FEWS Turning Symposium Oct 11th & 12th

Stuart Ablett

Member
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Location
Tokyo Japan
FEWS stands for Far East Woodturning Society, we are an AAW chapter.

We had the great pleasure of having Eli Evisera and Jean Francios Escoulen come and give demos for the last two days. Both of these guys are amazing turners, fantastic teachers, and really, REALLY nice guys to boot. They are both fast friends, and it showed with their collaborative efforts and in the way they have a good time, funning and joking around with each other, like old friends should.

I am afraid I did not take many pics, but I did take a full 7+ hours of good DVD quality video BOTH days!

I'll be a whole editing it all down, but when I'm done, I'm sure I'll have some highlights to show you.

Here are the pics I did take.....

jfe_ecentric1.JPG jfe_ecentirc2.JPG
Jean turning some eccentric stuff, one of this "Specialties" (go check out his homepage, amazing stuff!!)

jfe_square_platter.JPG
Here he is doing a square plate, or platter, the two of them had some amazing tips etc on showing how to to this, and keep all of your fingers! :eek:

eli_1.JPG eli_teaching.JPG
And two pics of Eli.

They are both incredible teachers, and they can go really slow, to show you every detail, as well as turn so fast it makes your head spin :bonkers:

The time and effort given on the simple things, like sharpening and how to hold the tool, and how to stand behind the lathe, really make these kinds of symposiums worth it.

Tomorrow, Saturday, I get to play tour guide on their only day off in Japan.

I just wanted to express my thanks to Eli and Jean, but also to all the other guys out there that choose to spend time away from their families and their workshops, for a cramped seat on an plane, or to drive a long ways, just to share their amazing skills and knowledge, as well as enthusiasm for this crazy thing we call woodturning. :clap:

THANKS! :wave:
 
A week or two...........:doh:

I took it in DVD quality, as I had the space on the HDD in the camera, and I want to burn a copy of each DVD and give them to Jean and Eli, but also to all the members of the club who were there.

I just let the video run from 9 AM to noon then 12:30 PM to 5 PM both days, or there about, so some big files (like 4 GB each).

My poor little Windowze machines are coughing and sputtering along trying to crunch these files. One now is only 38 minutes run time, but the "Time Estimate " is over two hours to crunch the video......:dunno:

Takes time, but I'll bet a highlight reel together at some point.

Cheers!
 
Had a good time Stu. If possible I'm looking forward to viewing the 38min edited version. Those guys taught so much you gotta do a video recording to remember it all. After the symposium I went to work and did a 12 hour graveyard shift. Needless to say I was beat the next day. :wave:
 
Yeah, I had a great time to Alex and it was good to see you again, got some good video of you hanging on to the bowl gouge with Eli driving it :D :thumb:

All told, I have something like 10+ hours recorded, my stupid windoze computer is having a real hard time with it :doh:

OH yeah, on Saturday I ended up as tour guide for them, we went to the Meji shrine, Omotesando and then I took them to Tokyu Hands, they were like kids in a candy store, too funny :D

Eli got everything he needed for some gold leaf inlay, and some Japanese lacquer work.

That day over lunch, Jean-Francios and I were talking, you know his newly developed eccentric chuck, the large one.....?? Well it is now sitting in the Dungeon :D Seems his Japanese distributor was not interested in it, and does not seem to be interested in carrying it in the future :dunno: I know it is expensive, but he was happy to part with it, as he was sure he was over his weight limit for the luggage (Air France:doh:) and would have to pay per pound for the extra baggage, and that chuck is NOT light weight.

The mind boggles at the possibilities that chuck hold :bonkers: :D

I'll have to post a thread on it when I get it on the lathe, I need to order an adapter for it, as it is a 33.5 mm thread, and my DVR is a 1 1/4".

Funny thing is, Jean Francois said not to worry about it, one day when I get my Oneway lathe, the 33.5 mm will bolt right on to it :eek: :D :thumb:

Cheers!
 
Stu,
You snuck in a major gloat.

We had Jean-Francoise ourselves last year & dang does he get agressive when he wants. & what he can do with a Bedan is fantastic.

Chuck

P.S. You suck for the sneaky gloat.:D
 
Yeah, talk about a stealth gloat. :rolleyes: Not only did you get to hang out with two master wood turners, you got free stuff out of the deal. :thumb: Congrats, and I'll be looking forward to seeing the video.
 
Yeah, talk about a stealth gloat. :rolleyes: Not only did you get to hang out with two master wood turners, you got free stuff out of the deal. :thumb: Congrats, and I'll be looking forward to seeing the video.

Yeah, I think I did alright, and the great thing is these two guys are so nice, easy going and will listen to your dumb newbie questions and give you a complete and thorough answer. They also have that rare ability to be able to teach what they know, and they do it with humor and grace.

Both of them did not learn any English until recently, Jean-Francois said he did not start to learn until he was 39, (he is 51 this year) and Eli as well, not until very recently did he start to learn English.

Kind of a neat thing, here we have an Israeli teacher, a French teacher, and a bunch of Japanese Students, and the language of communication is English. Mr. Naoto Suzuki and myself did most of the translating, but a few of the other club members speak fairly good English as well.

Lots of fun stuff, like Eli telling everyone that sometimes the most important thing you can make on the lathe is shavings, or curlies. He said that even he still goes to the lathe to practice, that it is important, to sometimes intend to NOT make anything. Jean-Francois spoke at length about muscle memory, in sharpening and in turning, that you have to be able to NOT think about what you are doing, and just have your body do it, when you reach that kind of point, you can really start to turn well, if you are thinking about it all the time, you will overload and not do well.

Stuff like that.

Oh yeah, the chuck was NOT free, not even close, it retails for 380 Euros in France, ($540 US) the cost here would be a LOT more, but the local guy does not seem interested in carrying it, so I got this one. I did not pay retail for it, but I still paid for it, but I knew I'd pay more than double what I paid if I had Jean-Francois send me one, so I cleaned out the Dungeon Bank account :doh: But, when I get this thing going, I think I can turn some really neat things. The mind boggles at the possibilities! :D

Cheers!
 
stu, as off center as you are anyway......you`ll end up turning straight spindles with an eccentric chuck:eek:..........just funnin`. nice score.
 
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