Try hand finishing.

Anonymous wrote:
I just turned my first bowl (yay!) and all has gone pretty well until now.

I seem to have turned the sides too thin. They have a bark inclusion and
the mix of hard & soft places on them has left me with a slightly out of
round condition. For the most part that has presented no real problem but
now I am having a difficult time finishing it.

It's a piece of maple about 6" dia. and about 2" high. I've tried CA and
it looks fantastic all the places the sand paper can hit. I then gave
shellac (1# cut) a trial. Ooooh shiny! But the shellac 1) streaks and 2)
suffers the same problem with unevenness.

Is this bowl beyond hope or is there some crafty technique that, once
mastered, will let me finish and wobbly bowl I encounter for the rest of
my troubled life?

I'm leaving this thing on the chuck for now ... which means I am waiting
for answers from the newsgroup before I can start the next bowl.

Bill