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Archive of Blog entries from 20065th December 2006Off cuts...Not much posted over the previous two weeks, for which I apologise. Again. I have been otherwise occupied...I think that's the appropriate phrase...with various matters related to turning, the association, and life in general.
So this post will be a selection of off-cuts from the previous few weeks.
Health & Safety as it relates to Woodturners has been at the forefront of my activities recently. If you ask, “why?”, the answer lies elsewhere and I shan't go into it here. But it has. And I would direct your attention to the note at the top of the screen before you read on...these are MY thoughts.
One thing that has become apparent to me is that we really do live in a cynical age, where personal responsibility has been denuded almost to the point of extinction. I do not imply by this that I feel, for instance, that any person should be able to go out and buy a chainsaw and be expected to use it safely without guidance, but that guidance on its safe use, and appropriate warnings and advice to take a suitable training course should be enough. If it isn't, then perhaps sales of all potentially dangerous equipment and tools should be restricted by law to those who can provide documentary evidence of their suitability to own and use such.
If you don't see this in your everyday lives, take a look at a packet of peanuts, and hopefully you will be as dismayed and confused as I am when I see printed on the reverse of the packet, “this product contains nuts”. Of course it contains nuts! But it is there for a very real and serious reason. It is there because many unfortunate people suffer from nut allergy which can cause lethal anaphylactic shock in some. The producers of packet nuts are aware of this, and have in the past been brought to book over the lack of a warning. I have to say that I find the fact that they are forced to add this little note worrying. Isn't the wording, “Peanuts”, evidence enough? I can see a case for the warning where the product contains peanuts in a disguised form, say in a sauce or stuffing, for instance; where the peanuts are, to all intents and purposes, hidden from view. But this is the world we live in. The producers cover themselves by adding the warning. And so it is with woodturning and woodworking tools and equipment.
How many people, I wonder, have ever purchased an electric drill, and been unaware of the potential danger in its use? A child perhaps? But then, “a child shouldn't be purchasing an electric drill”, I hear you shout. But what of the child who picks up the drill in Dad's workshop? You can only shudder at the potential for danger there. And in such a case the onus, surely, is on the parent to ensure that firstly, the child has no access to the workshop or tools, and secondly, that the parent should instil a basic awareness of safety in the child.
So where does this leave Woodturners? The problem, it seems to me, is that as woodturning has developed, procedures outside of the normal practices of the craft have crept in, and it it these practices which constitute the greater danger. Woodturning clubs, professional turners, demonstrators, magazines, books and videos can all, and many do, routinely advise on matters of lathe and workshop safety, but what about these other activities that creep into the craft?
A recent addition to the Woodturners tool chest, for instance, has been the high-speed rotary tool. Many of these tools operate at between 20,000 and 40,000 RPM, and are often used with a small drill bit or dental burr, and are often applied to the work piece whilst it is sitting in the lap of the operator. Now I can see a great potential for danger here, as I'm sure many of you can, but who has the responsibility for advising about it? The Woodturner who has his/her pierced work shown in a magazine? The tool maker? The club where there are members who might just buy the kit and try the procedure out? The national association which looks after the interests of the craft and its practitioners? All of them? These are serious and sincere questions to which I have no definitive answer. And should our direct concerns be for equipment which might be considered “standard”? If you can go out and buy a tool for piercing wood, a tool for texturing wood by means of a mini chainsaw type wheel, a jig for supporting a router for use at the lathe, or any other of a growing number of non-standard pieces of kit which have been manufactured, created, adapted, or modified for use at, or in conjunction with the lathe, or the final product in a lathe-turned object, should our concerns directly relate to these too? And if so, then how would we address these concerns? The answer here, I feel, is simple; we cannot, as turners, condone them. As I see it, it has to be this simplistic. If you cannot draw up basic, common sense, guidelines for such tools and equipment, and how could you for the myriad of potentialities, you cannot, in all conscience, condone them.
But isn't this attitude cynical? Isn't it simply passing off responsibility? But, isn't this simply the way of the world today?
All these questions came about as a result of another Woodturner's concerns over a safety issue, and I personally consider it a good thing that they did. We should, all of us, constantly question what we do, how we do it, why we do it, and how what we do is perceived in the wider realm. But I suspect that this way lies madness, despite the rightness of the attitude.
On Saturday last I was at an event and a male customer has being appreciative of the work I had displayed. “I've always fancied a go at turning,” he said to me. “I think I might buy a lathe and have a go.”
What should my response have been? “That's great!”, or, “You do realise that woodturning involves attaching a piece of wood to a lathe, spinning it at speeds of up to 3,000RPM and sticking a sharpened steel bar into it, which could be dangerous?”, or perhaps, “I would not advise it until you have undertaken and completed a comprehensive course in woodturning and safety.”
Which one? If I make the first comment and he goes away and injures himself am I culpable?
If when asked how I hollow out deep forms by a customer, novice woodturner, or general woodworker, (as I have been many times) I answer honestly with, “a deep hollowing tool”, and do not support this with a warning about the very real dangers involved in the practice, am I also culpable in any subsequent accident the unfortunate person may suffer?
Now, some of you may have already drawn your own comparisons between these hypothetical scenarios and another, recently prominent, scenario, but that's your business. And furthermore, any conclusions you come to as a result are of your own imaginings. I take no responsibility for them. (You see how easy it is to fall into a habit of passing off responsibility?) But the points and questions remain valid.
And at the heart of the whole issue is one question: what is safe to show/teach/demonstrate/illustrate/imply?
My guess? Nothing we do as turners. Sticking a metal bar into a piece of wood which is spinning at 2000 RPM (or any other speed) is inherently and genuinely potentially dangerous. The fact that people have been doing just that for over 2000 years, and along the way producing objects of great beauty, makes no difference whatsoever. It is a dangerous occupation at any level. When we augment the practice with the addition of anything other than standard tools and lathe we make it even more so. It's dangerous! Do not do it. Do not take it up. Do not be inspired by anything you see here and try to emulate it. (Not that you would!)
It does get you thinking all this, doesn't it? Where does it end? If I go out tomorrow and buy the new Audi sports car, and knowing that the UK has a 70mph maximum speed limit on its motorways, push the car to its advertised 155mph, and crash it, who is to blame? Me? Audi? Are they culpable for selling a car in a country with a maximum permitted speed of 70mph which is capable of greater? Should the government force car manufactures to cap the top speeds of all cars sold in the UK at 70mph?
Of course you need to pass a test to drive a car, and should therefore know the speed limits, and also have a working knowledge of the handling and use of a car, but has that stopped you speeding?I suspect there are occasions when we've all ignored them.
How many turners with a deep hollowing tool, and its handbook which clearly states, “suitable for forms up to but not above 8” in depth” have pushed a little deeper and gone to 9”? I have. And how many did so without consideration of the enormous forces at play, and the astounding potential for personal harm involved when such a tool catches, flies upwards and takes you teeth with it on an aerial tour of the workshop? And were you warned about this when you a) saw it demonstrated, b) saw it advertised, c) purchased the tool?
And should any of our responses to any of the questions raised alter when the subject in question is a minor? The answer has to be “yes”. And a resounding one, at that. Young people are open to new experiences, pliable in a sense, prone to emulate/copy, susceptible to being swayed by what they see adults doing as being “right”. So anything they see us doing is viewed as fair game for themselves. So here's a whole “other” set of obligations for us. We are obligated as parents and people, to “set a good example”. But where do we draw the line? At what point should our concerns dictate that instruction/demonstration ceases? Is spindle work the limit? Faceplate work when it is very securely screwed on? These are both activities with attendant dangers. And this is before we progress to other areas of turning practice.
We can insist on certain conditions of course: dust protection, full-face protection, a routine safety assessment protocol, but is this enough? If not, by how much is it not enough? Where else might our concerns be directed?
Rather like this posting, these questions can go on seemingly ad infinitum. There is no logical or prescribed stop point. In the case of the development of a minor's woodturning skills where ought this stop point to be? Should there be one at all? Should our concerns be solely those related to basic safety with basic tools and equipment? Should we have in place a two-tier system of instruction where only “basic” procedures and practices are taught to the young? Or dare we not make the assumption that reaching the ripe old age of eighteen ensures a balanced, educated, reasoned, self aware approach to life and all it entails? And that having not reached such an age precludes the same? Well, the law seems to answer the latter question for us. Minors are not responsible for themselves; we are, as a society. So, again, as Woodturners wishing to encourage youngsters to take up the craft, where do we stop? At which level? With which tools used in which fashion? At which procedures? Which which timbers?
Can there be a consensus reached through reasoned and considered debate? Safety within our craft should be a primary and fundamental concern of us all, and only by ensuring that there is a debate can we ensure that the questions are asked and answered by its practitioners rather than elsewhere, by others who may not have the insight, experience, and full understanding of the craft to reach a workable set of conclusions which will serve not only to protect but also to allow for its natural growth and diversification, for experimentation and progression.
Comments, as usual, will be greatfully received. 28th November 2006
So another spell has passed without and entry! And some users actually contacted me to let me know. Just in case I hadn't noticed, I suppose! Who knows.
There are some very good reasons for failing to keep the blog up to date. Firstly, I've been otherwise occupied at the keyboard with an number of things that have demanded my attentions. Not all of them pleasant, some of them far from pleasant, and others simply mundane. And then there are events to prepare for, this being the “busy” season for craft makers. So that's my excuse. Or those are my excuses if we wish to be pedantic.
Wisset was a great success, once again, and the event also helped to raise money for the Save the Children Fund, which is more important. It's only a small event in relative terms, but one I always enjoy attending. Janet and Jonathan Craft, and their willing band of family helpers, are wonderful hosts, and do everything they can to promote the event and make the day a success. So, a big “thank you” to the Craft family.
I should really be turning today, but this, and a job I've had foisted onto me has taken precedence. I shall shortly be attempting to construct a Sleigh for Santa! He is visiting my daughter's school at the weekend and is lacking a sleigh for the event...lazy elves I suppose...and so I've been “asked” - in that way that people have! - to make one. So I'll be the one covered in wood dust, red and gold paint, wood glue, and bemoaning the shape of my sled runners much later on today!
Tomorrow will see me back in the workshop, though. I've a veritable mountain of things crying out to be turned, and hopefully the week will see them completed. (Some hope!) I'm looking forward to the quiet period at the start of the new year, as a time to play a little at the lathe. I've lots of ideas scribbled on paper, and floating around my head that I'm eager to work on. And maybe next season I'll have something a little different to put on the stand at events.
For any turner concerned about the longevity of the craft, this must be a constant thought pattern. How do you take turning into the 21st century? It might appear that this has already begun with many of the more “artistic”, or decorative, turnery that we see around us, but I do wonder if the utilitarian side of the craft cannot also be updated. There does seem to be a growing and exited market for kitchen wood ware, and surely this could be a interesting avenue of exploration for turners? Wooden kitchen tools and equipment suffered at the hands of the “experts” over recent years, with claims that, for instance, wooden spoons are harbingers of bacteria and germs. Later research seemed to suggest that properly washed and stored, wood is, in fact, perfectly safe. And personally, I believe this to be true. Many common woods used for kitchen ware have anti-bacterial properties, and when washed and dried properly are perfectly safe in everyday use. In fact, I do use many wooden bowls and plates, stirrers, spoons, chopping boards, Etc., every day. It would be nice to see some contemporary versions of these old favourites finding favour in the market place.
Do you buy your prescription drugs on line?...and other matters
Well, do you? Have you ever been tempted to go ahead and purchase drugs for depression, impotence, or for any other malady, as a result of receiving an email, reading a hijacked Guestbook message, or through following a personal website link from a member of a forum you frequent? No! Well, I'm shocked! Stunned! I'm am in this state because logic dictates that somebody must. If not, why would these cretins continue accosting other people's websites in an attempt to fill them with links to their drugs, pornography, casino websites, and other less then appealing Internet destinations? If they get one hit in a thousand attempts, is it worth it?
And am I really the beneficiary of a will made by a distant , and, curiously, African relative, to the tune of £22 Million? You cynic! It could be true!
And how on earth have I managed to mess up the account details on the account I don't hold at the Halifax building society? Now that takes some doing! If you think I'm stupid for doing this, then what must you think of me when I tell you that I've also done the same thing, or similar, to the accounts I don't hold at Barclays Bank, TSB, and the International in Cayman? And don't get me started on what I've done over at Paypal!
So what has any of this got to do with woodturning? Time, is what. The amount of time spent deleting, removing, and lately, tracking, these donuts, when I could be doing something else. Woodturning, say. Between what I receive here, and on the forum for the AWGB website, I spend far too long sorting these morons out. And it's annoying. But it turns out that I'm not the only one who is annoyed. A group of Net Geeks, Hackers, and one-time phishers, have banded together to...I was going to say “stop”, but that's not truly accurate...have a go back. They have set up a site on the old infrastructure – if you know what it is, you'll know where it is – and are compiling a list of IPs, and destinations. These will be tracked where possible, and where not they will be monitored until a likely source IP can be determined. And then...well, what would you do if you, from a former life you understand, had access to files full of nastiness and bile, mayhem and chaos? Go and wreck a few websites, perhaps? Bulk mail some pictures that mother wouldn't like? Sign some people up for a few magazine subscriptions? Or how do you think they'd enjoy a parcel from a company that makes Anne Summers look like a likely place to buy Granny a present from? In truth I have no idea what will be done...no, honestly!
So, and you know who you are...I don't want your drugs, I don't want your skanky pictures, I don't want to drop a few Quid on your virtual wheel, I don't owe you money, I don't wish to claim my inheritance, and I don't want to change my account details at the bank where I have no account. And whilst the email address you supply is invariably bogus, and the IP bounced over twelve countries, the destination is, by the very aim of your activities, usually genuine. So if you can't be got at personally...well, go and get an education and then see if you can figure the equation out for yourself.
10th November 2006
So we had the talk by Philip Steeting last night at the WDWT club meeting. Although I've only been turning for three years, and have been a club member for slightly less, and therefore only seen about fifty "woodturning" demonstrations during that time, I have to say that is was a refreshing and throughoughly absorbing talk. Philip had obviously taken great pains to prepare for the talk, and had turned objects to use as examples, folders of tutorials for some of the design methodologies he was speaking about, and had a host of "aids" with which to pepper the talk. I think it's fair to say that some of the points Philip makes may be considered contentious by the woodturning world, and some maybe even offensive, but taken in the context of his passion for "good design" in woodturning one could only view the whole talk as helpful and constructive in the wider realms of woodturning. I'm certain that even those - because I am sure there were some - who felt the talk was not what they are used to/expecting/wanting, went away with something to inspire them, spurr them on, or challenge them into thinking about what, and how, they turn, a little differently from now on. And, surely, that can only be good for turning in the UK?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with turning in the traditional style; in producing traditional objects at the lathe, but if woodturning is to survive then it also has to develop to encompass the demands of the contemporary buyer. In essence, I think that this is what Philip Streeting is all about. And I'm sure that there are many turners out there who aside from wanting to master the relevant skills required to turn wood well, would also relish the chance to express themselves through their work. Why should self expression be the in the sole domain of the "artist"? Are we really all content to simply knock out standard bowls and candlesticks because we can?
I have by now sold, what for me seems, an awful lot of pieces at fairs and events, somewhere in the region of six hundred pieces according to my database. And it seems perfectly natural to feel proud of this. And I am. I am proud every time a piece is placed in a bag and money changes hands. How could you not be? But the pieces that stand out; that I vividly remember selling, are those prompted a comment about being, "different from what we usualy see", and one in particular, a ribbed and scorched bowl, that went to a Bahaus Architect because, in the words of the buyer, it showed, "unique and original design", and would, "sit very well in a contemporary environment". Now how nice would it be if many of our pieces received such comments? If we could steal a little of the kudos presently in the sole ownership of the "arty" crafts?
There are, of course, woodturners out there that have made great inroads into this area of the market: Nick Agar, Mike Scott, Anthony Bryant, Paul Clare, to name but a few UK turners, but that isn't many from the whole. Philip stated that a common claim made by detractors is that, "there simply isn't the market for that type of work". And I've heard the same claims myself. But no market is ever there until somebody designs/invents a product and seeks to sell it. Prior to the invention of Television there weren't hords of people sitting facing the corner of their rooms thinking, "Oh how I wish somebody would invent a small box shaped object that dislayed moving pictures to fill that corner!" The television was invented and a market created for it. The same argument can be made for virtually anything you can think of that you might have in your home. So why not apply the same thought to turned objects? People buy non-utilitarian objects on appeal. So there's your market! Turn appealing objects and you will sell them. If you turn appealing objects that have some functional use, you'll sell them twice over. If you turn appealing objects that have some functional use but also some artistic credentials...well, then you've hit a new market altogether.
Thoughts please?
Happy and inspired turning.
A selection of Philip's work
If you wish to contact Philip Streeting to discuss anyting, you can do so via his website at: www.woodturningdesign.info9th November 2006 I was trawling my increbily long list of Woodturning websites the other day, and popped over to Derek Andrews' woodturning Blog, The Toolrest .There is always something of interest here, but this time I found something great for woodturners; links to online woodturning videos on YouTube. Derek kindly posted individual links, but I'm not quite so user-friendly, so pop along to YouTube and type in "woodturning" into the search box. After you've done this, type in "wood turning" and try again. As with any Internet search, your search is only as good as the words people type onto web pages. For instance, if you search for "woodturning", and a woodturner's website only ever uses "wood turning" in his text, the odds are that it will not show up on your list of search results. The same applies for YouTube, MySpace and eBay. Of particular interest on YouTube are the five videos by J.T. Dunphy, and the short clip of the ITE Exhibition. I hope this idea takes off, as it serves as an interesting distraction from the run-of-the-mill Internet fare. Well done Derek for digging it out. I'm still on a hollowform and box run at the moment, and things are going quite well. When I get a minute I'll post pictures. Have I already promised that? Anyway, I will. Today will be slightly different as I have a favour to do for a young turner, and a piece to either select from completed work, or turn especially, for the Club meeting tonight. As I think I've already mentioned in a previous Blog entry, we have Philip Streeting of Suffolk coming to the club to give us a what promises to be a very interesting talk on what basicaly amounts to "inspiration for woodturners - new ideas and stratagies". My title, not his. I will, of course, post a review of the evening on the WDWT page, and also here. Well, the washing is in, the kitchen things are tidied up (to a fashion!), the animals are fed and watered, and the Blog page is about to be uploaded....so, it's time to make shavings! 5th November 2006 A whole week without a Blog post! I hadn't actually realised until somebody pointed it out. I can't say that I had much to say anyway, but you can always find something. A couple of things from the week... spammers/phishers and other assorted Internet scum. The AWGB website forum has been the subject of a concerted attack over the last few weeks, and pruning the bogus from the genuine account applications has been more time consuming than you can imagine. And just in the same way that I am able to track (most) the nuisance applications, they seem to have figured out who is blocking their accounts and followed me. Nasty email, nasty guestbook entries, subscriptions to some rather unpleasant websites made using my email address Ect. All good fun, no doubt, for the mindless *&ckwits. There is a difference, however, in the way in which I might deal with these cretins on the AWGB website, and how I might here, on my own website. As a representative of the AWGB my actions are governed by a code (unwritten though implicit) of behaviour, whilst here I am just another Internet citizen. So, note to cretins: your IPs are routinely added to certain freenet lists. So enjoy! On Saturday, the 4th, I went along to Elmer's Toolshow at the Suffolk Showground. Elmers is a large and incredibly well stocked hardware store in Kesgrave near Ipswich. Every year they have a show which, essentially, is a smaller version of one of the large national events. Although I have to say that in real terms I think it is far more popular. It was good to see Tony Walton, AWGB Trade and Business Liason Officer, there, demonstrating and selling his wares. Record Power had a large stall, and several manufacturers had good deals on small lathes. I treated myself to a nice 8" grinder with a 40mm white wheel from Record Power, and a nice Beal-type buffing kit. Well, you have support these events, don't you! Turning this week has been mainly lidded vessels of one type or another; small containers, larger lidded bowls, and a rather nice rectangular bowl in Elm. I'll post pictures soon. Other than that it's been a regular, but busy week. Things to do now, so more later. And a thought before I go...instead of simply emailing me and saying, "You haven't updated the Blog much. When will you?", Why not suggest a topic for me to cover? Why not ask a question? Pose a thought? Start and argument? My life isn't half as eventful as some readers seem to imagine, so often, finding things to write about is difficult. 29th October 2006So another demonstration has been and gone. The Diss Woodturners made me very welcome once again, but this time it was the advanced section of the club I was to demonstrate to, so I was a little more anxious. I needn't have been concerned because they were on their best behaviour and made the evening quite enjoyable again. I had been asked to change the planned demonstration because the Chairman had seen it already, and he fancied a change. So I decided to demonstrate turning a two-part hollowform vase. This was an adventurous and optimistic project in the time available, but it was the two-part process, and deep hollowing, rather then the completed project, that I wished to get across. With this in mind, I had turned one already, from the same log as an example of the completed vase. The demonstration went fine, but for a problem with alignment of the neck piece, which resulted in a disparity in wall thickness at one point. This would have been avoided had I packed the body in wet shavings during the break. But at least a lesson was learned, and the aim of the demonstration wasn't undermined. The demonstration seemed to be well received, and some nice comments were made to me as I packed away. So now I can look forward to the next one with a little less anxiety. My F.I.L. took a few photos, so I've included them here, along with a photo of the completed vase in ebonised cherry, with carved neck detail.
27th October 2006Busy, busy, busy...but only two days in the workshop due to it being half-term and having both Mum & Daughter at home for a week. Oh well, I did get to pop into Peter Child and spend some money as an incentive to get me out shopping in Colchester. I'm demonstrating at Diss woodturning club tonight, and out at a fair tomorrow at Red Lodge near Newmarket. So a short update I'm afraid. TTFN. 19th October 2006Do Your Neighbours Hear You Swear?Do they? Do you do things that make you swear in the workshop? No? No ----ups, then? Ain't you the lucky one? Well I do. I would say that at least once a week I have occasion to blurt out the odd expletive as something goes wrong. I know the reason why, which makes it all the worse. Impatience. I do have a tendency towards impatience, which occasionally leads to the aforementioned ----ups. The most common cause, however, is not impatience, but having too much fun with the tool when it's cutting so sweetly that you (i) get carried away. Deep hollowing is a prime area for such stupidity to be highlighted. And it's the annoyance at your (my) own stupidity that leads to the inevitable outburst that often gives my elderly, but thankfully tolerant, lady neighbour to enquire later, or the following day, "So what caused that outburst of French, then?". Quite embarrassing. So yesterday I got into the workshop a little later than planned, it doesn't matter why, and I was impatient (you see?) to get on with a largish hollowform in green Sycamore. All went well and the wood was cutting away faster than the floor could deal with it. The inside was completed, the outside was completed except for the last 10mm at the transition between body and foot. A quick squint into the hollow to assess the amount of light coming through the thin wall...okay, I can see that, and another 1mm should be fine. Address the tool to the work. Raise the handle gently and fluidly. Pick up the cut. Remember to drive it with the body, and....BANG! So, not another 1mm then, eh? You see, it's very easy to misjudge thickness by this method when the area in question is on the short grain. Light comes through much easier, and experience tells you that you've probably got more meat left than it would seem. The obvious answer to this is the caliper it, and get a definitive answer. But surely that's far too easy? I'll just trust my eyes...which are 12" away from the area I'm looking at through a 60mm hole. Like I said, stupid. So the vessel/vase is cut off the lathe, hits the toolrest, the lathe bed, the toolrest again, the wall, the floor, and dozen things in between and smashes into exactly sixteen pieces, leaving the waste stub firmly and resolutely in the four-jaw chuck. I collect the largest, and most obvious, pieces to look at...why do we (i) do that? What is it we hope to happen as a result of picking up the remnants of what would have been a nice piece? A miracle? Some previously unseen factor that will point the blame for the ----up at it rather then you?....So I pick them up. Um, quite clean breaks. Nice even walls too. I wonder. Twenty minutes later, after scrabbling all over the floor knee-deep in wet shavings, and I have all but two small pieces of the vessel. Out with the CA. So I glue it up. Not thinking about the gaping hole where the foot should be at this point. It's wet Sycamore so glues like a dream. I reverse chuck it and trim off the bottom 5mm where the damage is. What am I doing?! I turn a spigot on the end of the waste block in the chuck. Test the fit. Adjust the cut. Test again. And glue it on. I use a flat piece of wood at the tailstock to hold it level, and leave it to cure. I can save this! Infill the two missing piece areas with bright red Padauk dust...tape on the underside. I set the lathe to slowest-setting-for-an-idiot-trying-to-save-a-broken-vessel and true it up. Not that far out, either! Abrade and seal. But what about these awful glued joints? Make a feature of them! Pyrography! A relic piece! Pryro tool out and busy. Perhaps not then. Erm...colour it! Nope. Black wax! Better, but the joints still show. Carve a lot of joints and make it a patchwork! Okay, better. But not quite. Infill the carving with gilt paste. And rub down. And rub down again. And again. And again...you get the picture... And what have you got? Well, frankly you've still got a rescued piece. And one you would never have made otherwise. But it does show that you can recover from what was seemingly the worst of catastrophes. And just to make a point to myself I turned another today...only this time I ended up with what I wanted...not what fourteen pieces would let me make. For those of you interested: The recovered vase (pic1) is approx 10" tall by 7", finish is various and wax. The second (pic 2) is 9" by 6", finish is sealer and carnuba wax. The detail at the collar is Libron stain watered down to a tranluscent wash. Both were turned in one piece from green Sycamore. The entry holes are 58mm in both cases.
18th October 2006I've just had some exciting news. An article I wrote about the AWGB is to be published in the Craftsman Magazine, in the November 2006 issue, available October 26th.Copies can be ordered via the website at, www.craftsman-magazine.com, or from Smiths and the usual outlets. If you haven't seen a copy of the magazine before I can only suggest you take a look. There are often profiles of noted turners, and plenty of other articles that will inspire you, along with event details, and much more. Go on...take out a copy and see! Click the banner to view the Craftsman website, order subscriptions, single copies, or to download the pdf version.
17th October 2006The weekend is thankfully over. Although each component of it was very interesting and enjoyable in its own right, it was an exhausting three days. Friday evening at the Diss club was great fun. The club meets in a custom-built (by Ken) workshop in the grounds of a members home. And is a fantastic workshop by any standards. The members were a good bunch, and seemed to enjoy the demonstration, and exhibited a selection of work for me to critique. I doubt anybody enjoys doing this, as there is always the fear that you will upset somebody. However, they all took it like men and seemed to take my comments in the vein they were made. I'm back at the club on the 27th, so shall have to start thinking about what to turn. Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to it. It was late when I returned home after the demonstration, and I didn't get to bed until after one, and was up again at four to leave for Ickworth at five. And the fog was awful! I could barely see the end of the bonnet let alone the road! By the time I arrived it was just beginning to get light, and my shoulders were stiff from driving in a tense posture. The first photo shows how dark and foggy it still was on arrival. The second shows that it did clear up eventually. Saturday was slow again; this being the traditional day to come and purchase timber off the estate, but Sunday made up for it. The best sale of the day was the piece I thought I'd had stolen at the end of August. I don't have to worry about it anymore! The rest of the day was filled with small surprises. First, a visit from Norfolk turner, Nick Arnull, a name I'm sure you all know. We had a chat about turning and associated matters before he went to collect his timber. Nick informed me that although his shop in Norwich is now closed, he is still selling from home, so I'll post details on the links page shortly. Chris Wedlake RPT came over to show me some incredible oak boards he had purchased. They were virtually quarter sawn, and had fantastic figure and grain, and the rays almost jumped out of the wood. A good find. I also had visits from a number of members of the Diss club to say how much they had enjoyed the demonstration. I thought this was nice of them, and it does help to quell any concerns about not being up to the task. One of the first things that occurred to me when I was first asked to demonstrate, was that whilst I feel perfectly qualified to go into my own workshop and produce a piece of work, I wasn't at all sure if I was qualified to pass on the intricacies of the process involved. I kept remembering a paragraph in one of Dave Register's articles where he says, and I'm paraphrasing, that knowing how do something (in turning), and knowing how to convey the fine details of how to do it, are completely different skills. And how right he is. I doubt that I'll ever feel truly comfortable demonstrating; I have still only been turning for three years, and still feel that I know only a fraction of what everybody else does. Imagine standing in a room full of Grandmothers and saying, "Okay ladies, now I'm going to teach you how to suck eggs...". Well that's how it feels. It does make you see other demonstrators in a new light though. In order to demonstrate successfully you need to know your subject inside and out, but we are all, hopefully, still learning. Or are we? If you've ever watched Jimmy Clewes, or Ray Key, or Les Thorne, or any of the other regular and sought after demonstrators, you'll have noticed the casual , effortless air of insouciance they convey; maybe they do already know all the answers and just aren't letting on? The journey home on Sunday evening was eventful insomuch as I managed to aquire a freshly run-down buck deer. So fresh in fact, that I almost ended up in the back of the car that hit it. I butchered it yesterday, and I'm looking forward to some nice venison meals from it. Anyway, I'm off back to work now.
13 October 2006It's been a busy week so far, and as of this evening it can only get worse. I will be demonstrating at the Diss Woodturning club, run by Fred Wright from 7.30 p.m., and then for the rest of weekend I will be demonstrating, and selling, at Ickworth House, a National Trust property in Horringer, Bury St. Edminds, (Tel: +44 (0)1284 735270), at the annual Wood Fair. So it's all go then! I have some gallery updates to publish, but preparations for this evening and the weekend mean that time is a little tight, so they'll have to wait. In the meantime, a couple of pictures to be going on with. The first two are a before and after shot. The wood is brown Oak, and was a very ugly lump of very old wood, splashed with gloss paint, infested with spiders, webs and bugs of all kinds, but seemed to hint that it may conceal a gem. I think it did, but I'll leave that up to you...
8th October 2006Weekend. I wish I could abolish weekends. If you work at a job you don't enjoy then the weekend is a blessing. If you enjoy every minute of what you do, and you have ideas rushing about your brain waiting for the physical permission to be acted upon, then weekends are dreadful. "Can we have a ride out to insert name of anywhere miles and miles away from the lathe today?" You can't say, "no", of course. It wouldn't be fair. What you can do, when the circumstances allow such a treat, is tie in the day out with a visit to a former customer who mentioned that she has a shed full of turning blanks she'd like to see the back of. So off we went. Time, and the every-hungry worm, had taken its toll on much of what was there, but there were pieces that could be used: two 26"*2" Oak platter blanks, some ebony, walnut, cherry, ash, box, black bean, burr mullberry, padauk, purple heart, boards of oak, aformosia, teak, and walnut. The price for this trove was, well peppercorn, but to some people use if far more important than waste. So, thank you Miriam. Meanwhile I'm on the lookout for some freshly felled Oak. So if you see any.... And I thought I'd add a small gallery of this week's hollowform vases as I have neither the time nor the inclination to update the gallery today.
5th October 2006My first meeting for the AWGB went off very well. Meeting new people is always fraught with anxiety and this was occasion was no different. The committee, however, is composed of pleasant, reasonable people, and all seemed to go well. The day didn't begin as well though...the **^&%%$£^& Landrover decided to throw its starter motor at 5.00a.m. as I was leaving! SWMBO was not too pleased to be awoken at 5.45 to get up, get ready, and get on the road. Ellie, at five years old, thought the opposite; an adventure in the dark was well worth being awoken for. In the event, it was a tiring day, but an interesting one. So Sunday morning was spent replacing the starter motor. I had a brand new one in a box. Don't ask! So all's well now. I've even managed to turn a few things, this week, some hollow form pieces, six in all, and a bowl full of spinning tops at a demonstration in my daughter's school. The term topic is Traditional Toys & Materials, and I was asked to come in a show them how wooden toys are made. It was great fun, and not nearly as nerve wracking as turning in front of other turners. Finding so many five year olds unaware of where wood comes from was something of a surprise..."Where does wood come from?" I asked one boy, "China!" was his excited reply. As, I suppose, some of it does, I could hardly object to his answer, but it is worrying nonetheless. So I'm back in the swing now, and with a large load of freshly felled Apple and Sycamore to play with, I plan to play with form and shape a little. I only have one pressing piece to complete, which shouldn't take long, and thought I'd try and build up some more unusual pieces for a looming fair...and it's a good excuse to "play". I have plenty of room for failures as I took a dozen sacks of offcuts to a local couple for firewood, and burnt a wheelbarrow full of rejected pieces last week. Speaking of "failures". How many turners, I wonder, allow themselves to fail? The humble bowl, in all its incarnations, is an omnipresent article on the craft circuit, and forgetting the differences offered by wood variety and figure, and the turners degree of ability, there is little to distinguish one from another on the whole. Certainly in the eyes of the general public. And I do often wonder if this is because the bowl is an easy option. Now I love turning bowls. I enjoy the process, the results, the shapes and forms, the application of detail and embellishment, and the feel of the finished article, but bowls alone would not hold my interest for long. And, I think, I'd be hard pushed to sell enough to make the process viable. So I do other stuff. Which is fine, but not for everybody, but other stuff has a price. Or several prices to be paid. Firstly you have to develop the necessary skills for the other stuff, and secondly, you have to accept that along the learning curve (which is a Möbius-type curve, which loops and never ends) you will produce some expensive firewood. Of course, you couldn't do this with pre-prepared, kiln-dried blanks, you'd be bankrupt, but green timber affords us the opportunity with only a loss of time at stake. But I even question the loss of time. Surely, providing you learn something of value in the process, and consequently improve overall, then the fact that you burn the resulting article hardly matters. The next piece will be better. And possibly the piece after that, saleable. 27th September 2006Not much in the way of updates this last week. It's not been a very woodturny week what with one thing and another. The Landy, which is twenty-three years old, decided to herald the coming of Autumn by being very stubborn first thing in the misty mornings. And although she always does start -eventually - it's irritating. So action was required. Flush the engine, drop the old carbonised oil, change the oil filters, the air filters, clean the fuel filters, remove and clean the up-graded glow plugs, replace the oil with new, clean, super quality stuff for old diesels, and drop a bottle of very expensive, but miraculous, injection jet cleaner into the fuel tank...and drive like the wind - or as near to it as a twenty-three year old, 3,500Ib, vehicle will allow - and see if there's a change the following morning. And there was! Fantastic. Until, that is, you come to a stop, and then snap the stop-button cable, rendering the engine unstoppable via any other means than lifting the very heavy bonnet - there's a spare wheel clamped on top - and manually stopping it at the fuel pump. Not ideal. So, off to friendly Landrover Man in Lowestoft. If anybody else drives an old vehicle, for whatever reason, and mine are functionally and aesthetically based, they will be aware that a visit to a specialist supplier of reclaimed parts if lethal. The part I wanted, the stop-button and cable would have cost £3.00. Great, a cheap repair, if you discount the loss of time. But, no! Oh! I'll take a wing mirror while I'm here, and have you got a door lock for the driver's side? You have? Great I'll have...Oh, just a minute, I could do with a new door top as well...but then I might as well have the whole door. You have one? Great. And it is. Great, I mean. But then you have to fit them. And old Landies have a horrible habit of seizing all their nuts and bolts, screws and washers, to a point where you become convinced that they have fused at the molecular level and are, therefore, immovable. And often they are! But you persevere. In my case I have to because I know that at 2.45p.m. I need to be whistling down the lanes to collect my five year old daughter from school. Could I do that with the bonnet off and one door? Possibly. I've done far more stupid things before. But I didn't need to in the end, as I finished with just enough time for a quick coffee before leaving...but not a wash and change. So a rather grimy Dad collected a rather disgusted Daughter at 3.05p.m. So, not a great deal of turning has been done so far this week...in fact, only one piece, a spalted Sycamore hollowform vase, and I'm not too happy with that. But...the Landy is running like a dream! I do need to get down to work tomorrow though, as I have a commission piece that MUST be in the post by weekend, and on Saturday I'm off to East Sussex for a meeting of the AWGB committee. But this short break will leave me raring for next week. And I can't wait because while I was out buying the parts for the Landy I came across two quite long and wide Hawthorn trunks that were about to be chipped...there should be a law preventing such abhorrent behaviour. So that's me for today. I hope it's enough to keep my emailers happy. I'll try to do better! And for those that have emailed in the past, and those that will in the future, (You see, there is a kind of logic to these posts!) details of the Friendly Landrover Man can be found on the links page. 20th September 2006On Sunday I did something unusual...I didn't enter the workshop all day! It was the annual Henhan Steam Rally on the Henham Estate, and as my Father-In-Law always has a stall, and demonstrates woodturning, we took the day off and went along. It was also the first big-day-out for the new addition to our menagere...Heather, a miniature Jack Russel puppy. She's the small one bellow!
The Rally was already packed and busy when we arrived, and we soon found Terry busy at the lathe. It was also good to see Fred Wright, Chairman of the Diss Woodturning Club, busy sitting down behind his stall. The Chairman of my own club, Waveney & District Woodturners, was also on display, only he was wearing a different hat, he was there with S.O.L.D., who had a stall with the various things they make for sale. It was a good display with plenty to interest the passing crowds. Also on display at Henham was a bandmill to warm the heart of any woodturner...
How would you fancy that in the workshop? The only problem would be the steam traction engine that drives it! You'd be warm through the winter, though. We walked around for hours, looked at everything there was to see, had a few rides, picked up a few tool bargains, and then SWMBO wanted to drive down to Woodbridge to visit the bookshop...so we did. A local trip out was fast turning into an expedition. After Woodbridge we went for a walk around the Deben estuary. It's about a beautiful a spot as you could hope for, and Heather loved it.
As it was getting late when we left we decided to drive up to Aldeburgh, grab some of the best fish & chips anywhere, and have them on the beach next to Maggi Hambling's scallop sculpture. It was a long day, but a very enjoyable one. I even came home with a few ideas...but more of them as they materialise into turnery. Back to the workshop now! 15th September 2006It was Club Night last night, and we had Roger Foden RPT down to demonstrate, as I mentioned in an earlier post. Now I have a feeling that my comments herafter may be considered contentious, in poor taste, or patronising. But I hope not, as this is not intended. Roger is a Professional Woodturner with a reputation for fine quailty work. And deservedly so. Roger is also noted for another, perhaps unusual, fact; he is a disabled turner. He is, in fact, a one-armed turner. I remember reading an article on Roger in an old woodturning magazine, and thinking, "how the hell does he turn with only one arm?". Well, I know now. Without any apparant problem, and far better than most of us. I'm sure that some of you,maybe even Roger himself (and if he does I will, of course remove this post) might take exception to the label, "one-armed turner". I'm not suggesting that this is how you would introduce Roger. You wouldn't do that anymore than you would introduce somebody as, "female turner...", "black turner...", or "Catholic turner", but the disability is there and does raise questions. After watching Roger turn you are left with the feeling that it isn't a disability at all. In fact, from a woodturning standpoint, it seems to be an advantage in some ways. How many times have you read, or heard the phrase, "don't use your hands to guide the tool, use your body"? A few? No, many, many times, I'm sure. Well, Roger is forced to do just that, and if you look at the quailty of the cuts he makes you can see the difference it makes. Clean, controlled, flowing lines are formed with a sharp tool. It was a pleasure to watch him turn, and within minutes you cease to notice the obvious, and the "D" word slips out of your consciousness, and you are simply watching another fine practioner of the craft. The reason I've risked irrate emails and written this piece is because I think the preception of people with disabilities is that are are incapable of doing many of the things the rest of us do. This isn't the case. A friend of mine, and chairman of the woodturning club I belong to, is also on the committee of a cooperative workshop for people with a range of disabilities. Recently he took me on a guided tour to show me what they do there, and I was (ashamedly) staggered. There were people with incredible disabilities working there, people who might otherwise, and often have been previously, written off, and consigned to homes where the day's stimulation and productivity might amount to finishing lunch without mishap. But there they were using bandsaws, woodturning lathes, table saws, thicknessers, and producing salable, plactical, attractive products from donated scrap timber. The manager of the facility, Steve, came along to Roger's demonstration, and, I'm certain, went away feeling inspired for his co-workers at SOLD... Okay, recap...rather than make a claim for somebody else, I just called Steve and asked him what he thought. In a nutshell he was impressed and enthused by Roger's demonstration, and hopes to use this to inspire his co-workers to progress even further at the lathe. Personally, I can't think of a better compliment. Roger is a woodturner, and I'm sure that's how he rightly thinks of himself, and not as a disabled woodturner, and maybe that lesson, in this instance, is the one most worth taking away. Disabled does not mean not able. Perhaps the term should be differently able? I'm ashamed to say that in the past I have usually seen the disability first and the person second. I shan't make that mistake again. Special Objectives for the Local Disabled (SOLD) SOLD help people rebuild their self esteem through achievement, improving their quality of life and finding a rightful place in society, and an independent lifestyle. 36 Harvest Drive, Lowestoft, NR33 7NJ Tel 01502 512617 9th September 2006In many ways, I am quite organised; for instance, my thoughts are usualy organised, I like (even though it ages me) everything to have it's place...even if the place itself is disorganised, and as a consequence I generally know where things are. In other ways I am quite the opposite. Disorganised. Filing is, and has always been, a chore I tend to ignore. Notes on scaps of paper, that get lost, telephone numbers scatched onto things, invoices...well, frankly, they could be anywhere! And if it weren't for direct debit nothing would ever get paid on time. I am having to alter my ways, though. A couple of days ago I got my first confirmed demonstration booking...for October 2007! This is a major departure for somebody who has great difficulty planning beyond breakfast...and it also means that I need a calender for next year...and not only do I need to remember to fill it in, I need to remember to refer to it. I wonder if conservatism, with a small "c", is genetic? Do we begin to abhore change as we age? Having said that, there has been some change this week; I cleaned the workshop out, bagged twelve sacks of offcuts, many, many, sacks of shavings, installed an eight foot long Oak cabinet I reclaimed from SWMBO's school, made some tools myself, and completed a commission I had every intention of putting off. So maybe I don't mind change at all? In the process of tidying I found, as you tend to, quite a few interesting lumps of wood which I forgotton about. It's like a Woodturner's Christmas when this happens; you spot the wood, you're excited, you're mind starts racing with ideas. But here lies another problem for the disorganised...we really should make a note of ideas. And I always mean to. I even bought a hardbacked notebook specifically for that purpose! I wrote, "Woodturning Ideas 2006" on the cover. And then ignored it. So, I've made a resolution to jot the ideas down from now on. There comes a point when you simply have to. All my best pieces remain as ideas floating in the ether. If one passes you by, please grab it and send it back. It's our Club night this coming Thusday, and I'm very much looking forward to it. We have a turner from Norfolk coming down. Roger Foden. Roger is, in an official sense, disabled, insomuch as he has one arm. A disability that would test anybody'in their everyday lives. But also a disability that would, you might think, even further hamper anybody with a desire to turn wood. Not so Roger Foden. A member of the RPT, and turner of exquisite works, Roger seems to be oblivious to it. I doubt this was always the case, but his work suggests that it might be now. I know he will be an inspiration to all of us, and It should be a great evening. 3rd September 2006So how often have you been forced to admit that you're an idiot? Not often? N |
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