I think Fred Styler - the lathe-meister has the answer in his poem:

How Long Does It Take To Turn One of Those?
Do you mean…
not plant the tree, but find the wood,
just 'see' the piece, (as if I could)?
to find a highly figured burl,
a crotch, an eye, or pearly curl?
And once I spy it, perhaps buy it,
inventory, store, and dry it?
Then saw or cut it, possibly I kiln it'
glue, imbue with fill, or drill it?
You mean, that once I'm satisfied
it's stopped the warps, checks, cracks, once dried?
And mounted on the lathe, to turn it,
(which takes much practice, just to learn it;
and then employ a gouge, or two,
or use a skew, which I don't eschew,
to mold it, shape it (what's your pleasure?)
by all means, I'm sure to measure,
then sand it smooth, please wear your mitts,
from coarse to fine, 10,000 grits,
then braze, or burnish, paint, or polish,
(the goal: enhance, and don't demolish)?
Is that your question, start to end,
how long's that path, its way to wend?
Or do you merely want to know how long it turned?
Ten minutes, or so.

John A. Styer, The Lathe-meister


On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:59:34 GMT, "Darrell Feltmate"
wrote:

Now there is a question I get a lot at wood shows. "How long does it take to
turn a bowl like that?" So what kind of an answer do you give? A couple of
hours? Three or four? I turn rough and let dry so some may take a couple of
months and some a couple of years until I get around to finish turning. Have
they taken months, years, or 2-3 hours?
I roughed out three salad bowls from spalted birch today. Each blank was
brought inside and roughed to shape with a chain saw. All the extra pieces
were picked up and tossed in a kindling box. A screw chuck was mounted. The
piece was mounted on the lathe. After turning each piece was coated with
anchorseal. Shavings were cleaned up and bagged for the compost pile.Tools
were sharpened frequently and at one point I remade the stop blocks for the
sharpening jig because the wheel was worn and the angles were off.
So how did it take to rough the bowls? 45 minute each? An hour each?
What do you enlightened folks say?