a little bit at a time to get the grains to match up when the lid was closed.
To finish it off he turned the top into a dome and decided to add some beads and a cove cut for details and places to grip.
The African Blackwood that he turned for the collar added a dramatic contrast and he asked me to demo the "Dennis Stewart chatter tool" that I bought 20 years ago on it. I don't think they are available anymore. It leaves a great texture pattern after you sharpen the bevels and turn the speed up. I added some V grooves on either side to make it stand out. Congrats to Stefan for hanging in there and doing a very fine job with a very difficult project!