Hard Maple Salad Bow, continued-near miss with disaster

 Hi Everyone,

 Well, I finished all of my chores for the day and decided to reward myself with several hours of wood turning. Wow, what an afternoon this turned out to be. 

I finished hollowing out the bowl, got it to the depth I wanted and it looked really great. The next step was to refine the bottom and sides of the interior and I began this with some bowl scrapers I have. The bottom looked smooth but the sides had a lot of ridges and some torn fibers that the bowl scraper wouldn't remove.  

The project had gone well up to now and I'll admit I got a little cocky and reached for the fingernail gouge to smooth out some of the issues. I adjusted the tool rest, turned on the lathe and before I knew it -BANG!!-I had a catch. Not just any catch. A catch long enough and deep enough to nearly cut the bowl in half. And it almost came off the lathe. 

I let out a big yell and stopped the lathe. My husband came out to see what was going on and my heart nearly stopped when I realized what had happened. If that bowl had come off the lathe, I'd probably be in a hospital ER someplace with some terrible injuries. And heaven knows where the bowl would be.

So I collected myself and looked at the bowl and decided I could remove the catch. So I put it back on the lathe, turned the speed down, and got out the bowl scraper again and patiently removed the catch. The walls of the bowl are still substantial and the bottom of the bowl probably closely match the thickness of the walls. So I decided to end the turn at that point and begin sanding.

Here are some photos of the bowl at this point:

Here are two photos of the inside of the bowl. I think you can see the depth of the bowl better in the first photo. The bowl is nearly 2 1/4" deep:

The next several photos should the side and the underside of the bowl. I will be removing some of the thickness of the foot of the bowl at the very end of the project:

When I stopped turning, I began sanding the inside of the bowl. I usually begin with 100 grit paper but today with the amount of scratching inside of the bowl sides, I began with 80 grit sandpaper on a disc. The bowl will require more sanding with 100 grit sandpaper and this will take time so I'll be working on this over the weekend.

As for the fingernail gouge, it's resting in the very rear of my tool drawer where it will stay for a while. 

And I'll be taking a nap.

VW