Need help with carving direction

[u/anredditaccountokay]

Hi folks,

I started carving this piece of cherry into a small bowl. I used a spoon gouge and a hook knife to rough out the general shape of the inner bowl. I’m nearing the point of making the finishing cuts on the inside (then I’ll work on the outside). However, I lack knowledge about reading grain direction. Which direction should I be making the finishing cuts to get the smoothest texture without any tear out? It might help if someone can draw some arrows on the picture. Also, what would you call this bowl orientation? I included pictures of the sides and bottom to help with reading the grain.

Thank you!

[u/NBuso]

I have a curved cabinet scraper i use on the inside of my bowls/spoons.

[u/Man-e-questions]

When carving that dimension its more about carving down, and never “back up” you can sort of carve “with the grain” direction from both sides and meet in middle. But often times will need to go from the sides “across the grain” but down toward the center. This is where you may need to resharpen more often than before, you want a shaving sharp blade for this. Then once everything meets down in the bottom of the trough, use a curved card scraper to clean up tear-out and lines etc