Thread: A custom soap dish

Here's a lidded soap dish I made to house a puck of La Savonierre du Moulin. Some of you caught a sneak peek of this in the "What are you working" on thread, but here's some pics of the entire process. The bowl base is Olive wood that I actually roughed turned 15 years ago when I was around 20 years old. Dad had found it while going through some of his wood in his shop and threw it to me and said, "remember that piece." I believe I stopped turning it cause I didn't want to mess it up! Haha. The lid top is from a flitch cut log of African blackwood I got a while back, and was the perfect size for this bowl. As you can see, it has both the very pale sapwood and the very black heartwood. I forgot how much of a pain this stuff is to turn. It's so bloody hard, most of the shavings..... well, not really shavings more like carbon black, and it gets on, and sticks to everything!!!! My respirator filters were completely black just from this small piece. Everything was sanded from 120, 180, 220, 320, 400, 600, and then finally 1000 grit sand paper. I finished it with an oil and plan on rubbing in 2 more coats letting dry 2 days in between and and also hitting it with 0000 steel wool in between coats as well.

As you can see I went for a seamless joint between the lid and the bowl by fitting the lid very tight, shoving the bowl onto the lid which was mounted to the chuck, and then sanding them while together. I think it turned out well. Also, if you're wondering how I remounted the bowl and lid when the inside was already finished, I have rubber bumpers that I can put on my Talon chuck, which can then be expanded into the finished opening.

Thanks for looking guys! This was a fun turn.

Beautiful job!

Great job, Andrew

Great fit on that bowl Andrew.
Nice finish and "busyness" in the grain.
Great job sir, as always.
Appreciate the WIP shots very much as well.

WOW! That is beautiful. Very nice work. I've been wanting to get into turning wood for a while now, wish my dad still had his lathe.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Beautiful bowel!

Very cool Andrew, the dish look awesome

Thanks guys. I really enjoyed doing this one a lot.

One of the most beautiful soap bowls I've ever seen is a perfect match for one of the best soaps I've ever used. Great job, Andrew.