I started turning bowls on a Rockwell-Beaver 14" wood lathe, 1970's vintage, using a OneWay Talon Chuck with assorted jaws and an assortment of Robert Sorby and Lee Valley Tools HSS gouges, skews and scrapers.
The miniatures are turned on a vintage Lienen-Boley watchmakers lathe.
This is quite a unique little lathe.

Since February 2009, I've done most of my turning on a Union Graduate Bowl Lathe, shown in the photo on the left. This machine is designed specifically what is referred to as "face plate" turning,
which incorporates bowls, vases and such.
Weighing in at about 400 pounds with a 19 inch swing, this baby will handle pretty much any chunk of wood I can fasten to the headstock.
Equipped with a OneWay scoll chuck and various collets and faceplates.

Tool sharpening is done with OneWay grinding stones on an 8" bench grinder, using a Wolverine Sharpening Jig and
VariGrind 2 attachment for doing the bowl gouges.

Most of the wood is purchased from dealers in the Niagara Pennisula area who specialize in bowl blanks, that are thoroughly air dried or kiln dried.
The Woodshed near Smithville has a huge stock, check them out if you're looking for some nice wood to turn! They're usually at all the wood shows.
www.woodshedlumber.com

Other wood was collected from a woodlot in Lanark County, and has been drying in "The Turnery" for some months now. A few pieces were turned "wet" from these spalted, wormy maple blanks. The finish is applied immediately once the bowl is turned and sanded, and with the walls of the bowl a uniform thickness, the wood finishes drying without checking, but with some really neat distortion, depending on the orientation of the wood grain, making for some very unique pieces.

And I've had a few nice walnut logs given to me by friends
that have made some rather nice bowls.

The usual finish for these bowls and boxes is Walnut Oil. This is a non-toxic product that builds and dries to a lustrous semi-gloss, protecting the wood. This finish is safe for contact with food.

A walnut bowl is underway in the picture on the left. Safety glasses were off for the photo, too much glare from the flash.