PROJECT 50

BURNED BOWL

One of my more vivid childhood memories is sitting around a campfire with my dad as I made a burned out bowl using coals.

Not only is this a fun way to make a useful item, this technique has been used by Native Americans to build much larger items like log canoes without the use of any tools.

It is very simple to do, and doesn’t take much time, but as with any fire project, you need to take care not get burned, and ensure you have some means to extinguish fire close at hand.

The Material

Material:

•   Small or medium sized piece of solid wood

•   Campfire

•   Boiled linseed oil or vegetable oil

Tools:

•   Metal tongs, or a green limb trimmed in the middle and bent into tongs

•   Metal spoon, sharp rock or other scraper

•   Fire extinguisher, water hose, or bucket of sand

•   Knife

•   Straw (Optional)

•   Sandpaper

•   Rag

Procedure:

1.     Light a campfire and let it burn to coals.

2.     If you don’t have a set of metal tongs, make one by finding a straight length of green branch about 2 feet long and as big around as an adult thumb. Make sure this is from a non-poisonous hardwood tree like oak.

3.     Trim off any small side branches, and carefully scrape down a few inches of the branch in the center of the limb. By scraping down a little past halfway through the green branch, you should be able to bend it without breaking.

4.     Trim the ends to make a semi-flat end to enable you to use the bent branch as tongs to pick up small rocks. Don’t cut too much or the hot coals may burn through.

Set coals on your bowl

5.     Once the fire is burned to hot coals, and your tongs are ready, use them to pick up a couple coals and place them on the center of the wood you want to burn out.

Blow to cause coals to burn out your bowl

6.     Blow gently on the coal where it meets the wood. A straw may help direct the air. The idea is to carefully burn small areas of the wood in a controlled area.

7.     Once the wood chars a little, dump out the coal and scrape out the charred area.

Gouge out charred wood and add coals until bowl is deep as you desire

8.     By strategic use of the coals, air, and scraping, a depression can be burned out of the log.

9.     Once the log is burned deep enough to make a bowl that satisfies, scrape it out completely, and sand it until you are happy with both the inner bowl and outer wood.

10.   Once sanded, pour oil onto the bowl and rub it in with the rag.* It may take several coats and a couple days, but eventually the oil will soak in and harden and make a very pretty and useful bowl.

*Oils and natural rag fibers can become hazardous. As the oil oxidizes in the rag it will make heat. Many shops have burned when the heat ignites the rag. I always burn my rags after using them with oil.

Lessons Learned:

This project teaches the confidence of mastering fire—It shows that with knowledge and care dangerous things can be mastered and turned into tools.

It is also a primal outlet for creativity and artistry. These bowls are useful, but they can be beautiful and valuable works of art.

It also can be used to grow appreciation for modern items like plastic bowls.