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salad-bowl-finish-cherry-80 Creative Bath. Volume: Choose an option. So there are several trade-offs between performance and expense when it comes to sanding disks. The end grain needs to be sanded with the lathe off. I would be interested to know your thoughts on a bowl that I turned recently for a salad bowl finish cherry 80 that had died, was left standing, stripped of bark and then fell, I believe its white oak, but not sure. Who really enjoys sanding?

Simply think of the right side of the sanding pad as being linear and line it up with the grain as you sand.

Keep the pad moving without stopping in one area. A long pause can remove too much material and leave a mark. Also, let the sanding disk do the work. You should not be pressing hard on the disk. If you find yourself pressing to make the disk sand, it might be time to replace the sanding disk. Turning and twisting your wrist will position the sanding pad side in various locations to better line up with any wood grain flow.

In step four described above, I typically work from the outer rim around the bowl several times sanding the grain until I reach the center.

The active lathe sanding only takes a minute or so. The better your turning skills get, the less sanding you will do. I used to start at 80 and go to , , , and then Now, most of the time I only sand , and Bowl Carving Vise grit.

Three grits reduce the sanding time even further. With the lathe spinning, like in step three, do not cross the center line during power sanding. Stopping at the center may seem strange at first, but crossing the center line equals double sanding. The area sanded right before reaching the center point is the same area on the other side of the center point. If you cross the center and sand on the other side, a trough or shallow valley will begin to form around the bowl bottom center.

The purpose of progressing through various sanding grits is to remove the scratches and marks from the previous sandpaper grit. The sandpaper grits need to progress in a way that is most efficient time-wise but also does the job of removing the previous marks. Each sandpaper grit is fifty-percent finer than the previous grit.

An example of this progression is 80, , , or depending on manufacturer , , , and so on. Depending on how smooth your surface is, you may begin at or I usually start at and proceed up to That process is only four changes of the sanding pad and does not take much time. Sanding smoother than closes the wood cell pores and makes it difficult for the oil finish to penetrate.

Yes, you can sand green wood. High-quality sanding pads work best. If a wood is sopping wet, I will let it turn on the lathe at a slow speed for ten or fifteen minutes. Pausing a bit after turning the surface usually allows enough evaporation to make sanding much more manageable.

Green wood can be nasty to sandpaper. The wet fibers combined with the tree resins can quickly gum up regular sandpaper rendering it useless. They will cut green wood, just not as long as the Mirka brand sanding pads. Mirka sanding pads, made of a mesh material, are easy to clean off, usually just pulling them off the velcro foam pad is enough.

A quick shack off and they go back on ready to continue. The downside of the Mirka pads is that mesh material will grab the irregular surface of a natural edge bowl and tear. The Hurricane Blue sanding pads being a flat and even paper material do not grab rough edges often and do fine on drier woods. So there are several trade-offs between performance and expense when it comes to sanding disks.

For me, I find blending the features of two different types of pads works best. These are the wood bowl sanding tools and finishing techniques I use in my bowl making process. And here is my Recommended Sanding Equipment. Please leave a comment below and let me know how you sand and what bowl sanding tools you use when finishing your bowls.

Do you have a recommendation on the optimum RPM to use on the drill used to spin the sanding discs. I recently purchased an inexpensive electric drill specifically for sanding bowls.

Is that fast enough? Many of the more expensive drills that could be used for this purpose have a Max RPM of around Does the RPM of the sanding disc matter, or is that not a concern?

Interesting question. And the lathe speed is usually half of the speed used while turning. Simply the fact the two surfaces are turning creates plenty of motion to sand very effectively.

Great presentation. Found this on the web as I have found myself taking a lot of time sanding bowls. Now I know why!!!!!. I used your technique and I must say I cut my time down dramatically and with less utterances of foul words coming out. Thanks for your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL, less foul words is always better. LOL, Glad this helped! Happy Turning! I use an air powered mini random orbit sander from Ken Rizza. It holds 2 or 3 inch sanding pads and has become my go to sander for bowls.

Hi Kent. Will you please explain the reverse function when it comes to sanding. Any clarity on this subject is much appreciated. Cheers, Al South Australia.

Some people like to reverse the lathe for some of the sanding, in order to remove fibers that may be laying over instead of sanded away. Similar to shaving in opposite directions. Thank you. I would be interested to know your thoughts on a bowl that I turned recently for a tree that had died, was left standing, stripped of bark and then fell, I believe its white oak, but not sure.

In creating the bowl there was a fait a mount of tear out however I got past that hurdle, and when finished, sanded and went up to and applied Tried and True, once in the house and use a couple of times the surface became rough and raised..

Should I apply more Tried and True? Many Questions! It would be great to hear your thoughts and Ideas Many Thanks Andrew. I like to think of turned oak bowls more like leather than wood. Ripples and movements seem to never stop coming, even after many applications of oil finish. Be sure you apply the first coat very thin with zero build up. If the wood surface is discolored by the oil, that is enough finish. This helps penetrate into the wood until the surface wood cells become saturated with finish.

So you may need to add many layers of finish. Make each layer super thin and wait for it to cure. Basically wait until the surface just feels smooth and has no hint of stickiness. As always, sage advice Kent, thank you so much for spending time to reply. It occurs to me that information about different wood types is equally important as to their status dried vs wet etc etc. Yes, every different tree has plenty to discover. A very experienced local turner and friend clued me in to wet-sanding.

I discovered a great alternative — butcher block conditioner, available at your local building supply center. It contains food-grade mineral oil, beeswax and carnauba wax. Using the oil will even bring a gummed-up old piece of emery paper back to life instantly, clearing out the resins stuck in the grit. This is a great side benefit for a frugal woodworker, but the best part is that if you keep around some pieces of emery paper in varying states of wear, you basically increase the range of grits you have to choose from.

I usually have several pieces of and grit paper in various states of wear. You can get a piece of worn paper to cut that just feels like a piece of smooth ordinary paper. This technique quickly produces a very silky-smooth finish with some nice depth to the grain. I will then often finish the piece with another type of salad bowl finish or friction polish. Kent, what an amazing website! Well done sir. To quote Jerry, I stumbled on your site a few days ago and agree it is amazing.

As you promised, so much info all in one place. What am I doing wrong? When I first learned this I had to think about it a bit. If you sand from the bottom up as I do, then cross the center point, you just sanded the area around the center twice. This makes a valley or groove around the center point. Instead, sand up to the center point but do not cross the center, with the lathe running slow. Stop the lathe and sand the center area smooth, sanding with the surface grain pattern.

Let me know if that helps. Check out this recently released article I made just to address your question about grain orientation. Am I correct to believe that you are making the bowl from the side of the log instead of the end grain? Thanks and really enjoyed your article…I saved it to refer back to once I actually start turning bowls. Yes, most wood bowls are side-grain oriented.

Of course, there are also bowls made with end-grain oriented wood. It can be done either way, but for the most part, bowls are made with side-grain oriented wood. In context of sanding, are there any other circumstances other than green wood where you prefer to use the mesh over paper?

Thanks for the question. In general, I use the mesh pads most of the time because they last longer, grip the velcro backing well, and perform very well compared to the paper sanding disks. I usually use the paper disks when I know the wood is going to eat them up, like when it is green for example. The grain runs all over the place and appears to be quite a problem to sand without getting scratches. Any recommendations on getting this thing smooth other than hand sanding it?

If so, I would recommend making very thin finishing cuts to leave the surface as smooth as possible. Turn the lathe up as fast as possible without creating any vibration, staying within safe limits, see this article. Now make a very thin and slow final pass basically shaving the surface. For deeper tear out or marks on the surface, you may need to make a couple passes like this. Be sure the gouge is perfectly sharpened and make the feed rate of your gouge very slow and deliberate. Helpful as always and always more questions.

Have you used a random orbital sander? Compare that to the basic drill please. On a well turned bowl of average size you define that what is an average amount of time you spend power sanding and hand sanding? I have never used an orbital sander on my bowls. The disk pad would be too large. Sanding time depends on many factors; wood hardness, moisture content, bowl gouge skills, etc. On average a inch bowl takes about 5 to 10 minutes to sand.

If there are trouble areas then the time might increase a bit. I do no hand sanding usually, only lathe on and then lathe off sanding all with the electric drill. I spell that out in this article. Absolutely excellent article Kent, as always. While I am up in age and self taught turning sanding always been a mystery to me. Like you I wanted to be turning not standing there rubbing my bowl with a piece of paper. I did a respectable job using 3 or four grits and sanding the entire surface No one ever really told me what I was doing wrong.

You article opened my eyes as to what I was doing wrong. Finally someone opened my eyes to exactly what I was doing wrong. I finally turned and finished a bowl that I was truly happy with. From the first bowl they have improved, now I am turning out bowls that I am truly proud of. This does prove you can teach an old dog new tricks. Thanks for the tips they are a real learning tool. Charles Harmon.

Please let me know how else I may help. I have a friend who loves to finish and he does a great job of sanding and finishing but spend many hours doing so. Your email address will not be published. All Holland Bowl Mill bowls come with a lifetime guarantee. If your bowl ever cracks or warps from regular use, Holland Bowl Mill will replace it with a new one of similar size and finish. Never let water stand in a wood bowl for a long period of time and never clean wood bowls or any wood product in the dishwasher.

Holland Bowl Mill recommends using water and a small amount of mild soap to clean your wood products, then hand dry.

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