I’ve blown through enough bottoms of bowls to realize two main things:
- I need to be more patient
- I probably need a depth gauge
The patience I’m just going to have to work on, but I can remedy the depth gauge issue.
I’ve had some ideas for a while as to how to make one. Sure, I could just buy one, but where’s the fun in that?
I found a machinist pocket depth gauge at an estate sale and thought it would be a perfect piece for a starter gauge. Better still, I already have a bunch of teak from a landscaping trellis that I took apart. That just meant one thing: it was time to pull out the hand tools and make a new tool.
I cut the teak to 12 inches long. I could probably have gone shorter, but it works for now. From there it was a matter of centering the gauge on the strip of teak and chiseling out a little slide space. Once I was happy with the depth I glued on the clip for the gauge to slide on.
At this point, the only thing left to do was give it a light sanding to remove any raised grain but still keep as much of the patina as possible and seal the wood up. I opted for two coats of Danish Oil to bring out the color and am really pleased with the results.
Now I just have to remember to be patient and actually use my new tool!