The burl was too big to be cut in half on the band saw, so a handsaw did the trick. I first pried off all the bark and cleaned up the outside with a wire brush to keep the handsaw happy.

Halfway there...

Aaaagh, the figure revealed.

Step 1: I mounted the burl between the drive spur and the live center and turned a tenon on the bottom. Having never turned a bowl before my co-worker Kelly gave me all kinds of great tips.

Step 2: Here the burl is mounted on the lathe by tightening the bottom tenon in a four-jaw chuck. I then used a gouge to rough out the inside shape. I should mention that I broke a handle in half with the first gouge and then switched to an all steel handle to feel a little more secure. Nice and easy seemed to be the key at this stage.

Step 3: I tried using a turning scraper at this point, but catches were hard to avoid. I set the lathe to a low speed and used a gooseneck card scraper instead.

Step 4: Hand sanding through grits up to 600.

Step 5: I used a wire brush again for a final cleaning up of the outside.

Finishing Up: I removed the burl from the lathe, cut the tenon off the bottom, and used a gouge to hand carve a rim at the top and a design on the bottom. I applied two coats of tung oil to the outside and five coats to the inside, sanding in the second-to-last coat with 600 grit paper.

Here's a view of the carved bottom design. This was done to relieve a bit of the center of the bottom to help the bowl sit flat on its outer edges.

And here's the finished bowl. It was a fun project, but much trickier than I expected. The end grain was tough, especially with all those tiny little knots in the burl, but I think all the time spent taking small cuts, scraping, sanding, and finishing was worth it, to have a one-of-kind bowl. Well, maybe two-of-a-kind: I still haven't decided what to do with the other half.