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average age of a turner

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I've done a few quick searches and didn't find what I was looking for..

Just curious as to how old all you woodturners are. I know from a few local clubs that there are very few children/young adults who turn wood for furniture, utility, art, or just fun. This made me wonder why the craft has not caught on in more recent generations.

So how old are you, and how long have you been turning?

This is of course optional, and not meant to offend anyone sensitive to their age. Again, just curious.

I'm 24, and have been turning for a bit over 5 years now.
 
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Lubbock, Tx.
I'm 47. My first turning experience was at age 17. I didn't get serious about turning until about 5 years into my teaching career. I am in my 26th year of teaching woodworking. Jim Bob
 
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Apr 24, 2006
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I'm 58 and have been turning for the last three or years or so, unless you count trying to turn a bowl on a Shopsmith about 20 years ago. (By the way I still have it. The 50 grit gouge got rid of the tear out rather nicely.)

I had wood shop classes when I was in Junior High, like most people of my generation, and I think that was a catalyst that got me into woodworking. I think the demise of the shop programs and our computer based society is a large part of the reason you see so few younger turners/craftsmen.
 
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I'm 48 and have been turning for about 4- 1/2 years.

Have done various types of woodworking for over 25 years, but did not start turning until I was offered a lathe at a good price. Now its about the only type of woodwork I do.:D:D:D

IAN
 
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i am 58 and have been turning about 3 years, its fun :D
 

Donna Banfield

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Age of woodturners

I am 50. I've been turning since 2001. My husband (who is not a woodturner) bought me my first lathe and tools as a Christmas gift. I did not have any exposure to woodturning or woodworking before that time. I grew up in the 60'-70's, and spent 12 years in the Catholic School system. Taking woodshop was simply not an option for me (I'm female) :^(

I teach woodturning at a couple of local woodworking specialty stores, and encourage everyone, especially the women who take my classes, to join a woodturning club. Many of them do, after they discover that they're not the only women in the club.

I am very proud of the fact that I am responsible for at least 1/4 of the new members of at least one of my clubs - both male and female members. They come from not just my classes, but people I run into at shows who express an interest. I encourage them to come to a club meeting, and they're usually hooked!

But the average age (?).... about my age or maybe a little older. I attribute that to a cutting back of the 'trade skills' in favor of high tech courses in high school. Couple that with the elimination of woodshops from many high schools for a variety of reasons, and we may be seeing our membership drop simply because there are so many potential woodworkers who have no idea of the talent they possess.
 
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Steve Worcester

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I would say in my club, average age is close to 60. Problem with young recruits is related to schools removing shop class from the curriculum. When they are involved, impressionable and inquisitive, they don't get the exposure they (younger people, sub 18) "normally" would to fuel the fire and get interested.

Myself, 49 this year (a pup) and 14 years in the woodturning lifestyle. (That's where we come in)
 

john lucas

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59 turning about 25 years. Average age of my club is easily 60+ Very few members under 55 and several over 75. I taught a class this weekend and had 4 people over 70, one 65, one 48 and one about 22.
 
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My high school did not offer any 'shop'

...though I wish it did. Instead, I always enjoyed the hands-on art classes: photography (in the darkroom) in high school, and both woodturning and glass blowing in college.

Surprisingly, the main difference in working with hot glass and wood is that with glass, you are the 'lathe'. You are responsible for continuously turning the blow pipe ensuring the mass of glass stays centered while you work it. I more readily set up a wood shop at home because at the end of the day, I liked the idea of turning off the lathe and going upstairs rather than continue fueling a 2200 degree glass furnace 24/7. :cool2:

I was extremely lucky in both glass and wood shop that my instructors were both full-time invested artists who had practiced the art/craft for 10 years+. I was not only taught the 'motions', but was taught how to create expression through the medium: determining successful shapes as well as orientating the grain of wood to maximize the natural beauty, or using highly skilled techniques forming, coloring, and texturing hot glass in order to manipulate light not only as it is reflected off the piece, but also how it is absorbed and can be perceived while passing through the piece.

I was taught to look at a 'bowl-blank' as a blank canvas; I can transform it into whatever I want, give it whatever texture or character I want, and after finishing my first bowl, I was hooked!
 
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The local club had a meeting tonight, so I did a quick "younger" "older" head count

Only 5 came up "younger", over 50 came up "older" and I'm only 54....

Kinda scary
 
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Sep 27, 2007
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Belgium
I'm 46. I bought my first lathe about 20 years ago but had no time to spend more than 5 years a year on it. I just start now to become a full-time.

There are not much young people: main reason is that the plastic language of the clubs are not young ... . You are young, yes, but is your turning young?

I am curious to see a picture of your work.


Squirrel
 
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I'm 64 and have been turning for eight years. My club does have one high-school age student out of thirty active members. Average age is probably around 55 to 60. I do several all-weekend turning demonstrations at art and craft shows, and always get groups of fascinated children watching. It's really a shame that schools have had to drop most shop classes because I think there is a strong interest in youth to learn how to do things with their hands (other than play video games). Problem is that parents are the ones who have to take them too and fro, and seem to think soccer is less dangerous.
 
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Aug 4, 2008
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... just 28

My wife bought me my first lathe (have 4 now) for fathers day 3-4 years ago and I tried it out and hated it... then in march of this year a friend of mine came over and helped me drag it out of the far back corner and showed me how to set it up. Half a year later and I dont go for week without turning something. My son beats all of us though... he's 6 and has turned some very nice tool handles, honey dippers, and his first bottle stopper the other day.:cool:
 
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I'm 48, been turning some since I was in High School back in 1974. Got serious about turning 3 years ago. I guess serious is what you call it when you spend enough money on a lathe to buy a used car.
Jack Mincey
 
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Nov 4, 2005
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Godfrey, Illinois
I'm 30, and have been turning for about 4 years now. It all started with an extremely cheap ($150), and very light weight (about 50 Lbs) grizzly lathe. It had a 12" swing, 40" between centers, and claimed to have 1/2 HP (probably closer to 1/4 HP considering how easy it was to stall). These were the same specs as some of the other lathes (except for the low HP), and I couldn't understand why they were so much more expensive. When I got this lathe, I immediately fell in love with turning. However, having to use a wrench (and sometimes two wrenches simultaneously) to make any adjustment with the toolrest, banjo, or tailstock, I thought that there had to be a better way. Sure enough, the cams on my next lathe (Nova DVR XP) did the trick. Now turning is truly a joyful experience. :)

Matt
 
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Seem to be older than others?

I am 72 and have been turning for 9 years now. Needed something to do in retirement and am still hooked. Bought my wife a small lathe, sent her to pen turning class and got hooked myself. She is also turning but not near as much. Having fun and you really meet a lot of very nice people. I am guessing that the average age in our club in Houston is probably around the mid 60's. However, we do have some in their upper years - even older than myself. We need to get the younger generation interested to lower the average age and to keep woodturning (artistically or craftly) going. :)

Bill
 
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I am 58, and started turning about 10 years ago. I was in construction for over 30 years. If I had shop classes available to me in high school, it would have been one class other than PE where I would have gotten straight A's. Most of our club is in the 50 plus age range. I attend 2 other club meetings, one is at the local high school where a couple of members mentor through their woodturning class, and there are a couple of students who attend. The students are given AAW accomplishment awards at the meetings when they have earned them. The other club is just getting involved with their high school which has restarted their wood shop class. The teacher comes some times, but thus far no students. Some parents bring their childern. We don't have, thus far an active turning class in any of the highschools locally, so that limits the younger turners. Hope to change that.

robo hippy

"You are only as young as the women you feel" Groucho Marx
 
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Nov 15, 2006
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Merced, California
34 years young

I used to work for the art department (among many other jobs) while I was in collage. After I graduated I got hired on as staff, managing and teaching a wood shop class. One day my boss brought in an old lathe. Been hooked ever since. First turned in 1998, had access to the schools shop for 2 years. Didn't turn again (unless you count metal) till I bought a jet mini in 2005. Found that I am very serious about turning now, purchased a stubby 1000 this year...never looking back!
 
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Schenectady, NY
I'm 49 and have been turning as a hobby for 8 years. Most of the folks in the clubs I belong to are quite a bit older than me. Not many younger. We do have a 16 yr old in 1 club that is doing very well. We all try to encourage and help him along. Our new club meets in a small school wood shop where the teacher is a turner and his students are at least exposed to turning and some have done nice work. Some have even won prizes at our local woodworking show.

With the lack of "trade" or "shop" classes in schools I often wonder where the next generation of builders, plumbers, electricians, masons, auto mechanics, etc. is coming from. Not everyone can be an IT tech or programmer/software writer.
 
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Saginaw, Michigan
I'm 66 and have been turning for a little over 3 years. My biggest joy so far is teaching our 12 year old grandson (he was 9 at the time) how to turn a pen. Have 2 more grandkids getting close to the age of being taught. Right now they're still content to sand Grandpa's projects.

Stoppy
 
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Mar 24, 2006
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Beresford, South Dakota
52 learned how to turn in Jr. high and High School (early 70's) that's all I did in shop class, sold my first piece for $75 when I was 14. A tall segmented red gum candle holder. While going to art shows a number of years back I started seeing wood turnings showing up and what they were getting for them. Kept telling my wife "I can do that..." so here I am 5 years later, approx. 300 pieces a year and only have a couple that are more than a year old. Just think where I'd be if I'd kept doing it after I got out of school!

Frank Denton
 
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I had shop class in both grade school and high school, but no power tools that I can recall and certainly no wood lathe. My dad did have a wood lathe for awhile in the early 50s till he had a serious accident with it. Although I've been involved with model building since I was old enough to hold a knife, I did not try woodworking and a little later woodturning until the Yankee Workshop came on TV.
Charlie M
 

odie

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I went over these posts, and it's gone pretty close to what I had envisioned.....

I'm 59, started turning in the early 1980's.....can't pinpoint an exact year.....but, I started turning on a Shopsmith......did that for a few years until I bought a Northwood lathe. The Northwood only lasted for about five years, or so, until I bought my current Woodfast lathe in the early 1990's.....still have that one! The Woodfast is an excellent lathe, but sometimes I wish I did have a little more capacity than the 16" swing it has. This isn't much of a problem, though, because good chunks of wood bigger than that are not that easy to come by.......

.....became a serious student of the art in the late 1980's into about the mid 1990's when my passion tapered off for a few years. I rekindled my interests in the late 1990's, and it's grown to a passionate pastime for about a dozen years now. Overall turning experience is about 25yrs, or so.......

otis of cologne
 
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I'm 49 and have been turning about 14 years - the last 6 I can describe as "seriously".

Looking around at the AAW Symposia over the past 5 years, my guess is that well over half (maybe closer to 75%?) of those there are 60+ ......"lotsa grey goin' on"..... could be an artifact of who can afford to attend (time and money). I can tell you that my 11 year old son also turns for the past 2 years, albeit infrequently between sports and school, which is at least one youthful data point.

(BTW - John Lucas ....you sure don't look 59.....!)

Interesting question....

Rob
 
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