Fun with a large maple bowl blank

The 17 inch bowl blank is part of a group of logs that were harvested from north Georgia.  Jerry German had a friend with a few trees which needed to be removed from their property.  A group of woodworkers harvested the trees, and we processed the logs into usable lumber and kiln dried the fresh cut boards.  This particular bowl blank was part of a log that was not processed into lumber.  The beautiful figure and chatoyancy in the wood is some of the most prominent I have ever seen from maple harvested in Georgia.  The maple blank has a very tight curl, some ambrosia and even had some spalting starting to show itself inside the wood.  The bowl blank used was placed inside a plastic bag, and then air dried after 5 weeks inside the plastic bag.  It was then air dried for 6 months before turning.  I took a chance on this blank, as the drying process was not long enough in my opinion for a certain outcome of not having the finished bowl crack or warp.  I have turned several other projects from the maple harvested and have not suffered any catastrophic failures, so I am taking a calculated risk based on what I have seen prior to this project.  I am crossing my fingers and hoping the strategy of turning it thinner than I normally would will help keep the cracking and warping to a minimum.

The blank mounted on a face plate, ready to start turning:

maple blank mounted

The bowl bottom is now shaped:

maple bowl bottom shaped

Shaping the inside profile to match the outside profile:

maple bowl top shaped

The bottom of the bowl finish sanded and sprayed with lacquer finish:

bowl bottom finished

Side profile of the finished bowl.  I turned this VERY thin with a classic ogee shape:

side profile of the maple bowl

I will post some finished pictures of the maple bowl in the bowl section of the gallery!!  The finished size was very close to 16 inches, which maximized the use of the wood used.