My Student today was Mike 79 years young who brought his own very large Beech Burr blank.
When Mike came here he was worried he might not have the stamina to complete the bowl in the day but as you can see he did and made a very nice 13" x 5" Bowl finished with hard wax oil.
Hi George,
ReplyDeleteJust a line to thank you for yesterday's tuition.
I was a little apprehensive when I arrived-being a self taught turner I knew there would be bad practices to sort out and I had no idea how bad they would be.
It was a good idea to use my own Beech Burr lump of timber as it meant we were starting right at the beginning,and I was pleased that your assessment of how to cut it was very close to my own-we were off to a good start.
My knuckles were white as I started making my first cuts,but your quite gently firm ways of correcting firstly my stance and then how I held the tool and presented it to the work had me relaxing as the morning went on.The occasional theory breaks were well timed and reinforced what we were doing on the lathe.
By the time we stopped for an excellent lunch prepared by Susan the bowl was well under way-and so,also were the re-grinds to my bowl gouges.
Afternoon and we finished sanding and put a finish on the outside then started on the inside. The turning was interspersed with gems of information about all sorts of aspects of turning,finishing,holding work on lathe,friction chuck making,putting a sanding arbour on lathe.basically lots of stuff that quite often a turner will say "Oh make a friction chuck from some scrap wood" You actually showed me how it was made etc.
As we got deeper into the bowl and encountered the voids etc,your comment that this was probably the most difficult piece of wood I would turn made me feel quite pleased with the achievement.
I was quite tired by the time we finished and my brain was working overtime processing all the data it had absorbed during the day.
The finished bowl is a thing of beauty and I have a fantastic sense of achievement-once I have consolidated everything I learnt,I will be back for more !!
My only regret is that I didn't take up turning until late in life-at 79yrs I've got a lot to get learnt,but if anyone can teach an old dog some new tricks it's you George-thanks a lot.
Thank you Mike
ReplyDeleteYou did very well and we sorted out the few problems you had now you just need to keep practicing.
Hopefully we will see you again in the near future.