Is there a market for roughed out bowls.

http://www.roughoutbowls.com/ *LINK*

Mike Schwing from Md.

>Apparently there is a market... link below


RoughOutBowls.com

Re: Is there a market for roughed out bowls.

Arch

>Dave, in no way am I questioning whether it is

'right, meet & proper' to finish someone else's roughed out bowl, just wondering.

Is the finished bowl a collaboration?

Is it necessary to acknowledge the 'rougher'?

Is the value of the finished piece related to the stature of the 'rougher'? If so, is there a warm glow in feeling that I have a bowl by ...?

Is using the convenient _impersonal roughing worth losing the satisfaction of _personal design?

Is this really no different than a painter buying stretched canvas?

Is this really no different than using store- bought tools, blanks, etc?

'Is I' asking a string of stupid questions? :)

Since the market is mostly other turners, I would think that rough-outs would be marketed best where turners meet. I saw them sell well at the Florida Symposium, but at a tiny fraction of what the seller would get if the rough-out was finished.

I imagine a busy professional turner would have 'in house' roughers. I also imagine that most hobbiests would want to design and make bowls, start to finish. It would be interesting to ascertain not only if there is a market , but also who it should be aimed at.

Turn to Safety, Arch

Re: Is there a market for roughed out bowls.

Fred in NC

>Dave: In general I would think most turners would rather turn bowls from scratch. ( I don't mean from ground corn, which would be corny, of course!) I can imagine your shelves loaded with ready to finish blanks as a result of all your experiments!

However, a couple ideas pop into my mind.

First, if I was in a hurry to complete one or more bowls, and I could get them dry and ready to go, I might be inclined to buy them, especially if I could have a choice of woods and sizes.

Also, a roughed-up blank is much lighter, with the consequent savings in shipping costs. That alone would make it attractive to me.

I imagine this would apply mostly to functional bowls, since there is no way somebody is going to stock shapes for one-off artistic turnings.

Your quick-drying method, however, has somewhat spoiled the game!

If you can do it without spending a lot of money in advertising, I would say give it a try.

Re: Is there a market for roughed out bowls.

Fred in NC

>My views:

Yes, no, no, no, no, yes, no, no.

Re: Is there a market for roughed out bowls.

Arch

>Dave, I assume that mainly you want to recover some of the costs of your drying experiments. After selling your surplus experimental bowls, I wonder if you could compete with the imported WalMart & Target bowls used as rough outs. I've seen some pretty good timber and basic forms there at prices that few turners could reasonably match. Even better 'rough-outs' at cheaper prices can often be had at local flea markets. However, I vaguely remember being wrong once. :)

once.

Turn to Safety, Arch

Ground Corn... MMMMMMMM

Tom Mullane - Hagerstown, MD

>"In general I would think most turners would rather turn bowls from scratch. ( I don't mean from ground corn, which would be corny, of course!"

Ground corn... MMMMMMM with all the cobs I have I wonder how I could bond them to make bowl material... LOL....

OK OK.. I know I am loosing it... but it is intriguing... LOL

Casting resin !!!

Fred in NC

>Hehe Tom !!!

You already know where to find the instructions for acrylic resin casting. Just mix the scratch with the resin, and pour it in the mold.

Just watch out, chickens and turkeys will try to get in the way.

There might be.

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

>Dave,

I've been around woodworking just long enough to learn that there is a huge range of folks who work with wood and call themselves woodworkers, or turners in this case.

Some folks will buy a pre-cut woodworking kit, assemble it, slap on some poly and call that woodworking. I guess it is but it's not all that creative I must say.

I'd guess the same holds true for turning. I'd guess there are folks out there who don't want to mess with all the initials steps. They just want something they can do easily and finish quickly. So maybe there is a market for that. Nothing ventured nothing gained eh?

Tommy

Re: Is there a market for roughed out bowls.

eric

>I'm very new to turning, just bought my first lathe - a jet mini - in July, now I'm hooked.

Anyway, after getign the lathe and doing some small center work, I was wanted to try a bowl so I went looking for thick wood to turn into piles of shavings and firewood. In the course of my travels I met a professional turner who also owns a small lumber business. After explaing that I was looking for thick stock to learn bowl turning he told me he sold roughed out bowl blanks. As a complete beginner I thought it was neat because I could buy the dried roughed out blanks and work on learning to turn bowls immediately, thereby accelerating the learning process. IIRC he was charging $10-15 for a blank. I didn't buy any at the time but have thought about going back.

picture?

eric

>No idea why it says there is a picture. I did not post/attach a picture.

Re: Is there a market for roughed out bowls.

Arch

>Hi Eric, I think that by using rough-outs you would learn how to finish bowls, but you would need the thick blanks that you sought to learn how to make bowls. Carried to an absurdity, on one hand you would have to begin by planting a tree. On the other hand you could just buy and sign a finished bowl.:) I make no argument for or against using logs, blanks or rough-outs; just trying to help Dave determine if there is a market for rough-outs and if so where it lies.

Turn to Safety, Arch