This salad bowl turned out of black cherry features a shallow cove around the outside of the rim that provides a convenient handle for your fingers and a visual break in the otherwise smoothly flowing profile. The inside of the bowl is slight under cut which serves to keep the contents of the bowl in the bowl while simultaneously providing a comfortable handle for your thumbs when you pick the bowl up. The wood itself has all of the character that make cherry such a prized North American hardwood, with subtle grain patterns, pitch pockets and even little sapwood to provide even more interest and intrigue. The base of this bowls is a little smaller than some bowls of this size, but not so small as to make it unstable in use. The bottom features an outer ring that the bowl sits on with a shallow recess that has been decorated with several concentric rings the provide proof that it was turned with as much detail and care as the upper surfaces. Finished with a food safe, linseed oil based finish and buffed to a satin sheen, this bowl is ready to go to work in your kitchen or hold decorative items on your mantel. It has already developed some of the warmth, depth and patina that cherry is famous for, it will only get better with age.