DIY Wooden Bowl

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You don't need specialized woodworking skills to shape this beautiful dish.

I had this block of cherry wood kicking around my workshop for years. It was a castoff from an old project because it had a split and a knot—but, it was too big and too nice to just throw away. I knew, in the back of my head, that it would make a nice something someday. A bunch of recent scrap wood projects we’ve done (like this step stool, coat rack, and bench) finally motivated me to figure out what that something might be.

After careful consideration—and a desire to test some carving discs for an angle grinder—I settled on an asymmetrical, shallow bowl. You would usually make a wooden bowl like this on a wood lathe. But making one with an irregular shape enables you to make the most of your block of wood and frees you from chasing circular perfection and the need for a lathe.

Making a free-form bowl like this doesn't require a lot of special woodworking tools. If you have an angle grinder, the only other things you’ll need (besides sandpaper) are the carving discs for the grinder. I did use an oscillating tool with finger sander attachments to making sanding the inside of the bowl go quicker, but that isn't necessary.

For the finish, I used tung oil because it's easy to use and brings out the natural beauty in the wood. After that cured, I used steel wool and paste wax to buff it into a soft, lustrous shine.

Sketch out the shape of the desired rim of the bowl to make the most of your scrap of wood. Be sure to clamp your wood securely to a bench or work surface.

I chose this convex carving disc to hollow out the depression in the center of my bowl.

Start by cautiously getting a feel for how the carving disc bites into the wood. I found this type of disc didn't bite or kick much, making it easy to control.

Once you get a feel for it, you’ll be able to carve out the inside pretty quickly. Make the bowl as deep or as shallow as you like, just don't grind away so much that you go clear through the wood or leave it too thin.

The disc can leave grooves though. Here's a closeup of what you’ll now need to sand away.

Grab the sandpaper. Start with a coarse grit like 60 or 80 and work up to at least 220. I used 60, 100, 220, and 320.

Sanding by hand is laborious, so I used a finger sanding attachment on an oscillating tool to get the deep imperfections out.

It will take a while, but eventually the bowl will look pretty smooth, like this—and then you’ll still need to sand some more. This is the longest part of the process, but time spent here doing it well pays off in the end.

With the inside sanding mostly done, you’ll need to mark the rim of your bowl.

With that done, carefully trim away the excess material around the edge. If you have a saw, you can cut most of it away and then clean it up with the carving disc.

Once you’ve trimmed around the edge of the bowl, you can mark the bottom of the bowl. You’ll carve up to this line and leave a flat area in the center that the bowl will sit on.

Clamp your bowl to a bench—I used a bench dog here, but any clamp that will reach the flat center will work. Start carving away the material to your desired bowl shape.

Work your way around the bowl, trying to keep a smooth, gentle curve.

Once you’re satisfied with the shape, you can start sanding the outside. Since this surface is a lot more accessible than the inside, your sanding should go much faster.

Once you’ve finished sanding, you’re ready to apply some finish to your bowl.

Whenever I’m finishing small woodworking projects, I make a drying stand out of some screws and a scrap of wood.

You can apply finish to the inside and outside of the bowl and then set it on the stand to dry without it sticking.

To keep you and your project clean, it helps to wear nitrile gloves when applying finish. I applied five coats of tung oil to the bowl using a rag, and waited several hours between coats. You don't need to worry too much about fingerprints or a little dust in the finish.

Once the tung oil has dried for at least 24 hours, the last step is to smear some paste wax on the finish and buff it with the steel wool. Buff until there's a smooth silky sheen to your bowl. If you’ve done it right, it will feel like there isn't really any finish on the wood at all.

Brad Ford has spent most of his life using tools to fix, build, or make things. Growing up he worked on a farm, where he learned to weld, repair, and paint equipment. From the farm he went to work at a classic car dealer, repairing and servicing Rolls Royces, Bentleys, and Jaguars. Today, when he's not testing tools or writing for Popular Mechanics, he's busy keeping up with the projects at his old farmhouse in eastern Pennsylvania.

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