Fire wood bowls...

[Masonsailor]

Usually when you have these issues it’s because of the disparity in hardness in different parts of the piece of wood. When some parts are soft your tool digs in and then as it turns the chisel, which is taking a fairly deep bite in the soft wood, hits a hard section and the bite is too deep and causes a catch. Catches like that can be brutal. If your chisels are not razor sharp it will exacerbate the problem. The remedy is to use a large roughing gouge that is very sharp. The handle needs to be long and very sturdy. When you watch turning videos you’ll notice the pros use really big, long handles on their roughing gouges. Your speed needs to be fairly slow. You should have shavings coming off and not dust. You need to be cutting not scraping. The long handle will give you more control at the cutting edge and more leverage. This is one of those times the handle of the chisel needs to be tucked to your side so your hand is on your hip. This will give you the control you need. Hope all this helps !

Paul

[Masonsailor]

Here is an excellent video showing the speed and how you need to be shaving not scraping. Also notice how he tucks his arm in to pin the chisel to his body. 

 

[Kevin Beitz]

I'm not getting shaving or dust but HARD chips. 

I use a large roughing gouge that I thought was sharp.

I'm thinking that I might try mounting a router on the lathe for this job.

[Gunny]

1 minute ago, Kevin Beitz said:

I'm thinking that I might try mounting a router on the lathe for this job.

I am no pro when it comes  to turning but the router spins way faster than the lathe.  Potential to get hurt or have a pucker factors of 000 might be high.  Try sharpening the tool first would be my approach.  

[lew]

Using a spindle roughing gouge on the INSIDE of a bowl can be tricky.

[Gerald]

Please Please do not use Spindle Roughing Gouge on a bowl and not for endgrain ever!!!! Just saw a broken one on the AAW forum.

The tang on them is too thin for bowl turning and are intended only for spindles. There is a story about these as they were once called Roughing Gouges and the name was changed for this very reason .

 

Now you can use a 5/8 bowl gouge or a carbide cutter. For the carbide cutter you have plenty from what you have shown a 5/16 with a bullet shaped grind would work well. Now the reason for this is that end grain turning is no longer what is usually considered bowl turning but is like hollowing. Now it is true you can use a spindle gouge (not a spindle roughing gouge). A 3/8 will do on small boxes but not sure if that will work in this case.