# Wedding bowls



## Ax-man (Dec 4, 2016)

My daughter is getting married next June . The wedding planner , my wife, thought it would be a good idea and something different to use my bowls along with some flower arrangement by a florist as a centerpiece for each of the tables for the wedding guests.

Now I am drafted to make bowls. At first I am told to just make these bowls out of any old wood I have around and no uncertain size. That didn't work out at all for the first few prototypes. The first ones were either too small, too big, wrong shape or the wood wasn't colorful enough. We finally got it worked out for the right size and shape and to have more dark colored wood than light colored wood. The florist also liked the first good bowl and was eager to make the arrangement with the flowers.

Now the stage is set to make the rest of the bowls along with a dough, trencher, style bowl with flowers for the bride's table. I was about to get a good education in keeping lathe tools sharp, making reproductions, sanding and finishing.

The highlight of this wood working project was doing the big center piece dough bowl made out of walnut. I had been saving some walnut for special projects and this qualified as one. I literally had to shape it from a thick blank cut with a chainsaw and planed the blank to the right thickness. Using a template from a serving tray, I then started to shape the bowl with my angle grinder with one of those Arbotech cutting attachments to carve out the middle and shape the sides, then followed by a flap wheel sander along with finishing sanders and finally finishing it teak oil, beeswax finish and lacquer. I stated to get some small cracking in the end grain but the final coat of lacquer stopped that, so far so good after a month. I never put so much time and effort into a chunk of wood but I think it came out pretty good, my wife and daughter like it and of course the florist who wants one also.

I put in a pic of another style of dough bowl made from a piece of spaulted elm. This was of course was a proto type so both my wife and I were on the same page when it came to how the brides table walnut bowl should look. From this one elm bowl we made the necessary changes to how the walnut bowl should look.


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## Quietfly (Dec 4, 2016)

Great looking stuff!


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## Ax-man (Dec 4, 2016)

Thanks, I try. What irks me is the bowls are going to have flowers in the middle covering up the inside of the bowl. To me that is the best part of a bowl showing off the inner beauty of wood. Also , my wife is going to have some sort of raffle going as part of the games to give away the bowls to a certain person sitting at the table with the lucky number.

It doesn't matter, as long as my daughter is happy because it will be her day and if I can make it a little special by doing this for her it is worth all the time and effort.

As a side note, good luck on your new venture, chainsaw milling. The only reason I am mentioning this is because I was in your shoes some 6 to 8 years ago and got bitten by the milling bug and have been poking around the milling forum lately because in addition to the bowls another side project for this wedding is a mini wishing well made out of Red Cedar wood for the cards. I can't offer any more advice than what you have already gotten except get the biggest saw you can afford , preferably the pro model saws because that chainsaw milling is rough on a saw.


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## Quietfly (Dec 4, 2016)

That's what dad's are for to make our little girls lifes as good as we can. 
even if it means holding them the entire game and having to wait 3 hours to take a piss...


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## Ax-man (Dec 4, 2016)

Cool, been there and done that . I have to admit that was a long time ago for me.


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## Ax-man (Mar 19, 2017)

The florist sent a picture of the bowl(s) with the flowers . Like I said it is a shame to cover up a bowl like this but my daughter likes it and that is what counts.


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## Ax-man (Jun 24, 2017)

I know most here don't care for this kind of stuff but the wedding was last weekend. The bowls were a big hit for the people who won them in the raffle or lottery my wife set-up. Some of the women were actually upset they didn't win and asked if I could make one for them . Being the good guy I am ,I said I would if they pestered me enough  Anyway , here is a photo of one of the tables with the bowl and flowers as a centerpiece.


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