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As you can see, the wood wasn't at all square. The first step is to figure out how big a piece you can put on your lathe. Most people who start turning get a lathe with a 12" swing-over, figuring that they'll NEVER want a bowl bigger than that. Right. A 12" lathe makes a bowl that ends up about 10 1/2" wide because the tool rest has to go somewhere, and that's a significant chunk of iron. A square bowl complicates things because the corners stick out, as diagonals will, further reducing the size of the bowl part of the piece. Now you're down to a bowl shape in the center of about 7", if everything works out just right. The math is: 7 squared = 49, 10 squared = 100, and the sons of the squaws = the squaw of the hippopotamus. Or something like that. A 14" swing-over allows you a square about 8" across the bowl.
The second step is to square up the chunk of wood. I looked at it to decide which was the thicker edge and measured off that one.
As luck would have it, I end up with a piece of wood about 8X8X2", sure I could have grabbed a piece of 8/4-8" plank and sawed off a chunk, but where's the hunt in that.
I confess, electrons died in the following operations on both my neander buddy and my lathe. This may distress some people, but there's a reason you don't see any OLD square bowls. 5 Minutes on a springpole or treadle doing this will explain it. Sawing like crazy to split the chunk convinced me I need a bigger neander buddy. Northfield 36" comes to mind.
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