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Thread: Making a silver bowl

  1. #1
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    Default Making a silver bowl

    I have been asked to make a small silver bowl, like for sweets. I have dapping tools, could they be used in conjunction with a sandbag to achieve a bowl or do I need to get a pitch bowl and other tools?

  2. #2
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    How big a bowl do you want to make, what diameter and how deep. Also do you have a lathe?
    I make my bowls either by spinning if they are large, or just by using mallets and hammers if they are small. I asked about whether you have access to a lathe because if not used for spinning a bowl, I also use my lathe for turning hollow indentations in wood so that I can roughly shape a bowl before using a hammer to plannish it. Sandbags are useful but they are not as good as shaping inside a wooden hollow.

    Below is one of my smaller sweet bowls 150mm diameter and 75mm deep, and it was shaped by spinning.

    James

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by Goldsmith; 14-06-2012 at 05:15 PM.

  3. #3
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    Hi James, well it is just in the discussion stage at the moment but I started off by saying 10cm diameter and dishing that so not very big at all, though this may be adjusted later and looking at your example that would appear to be exactly the kind of size she wants. I have no clue what spinning is, but could a bowl of the dimensions you have shown be beaten into a wooden former as you have suggested? I can certainly carve out a bowl shape in wood manually. I am not hoping in my wildest dreams to achieve a finish such as yours, a more rustic and organic effect is all that I will be able to do :0).

    Oh and I have no access to a lathe.
    Last edited by Kwant; 14-06-2012 at 05:59 PM. Reason: diameter not square duh

  4. #4
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    Yes shaping a small bowl inside a hollow is easy with a decent domed mallet. This was one of the first jobs I was given when I was an apprentice, I had to make copper ladles for pickling. Shaping them up from 150mm discs. Metal spinning is shaping a disc of metal over a revolving wooden chuck by using a large polished steel tool like a large burnisher, the shaping process is quick if you have a decent lathe, I use spinning techniques for shaping many fittings on my jobs. See; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLpiI...eature=related for an example of small metal spinning.

    James

  5. #5
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    Many thanks James will look at the vid in a while dinner is ready.

  6. #6
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    This video shows the basic method of shaping a bowl in a wood hollow; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKcTU...eature=related
    I would use a larger domed hard wood mallet for this process.
    After this rough shaping I was taught to finish the bowls by hammering on the outside onto a large domed steel shape tool held in a vise.

    James

  7. #7
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    Thanks again James I watched that video and found his 2nd and 3rd steps, very interesting and encouraging. I suspect I will try first on copper to see how it goes. The only problem I foresee is the shaping of the base as I have no stakes, and after a quick search on google find they are quite pricy, still, worth thinking on.

  8. #8
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    If only I hadn't sold my lathe :-( It was a top of the range free standing lathe from Axminster and I loved it. For a while I had a reasonably profitable business selling my turned wooden bowls and chalices but I had to give up the wood turning for health reasons. Don't you just hate it when you sell something and then realise you still have a use for it. I couldn't afford a lathe of that quality nowadays
    Di x

  9. #9
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    I would advise anyone who loves metal work to look into getting a lathe, they don't have to be expensive as wood turners lathes are perfect for us hand workers. As Kwant says steel stakes can be quite expensive, but if I want a nice dome to work on I find that ten minutes on a lathe turning a piece of Lignum Vitae gives me a wooden stake that is hard enough to hammer on. I buy many different hardwood bowl blocks that are sold for wood turners, they cost very little. I turned one of these bowl blocks with a hollow and it is great for shaping bowls.
    For a cheap lathe here is an example; http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster...8/?src=froogle

    James

  10. #10
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    To add to the lathe suggestion here is another use, I have in the past turned wooden bases for some of my work. Here is an example of one of my birds on a rosewood base.
    James

    Click image for larger version. 

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