How to Make a Wooden Bowl with Fire

How to carve a bowl with fire

Fire is a very useful tool and requires very little energy to work with on your part. Fire can carve cavities into wood in a fraction of the time it would take with only a hand tool. Fire is also useful for those who do not have access to the newest tools or methods. Fire has been used as a tool since the dawn of man to hollow out cavities in wood. Native Americans used fire to hollow cavities for containers and dugout canoes, and it is a very valuable skill to learn.

Making the bowl

In order to make a bowl you will need fire, a knife, and wood. The wood can be any shape or size depending on what shape and size you want your bowl to be. A deeper bowl for water or other liquids or a shallow cavity for food. Using the rounds of a tree is a great way to get a near perfectly circular piece of wood to use, and can be used as a seat if turned upside down. (If big enough)

To start, ignite a fire. The size does not matter your just trying to get some hot coal to do the precision cutting of the bowl. This task can be done at night sitting by the campfire passing the time before turning in. While the fire is heating up and producing coals, start cutting the outline of the intended cavity in the bowl with your knife. Make this a bit smaller then you intend because the fire will make the side bigger. This initial indent is just to hold the coals in place there is no need to go very deep at all.

After the fire has produced some workable coals and the bowl has been started, pick up a coal with whatever you have handy. This can be two rocks, sticks, tongs, or whatever — whatever works. Place the coal in the center of your bowl and blow. You can add tiny twigs or more coals and get some flames in the center of the bowl. Blowing should make the coal red and burn away faster. Do not go too close to the edges yet because it is much easier to finish these of with a deeper cavity. After the bottom is blackened, scrape it with your knife. The wood should come off easily, if not more coals. Keep doing this cycle heat, scrape, heat, scrape, over and over.

Repeat this process until a good sized divot is made. Now you can load more coals in. The work goes faster here but it is easier to ruin your whole bowl and have to start over. Do be careful to not burn through the sides of the bowl or previous work will be forfeit. Add a greater amount of coals burning away at the wood to shape the interior of the bowl. Later, add less coals and burn with precision to finish up the shaping. When the desired dimensions are met, give the bowl a final scraping down and a sanding if methods available. The outside of the bowl can be carved for functional or aesthetic purpose.

The bowl is now done. Rinse with water and the bowl is now ready for use. As with all skills practice will make the process faster, easier, and end with a better product. Water can be boiled in the bowl by dropping hot rocks, heated in a fire, into it. When gathering these rocks stay away from water logged rocks found in rivers or wet areas because they can explode when heated. Have fun, be safe, and good luck!