Pole lathe bowl turning at the Bodger’s Barn

Just spent the day with my friend Mace, who runs green wood working courses. We set a pole lathe (a traditional foot powered lathe) up for turning bowls. Here’s the results, an 8 inch bowl in ash (you can clearly see the long spiral tool marks which are found on medieval bowls):

Pole lathe turned bowl in ash

I burnished it (polishing it with a handful of shaving while still on the pole lathe) which even slightly burnt the edge of the bowl:

Detail of edge of bowl - see where it's been slightly burnt while burnishing

The bowl is so thin (about 7-8mm) and it’s still green so the sun shines through it quite easily (but not easy to photograph!):

Sunlight shining through the green wood bowl