Two more satisfied customers

Today I have been teaching two novice turners.Neither one has ever done any turning before.
I always find it very satisfying teaching novices  because they always seem to go away with something they have made and big smiles on their faces.
I start novices off making a bowl as it something they can grasp without being swamped by too much info.
Lessons start by a safety briefing to make sure they understand that woodturning is a very safe hobby if you stick to a few basic rules.I then go over the lathe basics and wood holding
I explain the advantages and disadvantages of different holding methods I consider this to be part of the safety briefing.
Now i explain to them the structure of wood and this helps them understand the advantage of working with the grain.
Now it is time to get down to what they came here for producing something to take home.
One blank was held on a screw Chuck and the other between stebcentre and tailstock.
Both blanks are supported by the tailstocks for safety.
Bottoms are roughed down with bowl gouges using push and pull cuts and spigots created ready for reverse chucking.
The initial finishing prior to sanding was carried out with negative rake scrapers.
The differences between conventional and negative rake scrapers explained.
After sanding through the grits the pieces are reverse chucked.
Today this was completed by 12 30 pm so we stopped for lunch.
Lunch over I make sure that everything we have done up to then is understood and any issues or questions are addressed.
Before we started making the bowls i gave the students a selection to look at so they could decide which they wanted to make.
Stuart "Thats the big One" wanted to make a wide rimmed bowl with an OG bottom.
Ian " Thats the slim one" wanted to make  a conventional shaped bowl with a round bottom.
This was good as it gave us the opportunity to explore the two different shapes.
Both students were encouraged to face the blanks off with push and pull cuts.
The insides of the bowls were turned out with bowl gouges and finished ready for sanding with negative rake scrapers.
Bowls sanded through he grit and abrasives sizes and materials explained the pieces are buffed and polished Pics to follow.If you want to make the pics bigger click on it.

Both students took to woodturning really well which made my job very easy.

This is Ian rubbing the bevel and getting lovely shavings

This is Stuart he is a big lad so i let him use the big lathe.

Ian turning out the centre nice shaving again

Stewart turning out the centre.

Ian power sanding both students  were shown the benefits of hand sanding and power sanding.

Stewart doing his sanding he is very fussy and and would accept nothing less than perfect Ian was just as particular which pleased me as i don't let anything less than perfect leave my workshop

Sanding done and the pieces are buffed to about 2000 grit.

This was all finished by about 3 30pm which left just enough time to make a couple of weed pots.

The Bowls are made from Beech and the weed pots from Holm Oak.

Here we have two very happy woodturners.

Very well done both of you.