We had a very successful and fun club meeting yesterday. Most of the meeting was used to mentor 5 beginners. One of them had call me a few weeks ago to see if I wanted to buy her lathe, a nice Vicmarc VL300. She was done, very frustrated... I told her to make sure she was coming to the meeting I had a tool for her to try... She has taken several one on one lessons with her mentor, an experienced turner. She had a few lessons at club meetings...
The club now owns 2 Viceroy tools, by the Mike Hunter Co.
If you have had newbies you know the teaching can go slow, and they usually want to make something as opposed to learn the basics... Time at the meetings is limited. We had 5 turners , and 3 lathes, but only two Viceroy's. I started with Ann, our retired nurse. Project was a tea light holder, end grain. The Viceroy tool is simply amazing. She looked comfortable and in control. Turned the small square of Primavera wood to round in just a few minutes. I did the spigot for the chuck. Then it was time to do the recess for the light. I trued up the face, and I noticed the tool was not kicking back, so I let her start the recess. She had never done any end grain hollowing. With the Viceroy she did it like a turner with years of experience! And she was going both ways. Ignorance is a bliss, she wasn't aware of how difficult it is for a beginner to hollow out end grain with a spindle gouge!
All 5 turners completed the project in under 3 hours. When we were using my gouges, we were having lots of catches, as expected. Yesterday there was one, one of the turners for some reason kept lifting the flat shank of the tool off the tool rest, and then the wood grabs the cutter. Even after the catch, she kept tilting it... My goal was to get Ann back into having fun, do a project, show her she can do it. Mission accomplished! Our goal is to keep practicing with traditional tools, but get them going with the Hunter tools. We gave the beginners a catalogue so they can order some projects, then they will let us know what they got, we will provide the wood and do it. I believe we will teach all beginners with this tools, it's an easy way to get them hooked. Ann is a retired nurse, a very nice lady that has helped us with some marketing, I'm attaching some pictures so you can see her happiness... The Viceroy tool has a lot of potential, for beginners and advance turners alike, it's a tool that if you have the opportunity you should give it a try.
The club now owns 2 Viceroy tools, by the Mike Hunter Co.
If you have had newbies you know the teaching can go slow, and they usually want to make something as opposed to learn the basics... Time at the meetings is limited. We had 5 turners , and 3 lathes, but only two Viceroy's. I started with Ann, our retired nurse. Project was a tea light holder, end grain. The Viceroy tool is simply amazing. She looked comfortable and in control. Turned the small square of Primavera wood to round in just a few minutes. I did the spigot for the chuck. Then it was time to do the recess for the light. I trued up the face, and I noticed the tool was not kicking back, so I let her start the recess. She had never done any end grain hollowing. With the Viceroy she did it like a turner with years of experience! And she was going both ways. Ignorance is a bliss, she wasn't aware of how difficult it is for a beginner to hollow out end grain with a spindle gouge!
All 5 turners completed the project in under 3 hours. When we were using my gouges, we were having lots of catches, as expected. Yesterday there was one, one of the turners for some reason kept lifting the flat shank of the tool off the tool rest, and then the wood grabs the cutter. Even after the catch, she kept tilting it... My goal was to get Ann back into having fun, do a project, show her she can do it. Mission accomplished! Our goal is to keep practicing with traditional tools, but get them going with the Hunter tools. We gave the beginners a catalogue so they can order some projects, then they will let us know what they got, we will provide the wood and do it. I believe we will teach all beginners with this tools, it's an easy way to get them hooked. Ann is a retired nurse, a very nice lady that has helped us with some marketing, I'm attaching some pictures so you can see her happiness... The Viceroy tool has a lot of potential, for beginners and advance turners alike, it's a tool that if you have the opportunity you should give it a try.