24-05-2011, 06:41 PM
(24-05-2011, 04:53 PM)Retired Wrote: Hi,
I would be interested to see such an item with a wire burned ring added to compare it with such rings on spindle work. Anyone attempting to add such a ring must never ever wrap the wire around a finger to hold it or it will only be a matter of time before losing the finger.
A skew chisel is a fearsome tool for a novice to use whilst spindle turning. Normally a mistake is made only once but it's amazing how many times the same mistake is made whilst wood turning.
The only problem with tidying up is that it creates space for yet more junk.
Keep up the good work and please keep sharing; I bet your next piece is already spinning around in your head.
Kind regards, Col.
Thanks for reading my posting Colin, and for your kind words of encouragement, and interesting comments. It should have crossed my mind to burn the ring to christen the burning wire that you kindly made for me, of which, all precautions noted! I'm with you on the skew chisel. It takes a great deal of practice and you really do have to keep a careful eye on the tool edge or a 'dig-in' isn't just a possibilty but a guaranteed certainty.
As to 'tidying up', I'm afraid that I often have several things on the go at once, then I get a call for tea, and leave things as they are, then start something else when I go back out, until I'm literally falling over myself in my rather full 8 x 10 home constructed workshop. I'm quite good at keeping the dust and shavings down - the amount created by turning just a small bowl would fill half a dustbin, but it's putting everything back in its proper place where I fall short.
As to being tidy, and having everything in its place, as Secretary of the local Woodturning Club I often get messages from people who are giving up the hobby, sometimes due to loss of interest, sometimes due to age and infirmity, or moving house - a host of reasons. I've had one today which is beyond belief. It's from a woodturner who is giving up due to ill health, and frankly I've never seen so much stuff so tidily arranged and in such pristine condition as he has. Whatever you need in woodturning, he's got at least two of, including two battery-powered full face masks! It's like Axminster Power Tool Showroom or Craft Supplies. He's just placed several adverts on the “PRELOVED” website. http://www.preloved.co.uk. There are endless photographs of the machinery & tooling on that site. I would recommend typing “woodturning” in the search bo,. then click on 'view all adverts', which should lead to the items that are for sale, then step back in amazement! All like brand new - all at half current list price.
As to yew trees, a local vicar contected me to say he'd had a dangerous yew tree felled which was many hundreds of years old, which anyone was welcome to. I collected some branchwood from it, but the trouble with any newly felled trees is that it takes on average, a year per 1" of girth to season, so an 18" diameter bole would take until I was 90. That's the year I want to be shot by a jealous husband, while I'm climbing out of a bedroom window if I'm still around! You can of course turn wood wet and many people do - 'naturual edge' turning as it's called, but it starts to warp the minute you turn it and results can be variable.
David
