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International woodturners, please respond.....looking for videos and other input.....

Richard Findley said:
Hi Odie

I feel sure you'll have seen this one before:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-z_Ph6nZfGE

Bears no resemblance to modern turning but an interesting historical video.

Regarding the state of turning in the UK, I'd say it's pretty healthy, if ageing, which I'm sure is a pretty common theme!

I would suggest the UK has possibly the densest collection of woodturning clubs in the world. For example, I do around 30 demos a year, I am often re-booked every other year, so that's 60 clubs in 2 years with virtually no repeats, all within 3 hours of my workshop in the midlands - and that's not all of the clubs, there are still some I have never been to yet.

So turning in the UK is a big hobby. As far as the professional part goes, there is the RPT (Register of Professional Turners) which has about 270 members and are all supposed to be full time professionals. Some aren't and there are some pros that aren't on the register. Most of the members are aiming at the artistic/gallery market. As far as production turners like myself, there aren't that many.

Cheers

Richard
Click to expand...

Hello Richard......and thanks.

Yes, I have seen that video, and it was a pleasure to watch it once more! I do have a couple comments/questions about it. If I saw that right, it looks like the grinding stone was revolving away from the turning tool. I'm wondering if there was a reason for that.....? Since it could easily rotate towards, the tool, I'm betting that German turner had a reason for doing it that way. It would seem that honing (which I didn't see) would be a very important ingredient to his tool integrity because of this direction. Does anyone sharpen their tools this way now? What advantage is perceived?

It looked like he used shavings rubbing the interior surface after sanding. I've seen this done before, but don't think I've heard why it's done. Do you know?

Some really great tool handling in this video......very nice indeed. No deep flute gouges.....guess that wasn't part of the technique back then. Shallow gouges, but great use of them, with very high center rest on the outside.

The mental picture you make of English turners closely resembles what I had thought. I'm familiar with many turnings, videos, and communications from your countrymen. Yes, a very established tradition of very fine lathe turners over there. I hope you and your friends do come to this forum and give your thoughts on a continuing bases. Such fine turning and turning philosophy......it would be a good thing to have your input from time to time!

Have any web sites you could suggest to look at some of the better art turnings from England? I'd be especially interested to see some more of that sort of thing from your way......I have seen yours.

ooc
 
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Hi Odie

Here are some links to some the best turners in the UK (IMO) I guess you will be familiar with most as the good ones usually find their way to the States to demonstrate!

Nick Agar: http://www.turningintoart.com
Stuart Mortimer: http://www.stuartmortimer.com
Joey Richardson: http://www.joeyrichardson.com/newpage/aboutjoey.html
Mark Sanger: http://www.marksanger.co.uk
Mark Hancock: http://www.hancockhome.freeserve.co.uk
Margaret Garrard: http://www.margaretgarrard.co.uk
Paul Coker: http://www.cpaulcoker.co.uk

There are loads more but these are some of the best artistic turners another good resource is the RPT website: http://registerofprofessionalturners.co.uk this has links to some of the less well known professional turners, as well as those above.

Enjoy

Richard
 
Regarding our German turner, that stone is definitely turning away from him. I guess this is best for slow running stones like this. It's only when we get our modern high speed grinders (mine is slow running and still goes at 1425rpm) where it runs toward you and you use a jig or platform. That said you can also do it free hand on a high speed grinder...

I would bet he has a slip stone in his pocket, those old carbon steel tools benefit from a wipe over occasionally.

Notice that even back then, the wings of his gouges were ground back, so it perhaps isn't such a new thing??

Cheers

Richard
 
Hello Odie, e few answer to your question as far as I know.
I use a Tormek, (Yes I have also have a Baldor with a CBN WHEEL). With the Tormek which turns slowly, you need to push the gouge to the stone and the stone rotates away from you. To sharpen a gouge one needs to make a movement from left to right pushing the tool and thus the point of the tool could easily dig into the stone. With flat chisels and other flat tools the Tormek uses the jig set so that the stone rotates toward the tool since there are not pointed elements. In any case one must always grind above the center of the wheel to avoid the dig in or having the tool taken away.
With fast dry grinders, except for the need to sharpen above the centerline, the digs-in are avoided by the fast grinding. In practice, you make a gouge square before it digs in.

Using shavings after or before sanding burnishes the surface making it more shining and smooth and also removes very well the sanding dust. I do not believe that in that period the sand paper grit could be as thin as it is now. Plus that is obviously an utilitarian bowl, no need for fancy finishings.

The gouge he uses are the so called german gouges, which I use regularly for spindle turning. Hamlet makes a line from 3/8 to 1 1/4 inch if I remember well. Like the roughing gouge today it is not recommended for bowl turning. I have a friend, a master cabinet maker and restorer that uses only those gouges even when he turn small bowls.

In deep fluted gouges the flute is ground (a recent acquisition) while older tools were forged like hamlet german gouges are even today.

Regards
 
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Just to go back to my earlier point about the density of Woodturners in the UK (that is how many there is rather than questioning their intelligence ;-) ) the UK has a population of about 61million people in an area about the same as Oregon. A recent thread on a UK forum suggested there may be as many as 20,000 turners in the UK. Here is the thread: http://www.awgb.co.uk/awgbforum/index.php/topic,2268.0.html

Interesting, if only slightly relevant.

Richard
 
Possibly a bit off topic but I just watched Russian nesting dolls being turned. TV show "How Do They Do it?" On science channel. Episode 333.

A team of workers hand turns all but the smallest doll. They are amazingly quick and precise using tools that look much like knives. Very impressive.

They are sealed by hand with potato starch before painting. And I mean by hand, rubbed in, three coats over three days. If anyone is interested.
 
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