I first started turning when I was 19. I had just moved with my parents down to Cornwall and my dad was turning some handles for the furniture he was making for the new house. Despite woodworking being my dad’s hobby it had never really interested me but woodturning on the other hand looked fascinating and so I asked if I could have a go.
Somewhat reluctantly my dad relinquished his prized shopsmith to me, after having gone through numerous strict safety instructions. With some bits of very cheap pine glued together and my dad’s old set of 2 spindle gouges, a skew and a parting chisel I was ready to go. I was going to turn a bowl.
I had no idea of how to turn and literally had to resort to trial and error, totally oblivious to the fact I should have been using bowl gouges as a opposed to spindle gouges. Despite this, after the first few catches that scared me half to death, I had worked out how to present the chisel at the correct angle to avoid any more. The constant fear of further dig ins probably aided me the most and I made each cut very gently and with the up most care.
An embarrassing number of hours later I had finally finished turning and sanding my bowl and I was pleased with the fact I had succeeded doing it at all. Ok so the finish wasn’t that good and there were turning lines in it but it was still satisfying to know I had created it. In fact I was so taken with wood and turning it that I realised woodturning was what I wanted to do for a living.
Somewhat reluctantly my dad relinquished his prized shopsmith to me, after having gone through numerous strict safety instructions. With some bits of very cheap pine glued together and my dad’s old set of 2 spindle gouges, a skew and a parting chisel I was ready to go. I was going to turn a bowl.
I had no idea of how to turn and literally had to resort to trial and error, totally oblivious to the fact I should have been using bowl gouges as a opposed to spindle gouges. Despite this, after the first few catches that scared me half to death, I had worked out how to present the chisel at the correct angle to avoid any more. The constant fear of further dig ins probably aided me the most and I made each cut very gently and with the up most care.
An embarrassing number of hours later I had finally finished turning and sanding my bowl and I was pleased with the fact I had succeeded doing it at all. Ok so the finish wasn’t that good and there were turning lines in it but it was still satisfying to know I had created it. In fact I was so taken with wood and turning it that I realised woodturning was what I wanted to do for a living.
No comments:
Post a Comment