On a mountain, a man turns bowls

Jul 17, 2023

KITTS HILL On a ridge top in rural Lawrence County, Ohio, Jeff Yamanaka drives a gouge into half of a log spinning at 600 RPMs.

Wearing a camouflage jacket and a full face shield, Yamanaka stands welded to the floor as wood shavings are tossed into the air.

One way or another, Yamanaka has always worked with wood. After his first stint in the U.S. Army, he worked construction building homes from the ground up. After a second go in the service, he worked at a paper mill called Georgia-Pacific, on the coast of his native Oregon.

For the last three years, he's lived on this ridge, on the edge of the Wayne National Forest, with his wife and surrounded by dogs, chickens, horses and a few miniature pigs. In the fall, he might sit in a deer stand, the spring he might call into the holler for a gobbling tom.

But most days, he likes to spend out in his workshop, turning bowls from wood.

"This started out as a hobby, but once we got here and built the shop, since I got two retirements, I’ll do this so I don't have to get a real job," Yamanaka said.

About six and half years ago, Yamanaka married a woman from Coal Grove he’d met online. She moved out to Oregon with him, but when it came time to retire, he decided they should move back East.

While he appreciated his 50 some years on the West Coast, Yamanaka said he’d about had it with the way things were going — people were rude, the cost of living was high and "that state was circling the drain with the leadership."

So they found a patch of paradise and called it home.

"I love it," he said. "My philosophy is, if you can't pee off the front deck, your neighbors are too close."

Yamanaka, who picked up bowl making from his self-taught father, opened "Middle of the Mountain Wood Working." While Yamanaka's shop is literally in the middle of a mountain, the name actually comes from his own last name.

"It's my dad's side," he said. "He was born in Hawaii and two or three generations came from there, too. After that, they’re all from Japan."

For Yamanaka, the best kind of wood to carve is free — showing some processed logs, he recounts how one oak came from a dead tree at Rock Hill School, another came from lending a woman a horse trailer and a few he's logged off his own 99 acres.

Yamanaka starts by splitting a piece of wood in half, right through the "pith," the center ring on the tree trunk. The trick, according to Yamanaka, is cutting the pith out, because if it's there, it’ll crack while turning.

Then he’ll affix the bowl on a lathe and start hacking away at it with the gouge. The wood turns and cuts away, chipping at the corner until it rounds out — Yamanaka said he can lose hours whittling away at a piece.

"I’ll be out here and look at the clock on the microwave and go, holy smoke, no wonder I’m hungry, it's 3 p.m.!" Yamanaka said.

Yamanaka said patience and keeping a sharp tool are key.

"You can't be in a hurry. If you muscle into it, it will catch. That's never good. As you’re working the gouge in there and you’re turning, that wood is moving at 600 or 700 RPMs, so you’re a sticking a sharp piece of steel in there," he said. "Anytime you tell somebody, I’m going to start turning, the first thing you learn is you keep sharp tools."

Keeping those tools sharp is also why Yamanaka keeps a metal detector handy. He finds nails and screws and the occasional shot gun slug in the wood. The slugs aren't a big deal — the gouge will go through lead. But a nail will put a chip in a gouge in a hurry.

With a dry piece of wood, Yamanaka said he can turn a bowl in about an hour. With a green (meaning, the moisture is still in the wood) piece, he’ll turn the exterior, let it dry on a shelf a spell, then turn it the rest of the way.

Yamanaka's bowls are a work of art. He likes to use partially rotten woods for the colors (spalted, as the wood guys call it) or live cuts (leaving the bark on) because he said they look better. However, he doesn't want a decorative bowl, he wants something people can use.

"I want something you and your family can have for generations," he said. "It's not going to be 20 years from now and it falls off the shelf and breaks into a million pieces. It's heavy — you can put fruit in it and don't have to worry about it falling off."

Yamanaka's work can be found at the Middle of the Mountain Woodworking Creations Facebook page. He's even done live demonstrations at Poage Landing Days.

(606) 326-2653 |

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