# Bethlehem Olive wood bowl with pen.



## edstreet (Sep 18, 2012)

This is the euro I did recently, I made something to go with it. It is about 5 1/2" wide and 2 3/4" deep. Not bad overall and this is my first Olive wood bowl and I have one more block to turn.  On that one I think I am going to do something radical shape wise.

















This is the bowl while it was being turned.  

Here we have the faceplate going onto the trunk, yes I turned top to bottom because well Bethlehem Olivewood tends to be small and I made do with what I had. My Supernova G2 chuck on the side with 4" jaws on it and my chisels on the magnet strip: Parting tool, Skew, 8" decimal/fraction/metric digital caliper, Side scraper and Round nose scraper.





Trying to get the most out of the bottom of the bowl, wanted max real estate as I could get out of this blank.





Double chucking! the only way to turn. face plate on one side, chuck on the other. perfect alignment every time.










Old Masters for the win!  No petro products in there just pure nut oil and following FDA guidelines/approval.





Starting the core it was very tight to get into the good grain structure with out having the sap wood figure on the walls, I wanted good figure to show like it was smearing down the walls and settling on the bottom.  Tail stock gets pushed up to the face plate, revolving center, and I keep it on there as long as possible.





Bowl cored, sanded and after 3rd oiling. I think I nailed that runny look on the walls just fine. Even left some bark on the outside for aesthetics 





All total I have about 20 coats of tung oil on there then some Carnauba wax and beeswax.


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## Old Lar (Sep 18, 2012)

Wow, that is a beautiful pair!  
Thanks for the step by step pictures.  Very helpful for a new bowl turner like myself.


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## Jim Burr (Sep 18, 2012)

Stupid crazy figure! Not crazy about the stylis/pen...but the bowl and figure...Shazzaam!!


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## el_d (Sep 18, 2012)

Very cool figure in that wood.  Love the "touch me" look of the finish.


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## robutacion (Sep 19, 2012)

Ain't Olive wood, if is doesn't have cracks, making them part of the piece, which some would say, "make them a feature...!" isn't always that easy but, with such and amazing heartwood such as that log, anything will go with it, period...!

The best finishes for Olive wood are always "natural Oils" so, your piece is within what I would recommend.

Hollowing through the end grain of Olive wood, can be a challenge, particularly if the wood is very dry, yours seem to be fairly new wood, there is, cut about 2 to 3 years ago, which dried right is just enough to bring the wood to about 18 to 20%MC, that for Olive wood is very workable and quite pleasant to work with.

Just a great piece of wood, made into a very simple but rather good looking bowl...! Congrats.:wink:

Cheers
George


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## Steve Busey (Sep 19, 2012)

Wow, great looking wood, Ed! I've never seen a Bethlehem olivewood log section - I thought they only pruned, never cut B.O.

Any chance you can bring that up the penturners meet at Atlanta Woodcraft this Saturday, to show it off? You're already from Georgia, so you wouldn't have to worry about shots and visas! :tongue:


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## rizaydog (Sep 19, 2012)

Nice work.  Olivewood is great.


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## edstreet (Sep 19, 2012)

MC was around 12-13%, hollowing it out was a pain, chisel would not cut the pith that well and would jump all to often when near it.  I only had 1 scrape on my hand and right hand hit me in the jaw one time when I was about half way thru.  Also had this stale/old olive smell at times and all of that is out.

As for trimming vs cutting. To make trees, shrubs and the like grow more you often need to prune them.  Cut the old branches so it will form new ones is how you  invigorate them. Now one thing I have noticed is olive wood here in the states has horrible figure because of this.  European olive wood that is imported has much better grain figure than the native European olive wood growing in California area.


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## SDB777 (Sep 20, 2012)

Very cool!!  It'd be hard to pick a favorite between these two.....but I gotta go with the bowl




Scott (beauty of a chunk) B


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## kronewi (Sep 20, 2012)

Now that is one awesome combination. Beautiful figure in that wood. Great Job!!!


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## Glen Schumann (Sep 20, 2012)

Beautiful on both!  Thanks for the photos and tutorial.


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## onewaywood (Sep 27, 2012)

WOW those are both fantastic where on earth do you get logs like that ?


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## jasontg99 (Sep 27, 2012)

Ed,

    That is a ridiculously awesome bowl.  Absolutely beautiful.

Jason


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