The learning curve, fortunately, is a quick one, and the reward for mastery is entry into the realm of the stacked ring bowl. Sometimes called a “bowl from a board,” it is constructed from concentric rings cut at a specific angle that allows them to stack with near-perfect alignment.

Straight Side Bowls

This angle is a function of wood thickness and ring width. It can be approximated, but for precision, it should be computed using a tangent table or an app, like the Angle Calculator at scrollmania.com.

When all cuts are made at this angle, the result is a bowl with straight sides of uniform thickness that can often be sanded with spindle and belt sanders.

Bowls of this type are usually cut from patterns that show all the rings, and their finished appearance runs the gamut from plain to dramatic.

Curving Side Bowls

As attractive as straight-sided bowls can be, the potential of the stacked ring approach is shown most clearly by bowls whose sides form graceful curves. The first cut of this type of bowl is made at the same computed angle as its straight-sided counterpart. At that point, the formulaic aspect ends and artistry begins.

By making subsequent cuts at progressively steeper angles, curved sides are created; the amount of curvature is dependent upon angle choice. Two different methods can be used. One results in bowls with gradually thickening sides, and the other with sides that remain uniform.

For greater flexibility in angle choice, curved-sided bowls are usually cut from patterns showing only the first ring. That ring becomes the template for the second; the second ring serves as a template for the third ring, and so on, until all the rings are cut. Because of their curvature, these bowls are best shaped and smoothed using small sanders chucked into a drill press.

Using Multiple Blanks

With a single blank, you can make a bowl that flares outward at the top and gradually tapers down to a smaller base. To construct more elaborate projects such as vases, or bowls whose upper rings curve inward, you’ll need to use one or more additional blanks. Rings cut from these blanks are added to the original set, and the project is finished as one unit.

Projects requiring more than two blanks are often assembled and sanded as subunits, then glued together for the final shaping.

Final Steps

While rings cut at a steep angle form the structure of a scrolled bowl, its ultimate appearance depends on the care taken with the procedures that follow the cuts. These steps (gluing, sanding and finishing) are often regarded as nuisances, to be dispensed with as quickly as possible. The result may be a bowl that disappoints rather than delights, with visible glue lines, irregular upper edges and a finish with drips and sags.

While many scroll saw projects are essentially complete once the cuts are made, scrolled bowls are not. They are most appropriately viewed as creative endeavors, in which careful cutting of the rings at a steep angle is only the first step in a process that can produce bowls comparable in beauty and artistry to those turned on a lathe.

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I opened the crate and stickered the live-edge slabs in my woodshed, where they languished until April of this year. Then, Ken and I set aside a solid week to build an 8′ live-edge table and two live-edge benches. We spent Monday morning moving the stickered slabs from the shed to the shop for inspection. At 2-3/8″, they were too thick for our Festool TS 55 Track saw, which has a maximum depth of cut of 1-15/16″, so I called my friends at Doll Lumber to see if they would plane them down to 1-7/8″. After running a metal detector over the slabs, we schlepped the wood to Doll’s yard — one of the smartest things we did all week. Suddenly, the wood came alive, showing us grain and character. As we sorted the wood back at the shop, Ken and I instantly agreed which slabs belonged in the table and the slab that would become the two benches. The wood spoke to us, and we were listening!

Scale Model for Testing

On Tuesday, we worked on the benches. We decided on a turned leg reminiscent of the designs of George Nakashima, who brought live-edge furniture to its zenith in the 1950s. We wanted a simple taper with a 1″ wedged through tenon in the slab, with the legs splayed at a 15° angle outward to where imaginary corners of the bench would be.

We tested the idea with a 1:50 scale model that we glued together with butt joints and super glue. This allowed us to ascertain the looks and the tip-over resistance of the design before fabricating a simple jig to drill the leg mortises through the slabs.

Wednesday morning, we picked slabs for cutting the trestle leg parts. With careful layout, we were able to get all the pieces for the trestles, plus a live-edge stretcher between, from two slabs.

Each support consisted of two uprights and two trestle crossmembers. In our design, it doesn’t matter which part of the supports is the “top” or the “bottom”: they can be rearranged so that the stretcher is either at floor level or abuts the underside of the table. The stretcher attaches to the uprights with heavy-duty knockdown hardware, allowing the table to be transported in pieces and easily assembled or disassembled.

Thursday was spent sanding all the pieces, including the table top and bottom. We beveled the trestles before assembly with a sharp 45° beveling bit to create absolutely uniform chamfers for a pleasing look.

For one large check in the wood, we chose to glue in a filler piece. First, we taped a piece of paper over the crack and rubbed the area with a soft pencil. We then glued this tracing to a suitable piece of walnut and band sawed the filler piece with the table set to 2°. This put taper into the walls, allowing the piece to be tapped into the void with lots of glue for lubrication. Once the glue was dry, we hand planed the patch level and it became nearly invisible.

Holding Up to the Sit Test

Friday was spent in all the details that are part of any project. We cut elongated holes in the trestle for attachment to the table and screwed metal inserts into the underside of the top so that it could be attached with machine screws and was free to expand or contract independent of the trestle. Once assembled as conceived, the table was rock-solid. Ken and I could both sit on it, and no gyration would budge it.

We disassembled the table and loaded it in my truck for the trip to Ken’s garage, where he spent the next 10 days applying an oil-based Waterlox finish that really brought out the color of the wood. The table now graces a Chicago apartment and will become a Zahka family heirloom. All in all, it was an action-packed week but very, very satisfying.

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Do you have a recommended finishing method for marquetry pictures, given that they typically incorporate a variety of wood types, wood grains, grain directions, etc.? Would you have any pro or con comments about the idea of finishing a marquetry picture with several coats (eight to ten) of Zinsser SealCoat Sanding Sealer, sanding between every two or three coats? I find that this product goes on rather easily and, since a marquetry picture doesn’t experience any appreciable wear, I thought it would be an acceptable alternative to the much “smellier” Deft® lacquer that I’ve been using for a number of years now.

— Robert Swanson
Wichita, Kansas

You chose wisely. Zinsser SealCoat Universal Sanding Sealer is pure, dewaxed shellac, and that is an excellent finish for a marquetry picture. Dewaxed shellac seals well over all woods, comes in a variety of hues, and has good wetting and clarity. I like to flood on the first coat liberally, then wipe it all off. Woods prone to absorb more finish will do so, resulting in very uniform sealing. Thus, by the time you get to the second coat, you have a more uniform surface than you started with.

Because it contains a polar solvent, the first coat of shellac will raise the grain of wood slightly, leaving it not rough, but furry. I like to knock back the “fur” with a very light scuff using 800-grit sandpaper, taking pains to avoid cutting through to raw wood. Because shellac dissolves itself with each coat, you don’t need to sand after that unless you get dust, dirt, brush marks or spray marks (runs, overspray, etc.) in the finish. As long as it goes on smoothly, there’s no need to sand between coats when using shellac.

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Techniques include: Working with a Benchtop Sander, Making Steep Angle Cuts with a Scroll Saw, Making Bowls from a Burl and Finishing Marquetry

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