I love to turn bowls, this is me turning a bunch of Norlfolk Pine bowls.
About Me
I am Chris Allen, I started my exploration in Hawaiian woods when I was in High School. I went to Honokaa High and they only had auto shop and wood shop so I took wood shop. Being on the Big Island there was plenty of Koa wood to work with. I moved to Oahu when I was in the 12th grade, it was there that I met my neighbor Bob Butts (R.W. Butts) he was the one that really got me started in turning bowls.
Not long after meeting Bob I got a job turning bowls at the world famous wood shop called House of Kalai. It was Bob that got me this job and working for Tommy Leong there I was able to learn a lot.
I turned bowls there and also learned spindle carving and spindle sanding. In fact while I was working at House Of Kalai, I made the Koa Marlin trophies for the billfish tournament in 1985.
Not too long after that I moved back to the Big Island and I started working for a wood shop in Honokaa called Kamaaina Woods. There I made Koa bowls, poi pounders, bracelets and other gift items.
After about a year of working at Kamaaina Woods I moved to the Hilo side. This is when I met world famous Hawaiian Calabash bowl maker Dan Deluz. At that time I started my own wood shop. I made bowls mostly but I started to make other things like key rings and Koa book marks. I made thousands of Koa book marks and sold them to local galleries, including Dan Deluz.
Dan was such a nice and giving person, he would let me watch him while he was making bowls and he would always give me pointers and help if I had problems making my bowls. I also met Bob Bowman who also made bowls, he learned from Dan Deluze too. Bob also help me in learning the fine art of bowl turning.
At some point I started working for Dan Deluz, I don’t remember exactly when but I do know it was while he was still in Hilo. After Hilo he moved up to his shop in Mountain View, I was one of the very few people that worked for Dan making bowls and other things, since I could use just about any tool he let me make platters using his large over head router as well as rough cutting and finish cutting bowls. I learned so much from him, he was so good at what he did, he made bowls so thin it was amazing.
