Dan Mosley
Member
- Messages
- 1,169
- Location
- Palm Springs, Ca
I had a friend I met awhile back that lives up in the mountains that is a pro turner (makes a living at it-------unlike me....LOL)....that I stay in touch with mainly thru emails. Anyway, he contacted me yesterday while I was at work and said he was comming into town that night and wanted to know if I wanted some of the wood from his storage - said he would make it more than worh it and deliver it to my house for $100.00. He told me he has sold off 2 of his lathes and tools and was cutting way down and back on his accumulation of stuff and would never be able to turn all the wood he had in his storage that he had collected. Its to bad because he does beautiful work - gave me his card and flyers where his work is put on display. He seems to do alot of large natural edge winged bowls from the photos but had a few vessels to.
So I took him up on the offer and he dropped off a "truck load" of mixed kinds of wood (Ca buckeye, redwood burl, elm, oak, walnut, boxelder,cedar, birch etc.....lots of misc types...I lost track of what was what). Alot of the wood is dry and has been in his storage area for along time - showing little to no cracking. About 2 wheel barrows of buckeye....which I love to turn because of the character and voids. We off loaded the wood quick and then we talked about the rig I was building and he showed me a few ways to improve the tips etc....discussed seveal ways to sharpen gouges and techniques to using them. I told him I am not that good with a gouge but do ok at best - He offered a full day of turning lessons and sharpening if I was willing to make the drive up to his shop.....
He then looked over my vessels and bowls and commented that I seem to like vessels. Yeah.....guess I just got burned out on making bowls and that just has not happened with vessels - something about the hollowing that I just like...I showed him a couple of Buckeye vessels I made in the past that are about as thin as a paper plate.....then the others which are thicker walled........explaining that I now make them how I want and do not follow any set of rules on dimensions - thickness etc............Like he said - nobody cares about how thin the work is unless they are another turner.....they all sell just as well.....He also told me that he sells more small and medium size turnings then he has ever sold large.......they just do not seem to sell as quick...............................all in all a great visit .............
Question - there is alot of 2-3 thick flat stock he left me for turning platters etc............That does not seem to be enough to make a tennon for compression holding. So is the best way to mount the thinner stock - a recess with a dovetail and then use expansion to hold it ???
Im not used to playing around with platter type stock......but some of the wood has fantastic grain in it............Thoughts ?????
Thanks Dan
So I took him up on the offer and he dropped off a "truck load" of mixed kinds of wood (Ca buckeye, redwood burl, elm, oak, walnut, boxelder,cedar, birch etc.....lots of misc types...I lost track of what was what). Alot of the wood is dry and has been in his storage area for along time - showing little to no cracking. About 2 wheel barrows of buckeye....which I love to turn because of the character and voids. We off loaded the wood quick and then we talked about the rig I was building and he showed me a few ways to improve the tips etc....discussed seveal ways to sharpen gouges and techniques to using them. I told him I am not that good with a gouge but do ok at best - He offered a full day of turning lessons and sharpening if I was willing to make the drive up to his shop.....
He then looked over my vessels and bowls and commented that I seem to like vessels. Yeah.....guess I just got burned out on making bowls and that just has not happened with vessels - something about the hollowing that I just like...I showed him a couple of Buckeye vessels I made in the past that are about as thin as a paper plate.....then the others which are thicker walled........explaining that I now make them how I want and do not follow any set of rules on dimensions - thickness etc............Like he said - nobody cares about how thin the work is unless they are another turner.....they all sell just as well.....He also told me that he sells more small and medium size turnings then he has ever sold large.......they just do not seem to sell as quick...............................all in all a great visit .............
Question - there is alot of 2-3 thick flat stock he left me for turning platters etc............That does not seem to be enough to make a tennon for compression holding. So is the best way to mount the thinner stock - a recess with a dovetail and then use expansion to hold it ???
Im not used to playing around with platter type stock......but some of the wood has fantastic grain in it............Thoughts ?????
Thanks Dan