I’ve seen a number of pieces of furniture made from plywood and liked the texture created from the many layers of the ply. I’ve seen kitchen worktops made from ply with the work surface being formed with the ply running vertically rather than horizontally and they looked amazing. It seemed perfectly logical that it should be possible to make a plywood bowl and achieve similar outcomes.
So having some off cuts of 18mm birch the blank was created – it was about 160mm square and 60mm deep. The first version must have included some pieces that I’d not properly removed previously applied coating or oil which resulted in a piece coming apart on the lathe at around 2000rpm. Bang!
No harm done except for a plywood off shoot sized hole in a tool box on the opposite side of my workshop!
Version 2 came along quite nicely. As is the case when turning end grain or ply it doesn’t half take the edge off the tools quickly but with patience, sharpening I think that the end result is well worth the effort.
Having enjoyed the challenges and danger of working with ply, I decided to have another go. This time building the blank in quarters and this time with plenty of preparation, careful gluing and curing.
This was destined to be a bowl from the outset. I wanted to see how the plys changed with the cut of the bowl. OK, it’s not the best of photos but gives an idea of the different patterns that develop.
