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May 12th 2008So another week passes into history. It often seems unfeasible that time can pass so quickly. Maybe it is simply a product of age: the older you get the quicker the hours pass. Maybe I’ll email Stephen Hawking and ask the question. Everything that had to be done got done. Some things that didn’t have to be done, but I wanted to do, didn’t. And, oddly, a few that I didn’t even know I wanted to do got done also. So no complaints on that front. I got the big Stihl saw working on Saturday, and cut up the very large Holly log into a dozen 14” bowl blanks. With coring – they’re 6” deep – it should produce about forty bowls. Not a bad log! Of course, this relies on the rough-outs not splitting, warping, cracking, or running off into the sunset. Damned Holly. I turned two ultra-thin bowls over the weekend, hoping to remove all but the very last vestiges of stress from the Holly. Humm. Have you ever made fresh popadums? Well you know when you get them they are beautifully flat and uniform? And then you drop them into boiling oil and they...whoosh! Well that’ pretty much what the Holly does. Whoosh! I accept that this is probably a lost cause. And that this battle has been fought before by far better men (or women). And probably lost. But it does feel like a battle. And I don’t back down easily.Damned Holly. I do wonder if the Holly would be suitable for one of those basket vessels that Christian Burchard (sp) is so famous for. I’ve always like them very much. Simple, aesthetically pleasing, (that horrible word) tactile. The log section would need to be knot free and clean, but maybe there’s a chance? But for this week it’s sycamore and beech. It’ll be nice to have a rest! April 29th 2008I went to collect an Holly tree yesterday. Freshly felled, and left in large section by a woodturning-friendly tree surgeon. It was big. And heavy! One section, from near the top of the tree, was almost 7' long, and tapering from 14" to 11". I decided that the log had to be dealt with straight away. You know how Holly is. So I cut it down its length, marked out seven bowls on each half, and cut the blanks. I then spent the rest of the day roughing them out and coring them. The result is twenty-eight Holly bowls. Fouteen pairs, if you prefer. I've never roughed Holly before, always turning it thin and allowing the warping, so I have no idea what the drying will do to them. I expect to lose some, but have no idea what the ratio will be. Tomorrow I'll seal the end grain with PVA, and put them on one side to dry out. As the sap is now rising the wood is especially wet, and will no doubt take longer to dry than the usual autumn/winter rough-outs. So we'll see. If I remember I'll post an update in a few months. April 27th 2008I've missed a few days because it's so much easier to log into wordpress and type than it is to add to a web page here. But the truth us that "here" feels like "the Blog", and "there" feels like a mirror image. Maybe "there" will feel more like "here" when it's...well...here! So what's been happening? Well I had a visit from a turner friend the other day. And we got to talking about one of the coloured burr plaques...the top one on the last post, in fact. I used an off-cut from a burr oak board to illustrate the colouring technique I'd used. Not actually colouring, but pointing out the where and how. After he'd gone I kept looking at the off-cut, and remembering that he'd told me he was turning a discuss bowl, I thought, I'll turn a discuss from the off-cut, and use the un-usable portion as a mount. So that's what I did. And here it is...
It's a terrible picture, but you get the idea. Something from nothing. As I was clearing up I spotted the off-cut from the other end of the original board. An odd shape that would have left almost nothing had I tried to bandsaw a disc from it...so...turn it as it is!
You may not like them. Especially if you're a turner! But I do. And it's better than wasting it, or worse still, making another tiny "ring bowl". Today I was looking for a piece of wood and came across a large section of Monkey Puzzle that I'd forgotten about, and decided to turn it before it got to punky. I don't like MP, and fel it's often more trouble than it's worth. But hey ho. When I'd removed all the bark for safety, I noticed that there was a deep hole at either end where the pith should be. Oh dear. I decided to turn it anyway, and maybe simply fill the whole later. Here's the hole...
Later, while reversing the roughed form, I tought I'd knocked a pencil off the lathe bed, and picked it up. It wasn't a pencil at all. It was the shrunken, but otherwise intact pith! It has fallen out in one piece. So I glued it back in and all was well. The most interesting thing about the whole MP vessel was a shaving that came off it. I didn't notice at the time. It was later, when John, another turner friend had come to see me. He was looking at the lathe when I spotted it. I pulled it out and it kept on coming. So we took it outside to measure it. It is a one-piece continuous shaving of exactly 6 meters long! Can you beat that? Somebody must have.
April 22nd 2008As I have jobs to do for the remainder of the week, I thought today should be a play day. Commissioned work is good to have, and long may it continue to come in, but it is certainly more fraught than play days. The problem with play days is deciding what to do! Unless an idea has been pestering me for a while, it’s usually a case of looking around until a piece of wood screams, “me! Me!” And that’s how it was today. And the screamer was the Chestnut burr I bought at the AWGB AGM. Well, I couldn’t wait. Due to the dimensions of the boards...thin! I decided that they had to be wall pieces. And I a concerted effort to escape the “red & black”, I decided to go absolutely mad with colour. These boards are full of burr, ripple, and lovely figure, so would take colour very well. The problems were going to be related to the size, the largest is 26” long, and about 20” wide, and the straight and natural edges. So the main considerations are related to safe turning. Good fixing, low speed, sharp tools to reduce resistance to the cut, no distractions, an impact rated face shield, and constant vigilance are the keys. After this it’s simply a matter of turning, and trying to accentuate the existing beauty of the wood. I like wall pieces, and enjoy making them. And if I thought I could get away with it, I’d turn them all the time. One of the joys of turned wall sculptures/plaques for me is that they will be hung, and looked at every day. So that was today. Tomorrow it’s back to the job book.
This Blog is now also available at the following address:http://woodturningblog.wordpress.com/ This is a trial, prior to changing the Blog here to a Wordpress style Blog. This would make updating a far more simple process, but I want to be sure which Blogging system suits me best. April 19th 2008I had to collect some very fresh Hawthorn this morning, which was kindly donated by a villager. Pictured is only one pile of quite a few. I was only able to take a half load in the van due to the weight of the wood. Hawthorn is very dense and heavy, compared with a similar sized piece of, say, Ash. As usual when I've collected something interesting, I couldn't wait to turn some. Turning wet wood is always fun, long streamers and very little resistance to a sharp tool, but Hawthorn is a particular pleasure. It's a lovely wood to work, cutting like butter that's been lightly frozen. From experience I know that Hawthorn is prone to sometimes quite severe warping and cracking if turned from wet too thickly. In fact, even rough turning Hawthorn can be less than successful. So I turned some natural-edged vases with 2-3mm wall thickness. Buoyed by the first three turning so well, I thought I'd push it a little and tried for a 1mm wall...BANG! Thank heavens for face masks. Looking at the resulting debris afterwards, there was a small, but in this case significant, knot about a third of the way down. Obviously this was where the weakness was. So next time I try a 1mm wall, I'll make sure I check the surface more carefully.
Today was a very quiet day, and aside from a visit from my F.I.L, and a client with final details of a commission, I was untroubled by anybody, so was free to turn in peace and quiet. When it's like this, there's time to think while you turn. These can be productive times, and provide an opportunity to consider ideas for turning, and lots besides. Today it was demonstrations. What exactly to audiences want from a demonstration? I've seen a lot of demonstrations over the past few years, and sat through professional and amateur demonstrations. Now, I give quite a few myself, and wonder how the audience actually feel afterwards. I can't imagine there's a turner doing the rounds of the demo circuit who doesn't wonder about this at some point. You want to give an interesting and informative demonstration, and leave them feeling that it was worth it. But do they? At a number of demonstrations I've attended, I have left feeling slightly cheated, feeling that what I witnessed was more a demonstration of the cleverness of the demonstrator, rather than an instructive demonstration, which is what I would personally prefer. So when I started demonstrating I thought I try to ensure it was instructive first-and-foremost. My method of achieving this has been to concentrate on the techniques and related information as I turn to illustrate them, and not to concentrate on completing a finished piece to rapturous applause. My feeling is that in order to truely finish a piece of work, a considerable amount of time is spent on activities that need not necessarily be included in a woodturning demonstration - sanding, sealing, Etc. Who wants to sit and watch you while you spend half the alloted time doing these things? So I'll take along some examples of related finished work, and concentrate on getting the detail of the techniques across clealrly. If people want to watch me do a start-to-finsh piece, they may as well come along to the workshop, get a coffee, and take a seat. On the whole this seems to have worked well in the main. But there have been the odd members of the audience who seem to feel that they haven't watched a demonstration unless you complete a piece to shelf standard. So which is the right way? What is that audiences want? Do they really want to watch a demonstrator showing just how clever he is to be able to complete a project in the alloted time, with a coffee break, a Q&A, and a break for a table critique? If that's what the majority want, demonstrating would be a doddle. But I'd suggest that that they'd learn a whole lot less. But maybe it's my own relative inexperience that's the problem, in that I haven't figured out yet that what they actually want, is simply to be entertained? Maybe you have thoughts? April 16th 2008Today was the annual Craft Meeting at the Worshipful Company of Turners, in Blackfriars, London. I enjoy the Craft Meetings. You get the chance to catch up with people you may not have seen all year, meet turners you've never met, but, invariably, whose name you are only too familiar with, they have some interesting presentations, and you get a magnificent lunch. Today's meeting was very good; interesting presentations all based on a theme of turning in medieval London. Fascinating stuff, well presented. The day was marred, however, by the venerable Bill Jones being taken to hospital right as the day ended. I'm happy to report that TW called me and Bill was released, and apart from being tired and wanting to get back home to Canvey, is well. Yesterday I found Robin Wood's blog, which is great, and well worth a visit...http://greenwood-carving.blogspot.com/ And then today, talking about WT Blogs, Robin Fawcett, another accomplished pole-lathe turner, tells me that he has one! And guess what...another great blog filled with interesting stuff...http://treewright.blogspot.com/ I'll put a Blog list up over the next few days...meantime, I'm shattered. April 10th 2008I've just updated the Waveney page, so thought I should pop along here and do a quick update before I get another rash of, "have you died and given up blogging?" emails. It's funny how people imagine you greaveously injured, deathly ill, or worse, when you don't update. They think: 1) too busy, or 2) (and more likely) nothing much to say. We're an odd lot, aren't we? It was a busy end to last week. A demo in Cambridge to an interested group who asked all the right questions started it. Two days of rushing to finish things so I could be absent on Sunday for the AWGB AGM. The drive to Daventry was not fun. Snow and ice caused a few people to disengage their brains and drive like complete **ossers. Funny how snow and rain will do that to people! Tudor Rose Woodturners hosted the AGM this year, and did a great job of it, but more of that elsewhere and later. The day was constructive and interesting, and I even came away with some lovely burr walnut and chestnut, so that was a bonus. Look up Nigel Fleckney at Geddington Sawmill...he's got some stunning wood for sale. Other things...well...I have had cause this last week to imagine I might be going around the bend. I'm hoping I am actually, otherwise the only explanation is age, and that's an admission nobody wants to male. The symptoms are forgetfullness, extreme tiredness, forgetfullness, being clumsy, losing things that a minute ago were in your hand, and forgetfullness. And then there's my eyes...forty odd years of 20/20 vision, and apparently over night I've got the eyesight of Mr Magoo! Right...I'm off for a Horlicks with a Sanatogen chaser. April 2nd 2008So another month has been and gone, and it's been an interesting one for work. If variety is the spice of life, then I've been as spiced as a vindaloo this last month; everything from spindles, hollows, large bowls, antique linen box restoration, coat racks and more besides. A good month all told. It's also been a month of "opinions"; from customers, other turners, and interested parties. I've noticed a very dramatic change in the type of pieces that leave the gallery, and the shift might be considered worrying. Less and less of what I will call "conventional" turnery is finding buyers. There are two things that seem to set apart the pieces that are selling from the rest (that aren't as frequently), oddity, and colour. And maybe I should add texture to that list, also. And whilst I am always thrilled when a piece finds a home, I admit to feeling slightly concerned that the "conventional" seems to be lagging behind. The curious thing about all this is that when woodturners come into the gallery, in the main it is the conventional that draws their attentions, not the "other". One of the good things about having the gallery, and being there seven days a week, is that I ge a chance to speak to a lot of people about my work, and also the chance to inadvertently overhear comments. My conclusions are that woodturners, again, in the main, are a conservative group, whose abiding love of wood leads them to prefer the unadulterated to the enhanced. The traditional to the expolatory. The functional to the decorative. And perhaps this is the reason that turnery has remained in the doldrums of the "made object" underclass for so long. That turnery has long been perceived as somehow second class in relation to its haughty stable mates: ceramics, glass, pottery, and other crafts, is irrefutable. For any turner who loves his craft, this is a genuine cause for annoyance and concern. But maybe the fault is our own? I was going to say, "maybe we have allowed it to stagnate" , but now believe that phrase is incorrect; what we failed to do was allow it to progress. I should explain. Historically, woodturned work was always utilitarian. Turners made things other people used in their daily lives. But then the same is true of potters. But what the potters, and later the "ceramicists", did, was to allow the craft to develop beyond the utility item. Or at the very least, beyond the blandness dictated by items designed for utility. And they seem, as a group, to have embraced this change, and it almost seems that they broke the mould be sheer force of effort alone. A modern analogy might be the "Christmas Toy" race. Each year, despite there already being thousands of toys on the market which would satisfy an eager child, there is a race to sell the new "craze" toy. And it seems to me that this is achieved not on merit, but by sheer dint of effort. Flood the market with cheap aluminium scooters, and pretty soon every child "has to have one". It quickly becomes a highly desirable object, where before, faced with the odd one here and there, it was clearly just a simple, and cheap, scooter. And in effect, that is what the other makers achieved. They got their newly progressed products into the public eye. And in doing so made them desirable. (And I don't intend to imply that they were (are) either cheap, simple, or undesirable, here) Meanwhile woodturners continued to produce pretty much the same kinds of objects, in pretty much the same way as before. And this, I believe, is the root of the problem. We not only didn't allow the natural progression, but we almost stifled it with our apparently innate conservatism. I know I'm not the only turner who has heard derisive comments about a coloured, or textured, post-lathe worked piece, or a decorative piece vociferously deemed worthless and of little, if any, merit. And this is by other woodturners! Now, you probably expect to to say that we should all be producing the weird and wonderful, the non-utility pieces, the so called "art" pieces, but, no, I'm not going to; that isn't my point. My point, if there is a clear one, is that we should welcome progression, embrace it, applaud it, support it, and at least try to understand that by the efforts of those who continually push the parameters of woodturning into new areas, we all benefit. I firmly believe that if the "new" woodturning (and you can argue about just exactly what that means) achieves the public appreciation it strives for, then all woodturning gains. And maybe, just maybe, I (we) won't have to overhear that awful phrase from woodturners ever again... "It's very nice. But what's it for?" 19th March 2008I've just had an email asking for pictures of the some of the pieces that "wouldn't be what some woodturners would have expected!" So here goes...
18th March 2008As you can see, I didn't actually upload the last update. Infact, I didn't actually finish typing it either. Time, as ever, ran away with me. The exhibition was a reasonable success. Our visitor book has some great comments in it, and for me at least, it served to bring woodturned items to an audience that might not have otherwise seen them. It was interesting to see the reactions of "artists" as they looked at some of the pieces I'd put on display. I doubt they were what some would have expected of a display of woodturning. But then I'd also guess that some pieces wouldn't be what some woodturners would have expected! At the Preview evening, I had an interesting chat with the Editor of an Art magazine. He was asking about my turnery, and called it art. I explained my feelings about the label, and my preference for "woodturning", "decorative art" (at a push!), or contemporary turning. His suggested compromise was "High Craft", which I find quite pleasing as a description of what we do. I was left, though, wondering if I should have bowed to his choice of the "A" word. He is, after all, far more qualified than I am to make the judgement But then he didn't specify which pieces should have the label! Ah ;well, I suppose this debate will go on for ever. And in all honesty, I can't say I care overly what the outcome is. I'm coming to believe that customers buy the work for what they see it as, and that's fine by me. With the urgent "bulk" jobs out of the way for now, I've spent a little time playing over the past few days. I seem to have gathered a few very old beams of Oak and Elm, one from a 14th building, and have been happily making sculptural pieces with them. One, selling within five minutes of placing in the gallery! I love working with such old and characterful wood. Wood with a story we can never fully know. Oak and Elm in particular, seem to develop a tremendous depth of colour over a few hundred years, and this can be astonishig when you first cut beneath the old crusty outer layer of the wood. Having said that, I do like to leave some of the crust in evidence, as well. Grab an old beam and have a go!
4th March 2008Tuesday seems an odd day to complete a week's work, but that's how it feels today; I've just completed three separate batches of production work - not my favourite turning activity - so it feels like the end of a tireing week already. I've one more pressing job to do, well ten actually, and oddly it's not woodturning, but is woodwork. After this is completed my time is my own for the rest of the week. Next week will see me away from the lathe in the main, as I have a shared exhibition to set up and man. This will either be great fun, or not at all. Time will tell. And will make a change from the usual. And you know what they say about a change. 20th February 2008It's been a busy few weeks. The International Woodworking show at Ally Pally was looming, and I had to be on the AWGB stand on the Saturday, so had a few things that needed finishing prior to that, and also a couple of students booked on courses, which whilst generally fun, does restrict my turning time somewhat. But I just about managed in th end. Ally Pally was good, I thought. I know people have - and will no doubt continue to - complain about the show, but if you've been attending the same show for a decade, I would imagine that making it "new" for you, would be an amazing feat. And any show where you get to see John Jordan turn as part of your door price, can't be bad, can it? The lack of some notable tool companies continues to cause some concern from attendees, and this is probably a justifiable complaint, but the fault doesn't lie with the tool companies...they have to be profitable or they die, and if they can't make a profit at a given show, then the sensibe ones will chose not to attend. Annoying for some, I know. But not nearly as annoying as another British company going down the pan because they've wasted thousands and thousands of pounds attending pointless and expensive trade shows. I was tutoring yesterday, and noticed something which has been niggling at me for a while now. My student, by his own admission a very inexperienced turner, seemed to pick things up far quicker than might be expected. And this seemed, to me at least, to be related to the way he held, and manipulated the tools once set in the right (or one version of right!) direction. In essence, he seemed very comfortable with the tools, held them like they've been in his hands for decades, and seemed to have a naturalness with them that isn't always apparent. And I wondered if you really can be sort of pre-disposed to tool use. And if you can, and by default some can't, is it possible to overcome a natural lack of this seemingly innate ability to the extent that it becomes natural? I'd like to think that this must surely be the case, but in truth haven't a clue. Something else that really becomes clear during tutoring sessions, is the pleasure "making" something with your own hands gives the maker. I suppose it's something that we eventualy take for granted to some degree. Experience and familiarity seems to dull the sense of pleasure slightly, or maybe it is only so for those that turn every day. But seeing the pleasure it gives serves as a reminder of why we do it...it's great fun, and can really serve to bolster you when you are tired or a little jaded by life. There's something very basic, elemental almost, fundamental even, about taking a piece of a natural material, and shaping it with basic tools into something attractive and useful. I suppose we ought to keep that in mind as we work. The "woodturning - is it art or craft" debate has reared its head once again on the AWGB forum. What's odd is that the debate now seems utterly pointless. It's worse than cyclical, it's terminal. For me, art will always be something made by man, that contains a message; something that was consciously created to impart; it should "say" something. Beauty alone, for me, doesn't make it art. A sunset is often beautiful, but it isn't art in itself. If somebody paints it with a desire to impart the feelings viewing that sunset ellicited from them, then that's art. And as I've said on numerous occaisions, nor does simply naming a thing make it art. My own artistic vocabulary is no more developed than my six year old daughter's - probably worse, infact, so maybe I just don't have the necessary vocabulary? Maybe those that claim or adopt the "art" tag for their work, do have a developed artistic vocabulary, and I can't see it because I don't understand the language. So, it has to be better to leave them alone to their artistic pretentions and be happy to be a woodturner. If they get more respect, more money, more anything, by virtue of their claim, the good luck to them. I've no axe to grind. Only a gouge to turn wood with.
8th February 2008One of the most difficult things for me is turning to somebody elses design. I find it constricting, and, accordingly, something of a bind. They become jobs that "have" to be done, rather than jobs I want to do. But maybe this will change in time, and maybe, this is simpy a result of having had free-reign for so long. Also, maybe, this is quite a good thing for me to be doing. Do I sound convinced yet? I had a commission for a pair of large candle sticks and a matching coat stand, 6ft tall. A 2" by 2" magazine photograph of a pair of candlesticks, in brass apparently, was provided, and I was asked to "copy" them, and also make a matching coat stand. The first problem is one of not knowing the actual dimensions, so guess work is involved which is always dangerous. But for me the main problem is the lack of scope for making personal decisions. A different curve here, a fillet there...none of this is possible. But they're done now, and so to is the stand.
Search terms that lead people here continue to be of interest:
These are only the searches for yesterday, and consitute a pretty regular series of themes. I supposief they tell any story, the story is that there are lots of people out there looking for information on techniques and tools. So...I'll try and provide some answers soon to the more regular queries used. Today has been a very rushed day. As I am on the AWGB stand tomorrow at Alexandra Palace, and had weekend completions due, I thought I should get them finished. So an odd day of mixed turning, pencils, pens, final finishing of the sticks and stand, another batch of something else, and some prep for work on Sunday. All was going well, but I was obviously pre-occupied with these different things, because I left to collect my daughter from school a full one hour and ten minutes early! What is Homer says? So I used the time to fill up with diesel, returned, and managed a couple of things before leaving a second time for the school run. I managed to complete everything before finally leaving, including cutting some logs for the burner at home, and then made a couple of deliveries on the way home. I could do without many more days like this. 3rd February 2008I haven't had much chance to blog this last week, as I've been busy with other internet matters. And they're nearly done now. Thankfully. I'm trying to remember what I've been doing this week...some stair spindles, a couple of pieces for an upcoming week-long exhibition, a very large "thing"...and then a very small "thing" (inspired by the very large thing) as a prototype for a further, realated "thing", some more roughing out, some timber prep, and a few play pieces which turned out quite nice. So not a bad week all in all. But the coming week will be less fun, because a growing list of "must-have-dones" needs urgent attention.Actually, that's not quite true, as a couple of things on the list will be quite interesting jobs, and I'm looking forward to getting on with them.
28th January 2009Spurred by the bowl saving, I bought a set of Mc Naughton coring tools to try out. My logic being that I could exceed the capacity of the Woodcut tool, and then return to it for the 16" and under bowls. The Mc Naughton is a well engineered set, strong and well thought out. But it has to be said that for ease of use, the Woodcut scores way above it. One advantage of the Mc N, is that the profiles are not quite as ridgedly imposed; there being some lattitude for choice in the profile you core out. I think Fred Holder's test hits the nail on the head - a combination of the two is about the best you can hope for. But given the option of only one system, I'd go for the Woodcut. Whilst roughing some green Sycamore bowls over the weekend, I was wondering about the green stain that you sometimes get in Sycamore. It tends to follow the grain, and, I think, is quite attractive. The problem is that it doesn't last. Within days the green has vanished. I assume this is a product of the oxidation that occurs on the surface of the wood. But what is the green stain? Fungal? Some kind of spalt? And is there a way to fix it into the wood? I'd be interested to know, if anybody has the answers. I've been invited to exhibit some (a lot) work at a week-long exhibition in March, which you'd imagine is great. But it's not really. I still have this problem about woodturning and art. When do the two collide? When does the former become the latter? Does it at all? Is it really as simplistic as the answer being in the attitude of the beholder? And also, perhaps more importantly, does acceptance of such an offer mean that you consider what you do as "art"? For the record, I don't. I'm not an artist. I'm a woodturner. But I do have sympathy with those woodturners who consider their work worthy of the "art" tag. There are a number of highly skilled and imaginative woodturners, whose work does not fall easily into the tradtional definition of the practice, and for whom "art" might well seem a more appropriate description. And in 21st January 2008An odd day yesterday. I had a few things to do in the morning that required me to be closed. So I'd thought to take the day away from the workshop and do some wood prep. Well, the chainsaw decided to take the day off as well, so I was left twiddling my thumbs I'm not good at twiddling thumbs. So I went in anyway. I'd turned a hemispherical Ash bowl the day before - a quickie because a blank I'd cut to illustrate the procedure for a student was sitting there - and decided to play with the form on another bowl. The night before I'd looked at Darrell Fellmate's videos on YouTube, and noticed he was roughing with an Oland tool he had made himself. When I mounted a blank of ash, I remembered it, and thought I'd have a try. I had a square-section bar of steel that the Earl of Henstead had given me, and thought that would do. But I couldn't be bothered drilling and tapping it, grinding a cutting piece and fitting it, so The Earl took it and ground the tip off at about 45 degrees (to steep as it turns out). Anyway, I ground it up on the bench grinder and gave it a try. It takes wood away so fast that I was able to stall the WIVAMAC at 600 rpm. And the surprising thing was the finish. Quite acceptable for roughed out bowls. 20th January 2008I had a student on Friday, so didn't do much apart from that.But it was a good day. Teaching days vary so wildly depending on the student, that they are always a worry. You want the student to get the best from the day, but so much depends on their abilities, willingness to listen and take on board what is being said, and of course, more importantly, your ability to convey the message properly. That's a lot of variables to cope with. And an awful lot of information the student is expeted to take in and implement. But Friday's did just that with apparent ease. In just one aspect, the quality of a cut, there was a pronounced improvement through the day. And if that's all he took away I'b be content. If you can get the tools to cut cleanly, and cut the wood where you want it to be cut, then your on the way. You can turn the piece you want to turn, rather then sand the piece you end up with to some kind of finish. So a good day, then. At least I thought so! So yesterday I thought I'd play a little, and make a start on a losely-defined commission. A large sycamore piece mounted and roughed down, to turn a large open-topped form, which I intended to colour. Between chatting to customers and visiting turners, it was a day for it, I completed the vessel and began to colour it. But as I left it last night to go and collect my daughter from a party...mothers in the glad rags and me looking like I'd been through a saw mill backwards!...it wasn't what I'd hoped for really. It can be depressing when this happens, but not all is lost. At I've learnt what I don't want the finished piece to be! It'll be nice enough, and saleable, but it's not the piece I wanted...the shape is right, and the wall thicknes Etc. It's the colouring that's wrong. Partly this may be down to the choice of wood. I'd expected it to produce (a), and it was (e). Oh well. Back to the lathe. Back to customer jobs today. Legs for a refrectory table (where do all these legs keep going?), and roughing out some huge pieces of fir for a set of bowls. At least my choices are made for me today, so I won't need to wander around trying to decide which piece of timber to do what with. Unless... 16th January 2008A quick entry whilst I wait for my daughter to finish her breakfast. I'm sure some of you know what that's like! The poly-v belt on the bandsaw snapped at weekend...why is it always weekend, or a bank holiday? And how do you miss the bandsaw! We take it for granted, the bandsaw. It sits there doing nothing for most of the time, the lathe's the tool after all, and we use it to rip a few boards to squares, cut discs, and that's about it for a turner. But then the belt snaps and the world has ended! I realised just how much I do use it by being unable to. Roughing a circle with the electric chainsaw is possible, but needlessly noisy, far more dangerous, and certainly messier. And you wouldn't want to rely on it. So I call the supplier on Monday morning. A belt please, for the bandsaw. Certainly, Sir. That'll be £14.86, plus £7.00 postage to have it delivered to us. Oh, and it'll be three days wait. No thanks! So I call a small local Engineering Factor, who I know does not stock spares for my bandsaw, but can get belts made up. The result? Two belts...perfect fit as would be expected and required...for £7.05! I'll be shopping there from now on. Thanks to Taylors of Lowestoft. So it's been pretty much of the same over the past days. Roughing, roughing, and roughing. With one day to break the pattern with a student. I like roughing out, although it can get monotonous. But the main problem is the shavings! Keeping in mid that I've been coring everything, I can't believe just how mush waste I still produce. Here's a picture of just two hours worth...
9th January 2008I spent quite some time turning an order of Yew bud vases today. Nothing difficult about that, you might think. But it was! Do have any idea how difficut it is to remember NOT to complete an item you've just turned, when you spend seven days a week doing just that? Well, I'll tell you...it's difficult. The problem was that the vases had to be turned, abraded to 400grit, and left to remounted later by the customer. Bud vases aren't exactly taxing. I know that. But the thing about such a task is that your mind wanders...what am I doing next? do I ned some more 4" ash for those platters? Why doesn't it snow any more?...and guess what? Yeah! You've sealed, cut back, oiled and parted the thing off! So I only did it the once, but how daft do you feel! 8th January 2008Not much to blog today. I finished a new nest of four in spalted olive ash, which was a real trial to get to a satisfactory end. The spalted log had taken fifteen years to get to where it was at, and consequently was far from "prime". But repeated applications of sealer, freshly sharpend tools, and gritted teeth resulted in a lovely result. I've uploaded a slightly different version of pictures on the Gallery page. Let me know if you think it works. Speaking of slightly different..I've also added a project to the General page. I'd intended to upload quite some time ago but didn't get around to it. The project was thrown together in response to a number of requests at a demonstration given by Mark Raby of Chestnut Products. There are movie and pictorial versions. Once again, let me know what you think. Well that's it for now. A busy day looms tomorrow, so I need some rest. 6th January 2008You see what happens when you re-start blogging...you feel obliged to continue! I might resent the sense of obligation if it weren't for the kind comments already received via email...and two in person today...from strangers! But it does present a problem...as I'm sure I've harped on about before...insomuch that you (me) are constantly wondering throughout the day, what will I Blog tonight? Well, the first entry was easy. I completed the nested set discussed yesteday, so a picture of the set will suffice for that...
So there it is...the first WOODCUT nest. The process, for those interested in such things, was (roughly!) this.. Blank trued, chucking point cut, outer shape of first bowl cut and finish sanded...ebonised, cut back, stained red, cut back, black patinating wax applied, surplus removed with oil, textured with skew point, re-stained red, oiled. The process was repeated for the interior, and then repeated for the subsequent bowls. Reverse-chucked to remove holding point, base sanded, ebonised and stained to match.
5th January 2008"Keep it up" said an emailer today. And he was talking about the blog...rather than the more frequent thing(s) I'm implored to "keep up" via email. How I detest SPAM! I am willing, however, to acknowledge that one reason that this particular kind of email is so detestable, is the niggling worry that somebody might actually think you need their blasted product! Anyway...that's another rant, so I'll stop before I devote a page to the cretins who post & send the stuff. I got the chance to play with a new toy today; the Woodcut bowlsaver. All my coring up to now has been achieved with the Stewart System tool, and a home-made version of the same (which, incidentally, cuts far better than the bought version!), and has been fine but for two important factors: a) it only cuts a cone-shaped core from the donor blank, b) as a consequence of a), it wastes more wood than is necessary, and can result in dramatically differently shaped bowls. If your intention is to simply produce a number (2, 3, 4 or more depending on the blank's depth and diameter) of individual bowls, and thus save money and reclaim wood, then this isn't a problem. The tool does a good job, is relatively easy to master, and does reduce shavings waste, achieve a higher output from a single blank, and can result in attractive (almost) matching nests of bowls. However, to achieve a nest of bowls with matching profiles, the Stewart System tool requires a fairly large donor bowl, and results in a set of bowls which whilst similar in profile, show a marked difference in size. This is simply a product of having to re-shape a cone into the profile shape of the larger donor. I'd got to the point where this was becoming an annoyance, and so I did some reading as usual, and eventually came across an article written by the noted American turner, Fred Holder. His conclusions were that a combination of the Woodcut and the Mc Naughton system seemed the best option if money is of no consequence. Well, as ever, it is, of course. So I decided to try the Woodcut first as it is suitable for nests from a donor bowl of up to 16" diameter, which is a good size. Anything larger can be initially cored with the Stewart tol for now. So I bought the tool from Phil Irons, and it arrived the nest day. Well done, Phil! And today I assembled it and turned a 13" by 5" sweet chestnut blank to suit. Having reversed it onto the chuck the moment of truth came. I set the bowl saver up as instructed, and away I went. To say that the process is easy, straight forward, and effortless understates it significantly. I can't remember being quite so impressed with a tool in a long time. It could give Ronseal a run for its money, because it too does exactly what it says on the box. It isn't a cheap tool by any means, costing about £200 or thereabouts, but when you consider the savings in bowl blanks alone, I would imagine that you could recover the cost from just two 16" donor blanks. (This of course depends where you currently purchase your bowl blanks, but the supposition won't be far out). And when you look at it like that, it actually costs nothing at all. It's essentially free! No really! Think about it... 1 * 16" bowl blank turned into a single bowl, let's say it sells for £80 1 * 16" bowl blank cored to produce four bowls, which sell individually at: £80, £50, £30 & £20, and this doesn't account for a nest sold as a set, at a premium, when the wood is sufficiently attractive to warrant it. * based on four blanks of matching size when purchased from a timber merchant or woodturner's supplies (You can work out for yourself what the four bowl blanks would cost individually, and see the saving that way if you wish. Just look in your blank supplier's catalogue for blanks of 16", 14", 12" & 10" of the same wood, add them up and see what you've saved by deducting the cost of the largest from the total. I think you'll be amazed.) So there's half of your money back already! So if you've been thinking about bowl saving tools, I can highly recommend the Woodcut Bowl Saver. I'm not discounting any of the others, the Stewart, as I've said, is a good tool within its contraints, and I'm sure the others have merit, but the Woodcut is the one I've bought and tried. And in true 10 O'clock News style...and finally.. The January edition of The London Magazine is now out, and yours truly is on page 58..
3rd January 2008It was cold in the workshop yesterday. By the time the day was over the cold had actually got to my knees! I could, of course, put some heating on, but that just seems like burning money...which it is!...and figure I can cope with a little thermal discomfort. And besides...it's better for the wood. And then this morning I received an email from a student of mine, Trevor, who works in Russia. He said the temperature had dropped a little over the past few days...and was now at -22 celcius!! He attached a photograph of the Aral River...where he tells me the locals break through the ice to fish for Carp...which is their dinner if they're lucky enough to catch one.
So maybe I wasn't cold at all. And at least when I went home I had steak for dinner. And that after a long hot bath, and half an hour with Jeremy Clarkson's latest collection of rants. As my Mother used to say with boring regularity, "there's always somebody else worse off than you". I'm glad she won't get the chance to read this. I'd hate her to know that she was right again! So the year began in earnest yesterday. First "proper" day back after New Year. So what did I throw myself into? A growing list of "must have by..."' jobs? Nah. I'd been cutting some fire wood from a VERY large pile of logs at home that I'd deemed "unfit for turning" some time ago, when I cut into an Ash log. It was so far from looking like a promising lump of wood it might as well have been plastic. But what lay beneath its muddy, crusty, battered and splitting exterior? Some stunning olive, with lovely figure, that's what. So the fire missed out on the bulk of the log, and I played with some lovely dry wood on the lathe. Now, my name isn't Ché, so subverting the system isn't high on my list of priorities, but looking at the olive Ash, I couldn't help but want to colour it. Why? Because that's precisely what you're not supposed to do with Olive Ash. So I did. The natural discolouration alone is stunning, as you'll know, and truely needed no un-natural augmentation, but why not? Logically these kinds of woods lend themselves to colouring very well indeed. The olive areas take the stain differently to the white areas, and create a very pleasing contrast. Anyway, I was happy with the results, and was just about to remove the bowl from the chuck when another turner arrived. His first words were..."Oh! Now I do like that!" So that settles it. I haven't committed a mortal sin by staining Olive Ash. Or have I?
1st January 2008 I thought I'd start the New Year with a quick update to see if it spurs me on to finding the time to make more regular updates in 2008. Firstly, can I wish all visitors - and yes, this includes you too! - a very happy and healthy new year. The last few months have been a little more than hectic. Virtually all of my turning has been commisioned of late, which is, of course, a great situation to be in, but I do miss the "play time". Hopefully I'll get back some play time in the New Year. There have been two changes to my turning life of late, both of which are of particular note...on a personal level at least. The first was starting to use a glue gun with something approaching obsessive regularity. I long resisted the use of one, thinking them to be unsafe in these days of accurate and (sort of) affordable scroll chucks. Well, a batch of production work forced me to at least try the glue system, and I found it to be very helpful, quick, and surprisingly safe. I'd say that you need to ensure you use a good quality gun, the best quality glue, clean surfaces, and a modicum of common sense, but after that the glue-chuck system is a real boon in the workshop, and can make a vast difference in the speed at which certain processes can be carried out. I've now invested in the best gun I could find and am finding new (to me at least) situations where it can be of use. Another related "discovery" is the application of wet-suit material for jam chucks. A student I was tutoring kindly brought me a old suit that he had long since discarded. He had seen some of my jam chucks, foam-topped ones, and commented that he had something that may be of use. I had need of a 13" flat foam chuck and promptly cut the suit up to make one with plywood. The neoprene worked a treat. It returns to its shape, is strong and leaves no marks whatsoever. So if you have a old suit hanging in the garage, get cutting! The other big change has been in my sharpening set-up. For a long time I had been using a "home made" slider with a well known manufacturer's varibable grind jig. Well, the brass inset that takes the screw to hold the tool repeatedly stripped, and was becoming a nuisance. I decided to try the Oneway system, having seen it in use elsewhere. I bought the system from Les Thorne at Shed Direct, and have to say that it is everything I wanted. It is very well built, strong, and does exactly what it says on the box. It still seems like a lot of money to pay, but I have no doubt that for novice turners, or turners who have difficulty with grinding, that they'd save the money in ground away tool steel. I felled two twenty year old Sycamore trees for my F.I.L. shortly before Christmas, and have started to rough-turn the trunks. I need a large number of bland-wood bowls for some ideas I want to play with, and thought that if I did them now, that I'd have them ready for the summer. I like rough turning, especially Sycamore. Rough turning bowls would be a good practice exercise for novice turners. The wood cuts freely and cleanly, and you can hone your tool work without fear of ruining the finished bowl. I cored all the resulting blanks, which a novice probably wouldn't do, but even without coring, you can very quickly produce a large quantity of bowls, which will then take anythig from 3 to 6 months to dry out. An advantage here that may be overlooked, is that by the time the bowls are ready to be re-turned (finish-turned), the novice may have developed their skills to such a level as to do the finished bowls real justice. And the other advantage is that green wood is cheap, often free, and consequently there is no financial imperative to get results. If you lose one, by going through the bottom for instance, all you have lost is the time. But as the time was well spent honing your tool use, you haven't really lost anything at all; It's all good practice for those expensive blanks you will undoubtebly buy later on. Far better to lose a cheap, or free, blank of a freely available wood than an expensive imported, and possibly rare,exotic. I've posted a picture of the results of a morning's roughing to give you an idea what you could end up with.
I know that a lot of people search for information on rough turning, because I see the search terms that lead people here. I wondered why this was for quite a while. What was it about rough turning that seemed so shrouded in mystery? I think the answer is that rough turning is often viewed as the process for full-time, or professional, turners, and consequently "not for beginers". Nothing could be further from the truth. Rough turning is an efficient, cost effective method of producing turning blanks. For the professional with orders for large quanities of bowls, it is, without doubt, the best way to ensure a viable margin exists. For the hobby turner, it can mean the difference between the purchase of the odd bowl blank, they can be expensive, and having a large stockpile to hand for little, if any outlay.
There are other benefits to rough turning freshly felled green wood which are of particular interest to hobby turners. Especially those new to turning. Green wood is always cheaper than kiln dried, and is often cost-free in monetary terms. You may have to saw up logs and remove them for somebody, but this is good exercise at least! Once you have your green wood - sycamore, beech, and oak are all good - the first thing to do is the "halve the logs". That is, cut them lengthways through the pith. This releases much of the stress in the wood, and effectively removes the troublesome pith, from which most of the usual cracks, and checks derive. After this point the following process can be followed. I should point out that this is a basic procedural list, not exhaustive, and is intended only as a guide. Experimentation and experience will always lead to the development of your own "preffered system".
If this is to be your first attempt at rough turning bowls (or other vessels and forms) you are probably better using straight sections of trunk, with no knots, branches, obvious defects. As your experience grows, you may feel better equipped to include more troublesome sections in the process.
Basic Rough Turning Procedure
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