Wednesday's Wisdom For Woodturners February 15, 2023

[lew]

Middle of February and it was 70° today in South Central PA!

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

@Thad posted an image of a garden tool he turned. These are really handy for anyone planting both garden veggies and flower bulbs-

 

Check out the comments at Thad's post-

 

 

Last week, @RustyFN told us about the turned boxes he had made. Check out more about the one he entered into his club's contest and the awards presented-

 

 

Also, a great big thanks to Rusty for starting a great new thread called "What's On Your Lathe"! Hope we can keep this going!!

 

Our turners are already starting to post their stuff-

 

 

 

@HandyDan used some of the Easy Wood Tools carbide cutters to top off a couple of turning tools he made. 

 

Dan's post describes the construction and why he chose round bar stock

 

 

 

@jthornton continue work on his dizzy bowl. He has posted lots of progress shots along with explanations of what he is doing. This is going to be an awesome bowl!

 

 

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

Click on the images for links and more information-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For The Newbies-

Richard Raffan continues with his video series to help the new turner and us old turners that need some reminders

 

 

 

 

 

Expand Your Horizons-

Looking for something different to turn? Check out the latest from Mike Peace-

 

 

Having just the right device to hold a turning makes life a lot simpler. Look what Alan Stratton has created-

 

 

 

New Turning Items-

Several things on hollowing. Two from Trent Bosch 

 

 

 

 

Some more from the Woodturning Tool Store on the Woodcut Tools Pro Forme Flexi

 

 

Just got word today that Easy Wood Tools is about to release a new product! Hopefully @Jordan Martindale will keep us in the loop!

 

 

Everything Else-

Rick Turns list of YouTube woodturning videos from last week-

 

 

 

and from Ron Brown-

If You Never Try, You Will Never Know

 

Have you been turning for 5, 10, 20 years, or longer? You are just beginning to understand the fascinating craft of woodturning. This might make more sense if I used the analogy of someone who had one year’s experience twenty times.

 

Think of it like this, a baker who only makes one kind of bread over and over might be pretty good at making that one kind of bread but most folks wouldn’t consider him much of a baker. While someone who makes several different kinds of delicious bread, bagels, cakes, pies, and muffins would be considered a thoroughly accomplished baker.

 

I’m not suggesting you give up making what you love, only that you add other types of projects into the mix. That is how you keep our craft alive, interesting, and growing. Or, just consider adding embellishments this time such as pyrography, carving, texturing, or painting. Besides, the skills you learn by turning something different often carry over and make you even better at turning what you love.

 

I’ve met scores of folks who make mostly bowls who ventured out with spinning tops, bottle stoppers, pepper mills, pens, and hollow forms and discovered a completely new passion. I would like to suggest you try a few different kinds of projects this year. You might just be surprised at what you learn. If you are mainly a bowl-turner, try some spindle projects. If you are mainly a spindle turner, try some plates, platters, bowls, and hollow forms.

 

I can tell you from experience that it takes making more than a few to understand your new project. I’ve made somewhere over 10,000 spinning tops and it took a few hundred before I started to “Get It.” Fancy delicate finials were the same way. I’ve made hundreds for Christmas ornaments, turned lidded boxes, and lidded hollow forms. Looking back at the first ones, they now seem clunky and disproportionate but they were fun and educational, well worth my time and effort.

 

Besides, having an arsenal of quick easy projects that you are good at is a great way to demonstrate turning to the public, or to introduce someone new to woodturning as a fascinating hobby or side business for a little extra income. Always be on the lookout to show someone how fun a wood lathe can be. Keep it simple and they will understand. Remember that wherever you go, there you are.

 

 

Safe turning

[Gerald]

Thanks for the post Lew. We have one I know of in our club who has only done pens in his year plus of turning. Great pens by the way but there must be others.

 

 

 

 

 

[HandyDan]

Another busy week in the shops.  Thanks for the recap.  Never did much hollowing so those video look interesting to me this week.

[lew]

@Gerald Thank You! I get bored turning the same things over and over. One the challenge is met, I need to move on.

 

@HandyDan Thanks! I'm like you, hollowing extends to shallow vases.