Making a Hand-Hewn Wooden Dough Bowl (Part 2) - FAILURE

This is a continuation of my attempt to make a hand-hewn wooden dough bowl using only hand tools. You can find the first part here.

Well, you can probably tell from the title how this project ends. I was really hoping to make a beautiful and functional large dough bowl. I had the outside of the bowl all carved out using an ax and saw rasp. And then I began to do the inside...

For carving out the inside, I used two different tools:

a chisel gouge

a bowl adze

And believe me, it was slow going! This was my first time using a bowl adze, and I thought that I would be knocking out large chips and making short work of the interior of the bowl. Boy was I wrong! The chips were the tiniest little chips. Maybe it was the weight of my bowl adze, or maybe it was the hardness of the wood (white oak), I am not sure. But anyway, I was determined, and so I chiseled away a little at a time. And then...

...the wood suddenly felt different. I am not sure exactly how to describe it, but it just didn't feel quite so solid - there was a tiny measure of give with each whack.

I paused for a second, and then I took a look and found this:

A crack from the edge...

...that continued down the whole length.

Noooo.... That crack ran the entire length of the wood from one end to the other. And that would explain the not-quite-so-solid feeling.

So, anyway, here I go back to square one.

I do have a couple questions for you woodworkers out there:

• Is there a better hand tool for chipping out the inside of the bowl?

• Any suggestions for working with white oak? I have a lot of it on my land, so it is what I have available. Any more suitable wood for making bowls that you have found?

Let me know in the comments below! Thanks!