JoHannes Michelsen - First Hand...WOW!!

[Edward Kerslake]

I don't mean to start a post with such a hyperbolic subject line but in this case. I feel it is well deserved. (See bottom for how you can benefit!)

I've just returned from a 3 day "hat making' session with JoHannes and thought I'd make some comments on it.
I've been turning for about 20 years, making hollow forms, bowls, spindle work and aiming to get....thin.
Given that end goal, I thought the session with JoHannes might teach me some new approaches and give me something to cover my balding head as a result.
I will include a couple of photos of my work only to show that I'm not an utter novice BUT I will say, I felt like an utter beginner in comparison with JoHannes.

I attended the session with another turner (JoHannes likes to have 2 people as a minimum to make the cost more reasonable). The other turner had only recently started turning and so needed to learn about sharpening techniques, tool presentation/body position etc....an eager to learn beginner.

JoHannes was excellent, truly and excellent teacher. He rotated between us and was able to quickly adapt to whatever challenges in approaches we were facing. We BOTH ended up with hats at the end of the process. The days were LONG and JoHannes ended the days when we were all beat (so about a 7.30am start, brief stop for a 30 minute lunch and then work continued until between 6.30 and 7.30 on all 3 days (you get your moneys worth of his time!)

We watched him make a hat on the first day, taking us from log through to completed hat in slow, steps, stopping to show each stage and the choices he was making about tool presentation, tool selection and how to use his innovative light source to gauge material thickness (google that to find it).
We then prepped our own blanks, in readiness for the next day.

I was about 2/3rds of the way into making my hat at the end of the second day, when I made a rookie mistake, picked up the wrong one of the two calipers I was using (tired!) and turned to the wrong dimension. I could have just continued and made a smaller hat but JoHannes would have none of it. He offered to grab a log and "get you to where you are now" before handing over.
This was another WOW! No talking, just him working at his usual production speed. What took me most of a day to do, he did in just over 40 minutes.

MICHELSEN GRIND/VECTOR Fixture

I have my own grind that I've been using. A modification of an Ellsworth/Irish grind with a steep nose and swept wings. I turned up for the class with my own Varigrind setup, ready to reproduce it. JoHannes was fine with that but suggested I try using his tool and grind (I was an early-adopter of Doug Thompson's tools, when Doug first started selling so I knew the steel). I was open to using his grind but not absolutely convinced it would improve over what I was using, with my hand produced relief grinds. Having had an opportunity to use Johannes' grind and the repeatability of his fixture, I ended up switchig, reground my gouges and bought his vector fixture (anyone want to buy a bunch of Varigrinds? ;-*)
One thing I would say about the fixture is that it still needs you to make the grind (just like the Oneway) and so having a reference image was helpful (as was having one of his tools to look at). Once again he was super patient and helpful.

The other purchase I made was his super floppy sanding disks and extensions. I've used long shafts typically used in vehicle polishing to work inside my bowls OR used a Don Pencil (out of business now) version on the lathe with some Beall buffs. I really like what Hannes is having made up in VT. They are inexpensive shafts that match with readily available sanding backing pads. He also takes some of those commercially available pads and machines the back to relieve most of the foam to make a super-flexible backer that works well to sand the various contours of the hat (and will work well with bowls). He charges an extra couple of bucks over the cost of buying the backers for his time in doing the machining....try them.

So, in summary, I am usually reluctant to spend 3 days with anyone; you never know how personalities will mesh, especially when working together. JoHannes was a hoot! He's the life and soul of the party and great fun to be with and genuinely wants to TEACH. You can see from the many hat turners that now sell their products (who learned from JoHannes) that he takes pride in being the innovator in this movement and is happy to see the interest in turning as a result.

If this sounds like an advert, IT IS! I've come to this forum for decades for advice and suggestions and so I feel compelled to make this one. Go for it!

NOTE
While I was there, JoHannes had a student have to cancel his upcoming class, so there is a slot available for Nov/Dec (he's working with the remaining student on dates)

Here's some pictures of my work and the hat I/we made in its bending frame.

I have some remarkable video (slow motion) of JoHannes cutting with the flute of his gouge fully vertical in order to take off those final 64ths. Scared the pants off me when I saw it, but he showed me how to do it with his grind. I will try and find a way to post those large video files and will add it to this post if I succeed.

WWWWWW

Hats off to you all
Ed

 

[hockenbery]

Great to read your class recap
I was fortunate to have had a 5 day class with Johannes in the late 90s.
We went from 9-5 with a lunch break.
Learned a lot about turning thin and taking advantage of wood’s movement.
Great instructor! I keep a gouge with his grind handy.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I went to his rotation at the Suny Purchase symposium can't remember the year but it was in the 1990's



When I came home I made these Hats the maple one was the demo at a meeting of the Minnesota Wood Turners Association.

 

[Edward Kerslake]

Nice work Don. I really like the wood top hats too.

 

[Edward Kerslake]

Great to read your class recap
I was fortunate to have had a 5 day class with Johannes in the late 90s.
We went from 9-5 with a lunch break.
Learned a lot about turning thin and taking advantage of wood’s movement.
Great instructor! I keep a gouge with his grind handy.

Turning 'thin' was my primary goal for the class. I've turned thin in the past, but this is definitely next level.
A real character and good fun too.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

how to use his innovative light source to gauge material thickness

In about 1989 I went to my first Pro demo, I had just joined the MWA and that fall they had booked Del Stubes and the subject was thin wall green turned goblets. The method used to help gauge wall thickness was a light on the inside such that when light started showing thru you knew you were getting close.

This is a cherry goblet with a wall thickness of less then 1/32" or much less then 1 mm

 

[Alan Weinberg]

I’ll try those sanding pads. Wish they came also in 2 inch. Thanks. Hannestool.com

 

[Donna Banfield]

Your praise of Hannes’ workshop is well-deserved. He is a skilled turner and teacher. And very entertaining. I took his workshop in November, 2007. One of my clubs brought him in for a two-day Demo/workshop. I was the very lucky raffle winner for the demo piece, and it was turned for my head. The workshop had 12 or 14 students. I couldn’t seem to catch his attention enough among all the students who were there to learn what I needed.

Persistence. So a couple months later I was at his place with 3 other students for his 3-day workshop. Yes, I learned to turn hats. But the primary purpose for that workshop was learning how to turn thin. Scary thin, just like his hats. It became the foundation for what would become a large part of my Soul Series body of work.

I also learned in 2007 how to free-hand sharpen my gouges, just like his. This was before he developed his Vector Fixture. He came down to my studio in 2013 for an open turning session, and I bought one of his very early versions of the Vector. That grind is my go-to for around 75-80% of what I turn. I still free-hand sharpen my gouges, too, because that grind has some very useful features that even the Vector can’t give me.

So for forum viewers, if there is a skill you want to learn, and you want to shorten that learning curve (because a bunch of us aren’t young), do yourself a favor and take a workshop from someone who has that skill and can teach it. The money and time spent will pay dividends down the road.

 

[Matt Radtke]

Having had an opportunity to use Johannes' grind and the repeatability of his fixture, I ended up switchig, reground my gouges and bought his vector fixture (anyone want to buy a bunch of Varigrinds? ;-*)

I have 2 of the vector jigs but never tried his grind. I'll give it a go and let you know if works better for me

 

[Bill Blasic]

Early on I learned about the advantages of the hat turners grind but trying to sharpen free hand for me was and still is a disaster waiting to happen. When at a symposium (don't remember which one, could have been SWAT) Johannes had brought out his Vector Grind System I bought one on the spot (I have used nothing since for my own tools). I have a dedicated grinder that only I use and one of the benefits of that is that it is that the vector system is never moved and with the 180 grit CBN wheel I virtually take off just a few thousands off the tool when sharpening (I don't believe I'll ever wear out any of my gouges). The hat makers grind is about as catch free as humanly possible.

 

[Edward Kerslake]

Early on I learned about the advantages of the hat turners grind but trying to sharpen free hand for me was and still is a disaster waiting to happen. When at a symposium (don't remember which one, could have been SWAT) Johannes had brought out his Vector Grind System I bought one on the spot (I have used nothing since for my own tools). I have a dedicated grinder that only I use and one of the benefits of that is that it is that the vector system is never moved and with the 180 grit CBN wheel I virtually take off just a few thousands off the tool when sharpening (I don't believe I'll ever wear out any of my gouges). The hat makers grind is about as catch free as humanly possible.

Bill
We've aligned on the same approach. I use a 600 wheel now to touch up and that works very well. I've come to realize that having a cheap WEN grinder and a dedicated set up for the jig is small money compared to all the other investments made and it saves a ton of time