How to make a wooden bowl?

There are a few tools I use for bowl making. I don’t personally use a lathe. I like freeform bowls that have more natural curves and show off the grain of the wood.

To carve bowls I use a series of carbide discs attached to an angle grinder along with an aggressive disc that removes the bulk of the waste wood.

An arbortech disc is how I remove heavy material. The arbotech tool has carbide teeth that will scrape through the wood. This forms the rough shape of the bowl quickly. Once I get the form to shape I like I’ll move to carbide sanding discs to refine the curves and prepare the surface for sanding.

Sanding from 60 -220 takes the longest to ensure a quality surface. The lowest grit (60) gets the surface smooth and ensures a quality final shape. The higher grits are used to work the surface to a higher sheen. The higher the grit the shinier the surface.

Once the wood has been sanded to the final product it important to seal the wood. I use sanding sealer for this to harden the wood fibers. Sanding sealer soaks into the wood and protects it from moisture. If the wood is a high oil fiber like teak or ipa sanding sealer isn’t required.

The next step is to wet the wood which raises the grain before a final sanding to the desired sheen.

Finally a good oil is needed to seal the surface and protect the wood. I use natural oils for this so the bowl can be used with food for consumption. Walnut, mineral, or even olive oil can be used for this purpose.