A note about wood turners

I have been pleasantly surprised at the support wood turners give one another. I had been thinking about learning to turn for some time, and went to a wood working show in Seattle. There was a local club staffing a booth and helping neophytes create something on a small lathe. I made my first turning, a pen, there, and have wanted to get more involved ever since.

I've been attending a local work turning club. One of the presenters was a man named Dan Ackerman, who turns museum quality items. You can see an example of his work by clicking here. He began turning a box on the lathe, and passed around several examples of his work. This is a man who makes money at his craft, and is willing to freely share his knowledge with everybody. In other fields, knowledge is power and is not always given out. Not so here.

Starting to Turn

I recently became fascinated with the art of taking a chunk of wood, mounting it on a machine, setting it to spinning rapidly, then placing a sharp object in its path in an attempt to dismember this chunk of wood and maybe, just maybe, coming up with something interesting and useful in the end. I am, of course, talking about wood turning. If you have never seen it, here is a very brief example:



This is simply somebody roughing out a piece of timber and turning something square into something round.

I will add more information as I get more into this and learn. Remember: I don't even qualify as a rank amateur wood turner. Not yet.