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I was in a local fast-food restaurant this past weekend, and on the counter there were three segmented vessels for sale. Initially, I was pretty jazzed at the thought of a place like this selling turned wood pieces. The excitement left the building as soon as I had a better look at the three pieces.
For starters, the form. There was none. All three pieces had a dumpy look, with nearly flat spots, uneven curves and absolutely nothing that flowed. Good form is like pornography...can't describe it, but I know it when I see it. I didn't see it in these pieces.
Next, the fit. While I do give the guy credit for tackling segmented turning, at the very least he could have made the joints line up and not have the occasional gap between segments. This was especially apparent looking into one of the pieces, where the square edges of some of the segments hadn't even been turned away.
Then there was the finish. Although the outsides of the pieces looked OK, I was appalled to see deep concentric 80 grit sanding scratches in the (flat) bottom of one of the wide-mouthed vessels. A hand could fit inside the piece, so in my opinion, there's no excuse for seeing visible sanding lines, especially coarse ones from the 80 grit gouge. And this was on a piece priced at $260.
All in all, I was disappointed to see that this guy was selling shoddy work like this. The average consumer might get the mistaken impression that all woodturning is like this. As I see it, this guy was giving the rest of us turners a bad name.
I was tempted to take one of his business cards so I could call him and offer some lessons, but I figured that would be in poor taste.
For starters, the form. There was none. All three pieces had a dumpy look, with nearly flat spots, uneven curves and absolutely nothing that flowed. Good form is like pornography...can't describe it, but I know it when I see it. I didn't see it in these pieces.
Next, the fit. While I do give the guy credit for tackling segmented turning, at the very least he could have made the joints line up and not have the occasional gap between segments. This was especially apparent looking into one of the pieces, where the square edges of some of the segments hadn't even been turned away.
Then there was the finish. Although the outsides of the pieces looked OK, I was appalled to see deep concentric 80 grit sanding scratches in the (flat) bottom of one of the wide-mouthed vessels. A hand could fit inside the piece, so in my opinion, there's no excuse for seeing visible sanding lines, especially coarse ones from the 80 grit gouge. And this was on a piece priced at $260.
All in all, I was disappointed to see that this guy was selling shoddy work like this. The average consumer might get the mistaken impression that all woodturning is like this. As I see it, this guy was giving the rest of us turners a bad name.
I was tempted to take one of his business cards so I could call him and offer some lessons, but I figured that would be in poor taste.