I have an antique dough bowl that was given to my wife by a friend. Ever since she saw it, she has wanted me to make one for her that was hand carved. I finally got around to doing it.

If you should ever decide to make one of these, be sure to use green wood and keep it in a plastic bag while you are not working on it.

I made mine from the only piece of wood large enough that I could find, and it is dry ash. Dry “anything” is a poor choice for carving one of these by hand. But I did it, so it can be done. It is just a huge job that would be much easier in green wood.

First is a picture of the piece of wood cut into an oval and flattened on the top and bottom. Then I started chopping out the bowl opening.

Here’s another picture showing that the bottom part has not yet been carved on. It works much better when the base is flat to handle the shock of the mallet blows.

The mallet is one of my own creations, as is the handle on the gouge.