Wooden Bowls from the Scroll Saw: 28 Useful and Surprisingly Easy-to-Make Projects (Fox Chapel Publishing) Make Beautiful Vessels from Wood Without a Lathe (Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts Book)

I bought this book in 2010 being intrigued with the idea. I quickly made one bowl at the time but then set the book on the shelf as I was building a doll chest, tool chest and a couple desks which took priority. This year I picked the book back up and decided to try some more bowls for gifts. The first couple bowls didn't turn out since I had modified the thickness of wood the author clearly called for. It pays to read the clear instructions. I realized the mistake and started using her helpful chart on the angle of the cut and the thickness of the rings along with her patterns. Now I have not failed with the bowls I've tried since. I also switched to the Flying Dutchmen scroll saw blades the author recommends, which made an incredible difference. I made three bowls as gifts and everyone was thrilled. Even those who see them compliment them. I even received some requests to make some again for a charity auction. I really enjoy woodworking and am more new to some of the finer furniture making. What has been nice about these scroll saw bowls is that they are elegant, quicker to make, and cheaper because of the smaller amount of wood that is used compared with my other projects.It's clear that God has given this author a lot of talent and creativity which she has worked hard to develop and share with others. She also has a very helpful and interesting blog. I now am asking for her second book on boxes as a Christmas present from my wife and kids.

New to scroll saw art, I was in search of books with ideas and techniques to get me started using the new Craftsman machine that proudly sits on my shop bench. The book "Wooden Bowls" looked intriguing, so I bought it, and finally, today, decided to make a bowl for the very first time. Was there a learning curve? YES! for a newbie to the art, barely able to cut a straight line, I was challenged by cutting curves and especially using a tilted table. But it did it! I broke 2 blades, BUT I DID IT! And in the process I learned something about appropriate blades for this kind of work as well as the best cutting speed to ensure smooth, continuous cuts and curves. I made the very 1st bowl in the book . . . the "easy one." It is sitting in my shop, glued and drying as we speak. I think it turned out great! I can hardly wait until tomorrow to start step #2 which is smoothing and sanding and installing the base."Wooden Bowls" is a great book, easy to follow, and inspirational, and definitely delivers what it purports to do. I don't consider myself a highly skilled wood worker, yet I was able to make a nice little bowl, the very first time. If you are inclined to scroll art and attracted to the idea of making a bowl using a scroll saw, this book will take you there and beyond. All you need to add is a little patience, and if you are like me, a couple extra blades for your saw.Tim WittmanGuemes Island, Washington

Making Bowls started as idea not to waste wood. I'm a scroller for 4 years and after making several of these bowls, I was asked if I would teach a class on making bowls. Started with 12 retired folks, of which 2 were ladies with no experience with wood working tools.But they knew how to run a sewing machine and that put the men a a slight disadvantage.Pictures and instructions were understood by the class once they knew they had to follow the instructions.Extra time was spent on reading and understanding the making of the first bowl, which made making the rest in the book fall right into place. One of the ladies went home to her home state and ended up teaching her wood shop of retired woodworkers how to make wooden Bowls.Every one in last years class is back and advancing to the more interesting and challenging bowls. Highly recommend this book, you are limited only by your imagination of what you can do once you make your first bowl.

I never thought about creating a bowl on a scroll saw but it looked pretty cool. This book made the process very easy to understand and gives excellent instructions. The step by step photos also help greatly for those of us who learn better by being shown how to do it. I have made many bowls based on the knowledge gained from this book. It also has a very handy chart in the back that gives you the proper angle for cutting different thicknesses of rings and wood, making it easy to design your own bowls. I discovered the author Carole Rothman also has a blog where she follows up on this book and gives ongoing support, advice, and video tutorials, all for free...all I can say is WOW! I highly recommend it.

book was well preserved and in great shape!

I thought that I had the basic idea of how to make a bowl from a single flat piece of wood, but this book really gave me new, useful knowledgeable information on how to make some beautiful, custom creations.I can use either my scroll or band saw to cut the boards into segments for gluing, and I can still mount these roughed out bowls on my lathe to thin and sand them if I want to.The really neat thing is that I can do this frugally without leaving a bunch of chips and dust on the floor. (All that paid for, wasted material from a now hollow big block of wood).Well written and beautifully illustrated, enjoy some possibilities...!

Lets start with a WOW. I love the clever designs of the bowls the author has generously shared in her techniques in this book.The book contains pictures of beautiful bowls with the step by step process so that we too can make these on our scroll saws.I loved having the book on the coffee table and showing guests the photos of some of the designs and asking them to guess how such a beautiful bowl was made.Time to go out to the workshop to make my own bowls.

Very informative book. Carole did a great job in writing this one. Easy to read and understand and if you follow her instructions your bowls will turn out beautifully. Already made two bowls and awaiting more wood from my supplier to make more complicated ones.

I love the idea of wood turning, but just cannot believe I'd want to make enough, bowls, pepper mills etc. to justify the massive cost of all the equipment required. It is also, as indeed is pointed out in this book, very wasteful on what can be very expensive woods as most of it ends up as sawdust! However, as a model aircraft builder and flier I had just replaced my old, cheap, scroll saw with the brilliant Axminster EX-16 which is absolutely perfect for the techniques described in this book as, unlike all the others, the bed stays flat and the arm tilts over.The techniques to make bowls, vases, etc using a scroll saw are very well described in the book which takes you through many different designs and, really, are not difficult to do as long as you can cut ok at angles up to 45 degrees and are able to drill holes at the same angles (the book explains how to make a drilling jig for a hand drill if you don't have a pillar drill that can handle angles).The only problem, if you do not also have a big bandsaw, planer/ jointer and thicknesser (at which point costs are soaring again) is that whilst in the USA getting thinner wood (6mm - 20mm thick) perfect for scrollsawing and box making, etc. is really easy in absolutely everything from Ash, Oak etc right through to wonderful exotics such as African Blackwood and Zebrawood. In the UK, every single one of the specialist and exotic wood suppliers I can find has vast stocks of wood turning blanks and absolutely none of the thinner sheets of wood you ideally need for this.Fortunately I found Surrey Timbers who were really helpful, had planks of wood to drool over and said they would happily mill the wood down for me. One other supplier I might try is SLEC, they specialise in modelling supplies but have 4 inch wide by 36" or 48" long Walnut, Mahogany and Basswood (Lime) in everything from 1/16" to 1/2" in 1/16" steps. The book does also explain well how to adjust the angles, widths etc used in the patterns if you do use woods of different thicknesses.To try my hand at following one of the designs without possibly ruining expensive woods I resorted to gluing some old Mahogany veneer to cheap Birch ply. My wife was so impressed with the result that even this wood produced that I completed the sanding and varnishing as can be seen in the attached photo.Now to start gluing bits of PurpleHeart and Chamfuta together........ ;-)

I have given this book 5 stars as it is very imformative as regards how to produce a bowl using this method .....i have had an attempt at doing what was described ....but i think i need alot of practice to produce the quality shown in the book .....but hopefully i will get better with practicethumbs up from meDave

Very informative Instructions concise

Nice and clear writing. Lovely projects

If you are interested in making wooden bowls, using your scroll saw, in my opinion you can do no better than obtaining this book.Clear, precise instructions, together with a number of interesting projects to get you started.