How to make a yarn bowl out of oak

I had a piece of oak in the shop, and I decided to make a yarn bowl with it.

First of all I marked the side I wanted to flatten on the jointer. I flattened it and then flattened the other side. With two sides at 90 degrees, I passed the piece through the thickness planer and my stock was now flat and square.

I then used my cross cut sled to cut my stock in three pieces.

To save some time on the lathe I cut the pieces at rough circles, on the bandsaw.

Then I glued all the pieces together to make a cylinder. Out of this cylinder I made the cap and the bowl.

I first screwed a face plate on my stock to mount it on the lathe. To reduce the vibrations on the lathe, I set it at it's lower speed. I then I used the roughing gouge to turn the piece true. 

Firstly I wanted to separate the cap piece. I created a mortise that fitted on chuck. I did that with the bowl gouge and the skew chisel. I then used the parting tool, to part the cap off. I finished the job with a handsaw.

Then I made another mortise on the remaining piece so I could reverse chuck it. I removed the face plate and reversed chuck the piece. I begun the hollowing process with a bowl gouge.

I drilled the hole for the yarn and finished hollowing with a scraper. I also added ca glue to a few sensitive areas. I sanded the interior of the bowl with 100 and 220 grit sandpaper.

Then I rechucked the cap. I made a tenon with the parting tool and drilled a hole with a forstner bit, for the handle.

I then assembled the bowl, mounted it on the lathe and used my grinder to sand it. I begun aggressively with 40 grit, jumped at 120 and finished at 220.

To make the handle mounted a piece between centers and used the bowl gouge to true it up. I shaped it with the parting tool, a skew chisel and a spindle gouge.

I then sanded the piece on my belt sander. I glued the handle on the cap and used weights to clamp it down.

I finished the bowl with shellac. I applied 10 coats with a rag. After the first coat I lightly sanded with 200 grit. I buffed the finish with steel wool.

This was a really difficult wood for me to turn. It was really hard and dry and I got much tear out. But with intense sanding it came out nice!

I am really happy with the way it came out! That was a really beautiful wood!