Rob Keeble
Member
- Messages
- 12,633
- Location
- GTA Ontario Canada
Yesterday i had the fortune to be able to take up Ed Thomas on his offer to teach me how to turn those couch legs i am determined to make versus buy.
Well what can i say and where to begin.
First Ed is a really great guy and incredibly competent in many more things than simply turning wood.
We started in the morning and time flew by. I immediately realized that i knew A BIG FAT ZERO about turning wood. What i thought i knew was all wrong.
Have i made some things on the lathe , yes, did i enjoy making them , yes and no. Did i do them with any kind of technique absolutely not. The consequence is the missing excitement that most of you spinny guys get was well missing for me.
That all changed yesterday. What i wish to say to anyone that has not had any one on one tutoring on the lathe and considers themselves a hacker like i am, is get to have some one on one time with a REAL turner.
Many years ago when i first joined the forum, i had an epiphany when i first sharpened my Dads old WW2 chisels. There were two parts to that experience. The first was the initial sharpening, which was ok but was still MEH and i could not understand at that time what the fuss was about in regards to sharp chisels. Then somewhere along the line i got to find out about scary sharp and when i then used the chisel i could understand.
Well yesterday was the exact same epiphany for turning. I hope i never get too old to stop feeling the excitement and giddyness in ones stomach when you first experience these things.
I wont go into the long list of take aways because i would then be writing a book. Lets just say flatly in the words of Manual from Faulty Towers .....I knowa nuthing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6EaoPMANQM
Well not quiet true now i know what i need to practice on and how to go about it. And this is only in the category of spindle turning.
Something that hit me was that spinny work is essentially high speed wood carving with gouges but with trying to control at high speed where the cut takes place.
However unlike carving where you can follow a tracing on the wood, in turning a curve one really needs to get a grip on where the curve starts and ends ( in my case what a proper curve is , THEN what the heck the motion is that is going to get your cutting edge to follow that path and do it in stages to get to where you need to be.
Ed also got me to see that it did not need to be a white nuckle ride when you trying to take some wood off a rotating cylinder.
Oh there is so much that by the end of the day between my darn knee killing me and all i was taking in i was pretty tired but in a great way.
BIG THANKS TO ED THOMAS, Ed you changed my turning days. Now its down to doing some practice.
Well what can i say and where to begin.
First Ed is a really great guy and incredibly competent in many more things than simply turning wood.
We started in the morning and time flew by. I immediately realized that i knew A BIG FAT ZERO about turning wood. What i thought i knew was all wrong.
Have i made some things on the lathe , yes, did i enjoy making them , yes and no. Did i do them with any kind of technique absolutely not. The consequence is the missing excitement that most of you spinny guys get was well missing for me.
That all changed yesterday. What i wish to say to anyone that has not had any one on one tutoring on the lathe and considers themselves a hacker like i am, is get to have some one on one time with a REAL turner.
Many years ago when i first joined the forum, i had an epiphany when i first sharpened my Dads old WW2 chisels. There were two parts to that experience. The first was the initial sharpening, which was ok but was still MEH and i could not understand at that time what the fuss was about in regards to sharp chisels. Then somewhere along the line i got to find out about scary sharp and when i then used the chisel i could understand.
Well yesterday was the exact same epiphany for turning. I hope i never get too old to stop feeling the excitement and giddyness in ones stomach when you first experience these things.
I wont go into the long list of take aways because i would then be writing a book. Lets just say flatly in the words of Manual from Faulty Towers .....I knowa nuthing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6EaoPMANQM
Well not quiet true now i know what i need to practice on and how to go about it. And this is only in the category of spindle turning.
Something that hit me was that spinny work is essentially high speed wood carving with gouges but with trying to control at high speed where the cut takes place.
However unlike carving where you can follow a tracing on the wood, in turning a curve one really needs to get a grip on where the curve starts and ends ( in my case what a proper curve is , THEN what the heck the motion is that is going to get your cutting edge to follow that path and do it in stages to get to where you need to be.
Ed also got me to see that it did not need to be a white nuckle ride when you trying to take some wood off a rotating cylinder.
Oh there is so much that by the end of the day between my darn knee killing me and all i was taking in i was pretty tired but in a great way.
BIG THANKS TO ED THOMAS, Ed you changed my turning days. Now its down to doing some practice.