I got my first wood lathe about 7 years ago. At the time, I was very interested in hand tools from the early 20th century. I went to a pile of auctions and garage sales, scoured eBay for hours, looking for new-to-me antique tools. Hand planes, saws, drills, chisels...as long as it didn't have an electric motor attached, I was interested. I ended up with a bunch of chisels that had somehow lost their handles (back when they were made of wood). They had likely been beaten up, cracked etc. I needed a way to make some handles so, I bought a small lathe. I figured I would make a few small bowls, pens and such as Christmas gifts. The lathe would pay for itself, right?
There was a small problem in all of this... Using a wood lathe is SO, MUCH, FUN!!!!!!! I got spinning a piece for the first chisel handle and before I knew it, that piece was a pile of shavings on the floor! So was the next one. And the next. And a few more after that. I was having a blast moving the tools back and forth across the spinning piece of wood, learning what they did, how they cut. It was exhilarating!
The next day, I started reading what I could. I visited the online forum on WoodCentral.com and there I found a whole bunch of crazy folks, sticking sharp pieces of metal into chunks of wood spinning at thousands of rpm's. They were having a whole heap of fun too!
In a little while, I joined the Woodturners Guild of Ontario. I will always be grateful to my pal Stephen Mushinski for kicking my ass to get me to the meeting. All of the sudden, I had access to a wealth of turners and their knowledge. I asked and listened. I screwed up a lot. I watched some instructional videos. I still screwed up, but not as much.
Through the guild, I attended a seminar by a turner of some renown, Lyle Jamieson. Man, did I scribble a lot of notes that day! By this time I had been turning for a few years. I had already won my first award and sold what I thought was a decent amount of my work. I was not a rookie. But I'll tell you something, I learned a lot in that seminar with Lyle. In fact, I paid to be part of a small hands-on class he was leading the next day. Whoa, I was going to attend my first woodturning class!
Ummm, I think that was also my last woodturning class. That is not to say that Lyle scared me off or anything. Certainly not! Lyle is a fabulous teacher and has mad woodturning skillz. Oh yeah, I used a "z" there. MAD, SKILLZ!!!! The thing is, I never had a lot of money to spend on classes and good, hands-on instruction is not cheap. Plus, I was doing pretty well by this time. No, I wasn't the faster turner around (still not) but I knew what I liked, what worked for me.
So there it is, a whole pile of trial and error, one class, a bit of courage and a dash of ignorant bliss. That's how I learned to become a woodturner. These days my principle focus is in making functional wooden bowls. This is not the sort of work that attracts the attention high-end galleries or the Collectors Of Wood Art but that's ok. I take immense satisfaction in creating pieces that get used and enjoyed everyday. I love being part of the slow-food movement and being part of people's love of making real food. That is part of the joy of being a craftsman or artisan.
Thanks for stopping by.
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