new woodturning video

[Ken S]

I just received an email about a new woodturning video. The presenter is Ernie Conover. I have known Ernie for almost twenty years and have enjoyed and benefitted from many of his classes. He is an excellent teacher. He also designed and manufactured lathes years ago.

My only motivation for posting this is to alert new turners to what I know will be a valuable source of information.

http://conoverworkshops.mysimplestore.com/products/zoom-see-it-in-action-getting-started-in-woodturning-preview-woodworkers-journal-getting-started-in-woodturning-dvd

Ken

[Jan]

Thanks for posting this info, Ken. 

It might be of my interest soon, because recently I have bought an old, very simple drill machine powered woodturning lathe. I intend to turn handles for some of my old inherited chisels. I have a peace of hornbeam wood, which is believed to be one of the best woods for heavy chisel handles.

Jan

[Ken S]

Jan, I think you will find Ernie Conover interesting. (I suggest you do a google on him; he has written for years.)

Incidentally, Lie-Nielsen uses hornbeam for its chisel handles. I think it would be an excellent choice for your inherited chisels.

Please post photos of them with old and new handles.

Ken

[Rob]

Hi Jan

Hornbeam is a fabulous wood for handle turning, one of the very best in fact, doubtless why LN use them. It's really tight grained and hard yet is sufficiently springy to resist shocks.  Ash is another popular choice, also used widely for sports goods (baseball bats, cricket stumps etc).  We had a large Ash tree come down in a bad storm just over a year ago which has provided me with a lifetimes supply of handle material.  Here's a knockout bar I recently made for the tailstock of my lathe out of some steel bar, my Ash (Olive Ash, note the deep coloured heartwood) and some copper plumbing for the ferrule. All turned with the dreaded skew chisel.

[Ken S]

Nice turning, Rob!

I have several L-N chisels. I think hornbeam is great stuff. I think of it as "workaday pretty". It is nice looking, but also suitable for decades of hard service. It is also plenyiful in Maine, which fits into the traditional New England Yankee thrift.

Years ago I had a favorite majestic ash tree in my yard. It was included in many photograph I enjoyed making. After it split and half of it came down on my neighbor's house, I reluctantly had it cut down.
In hindsight, I wish I had saved the wood. One idea I had at the time was saving enough wood to send to the Ries Tripod Co. to have made into a tripod. I had long used a wooden 4x5 view camera
(5x4 in Robspeak) with a wooden tripod. It would have been nice to have a Ries tripod made from my favorite tree. Having a lifetime supply of handle material would have been nice, also.

I took perhaps a dozen classes at Ernie Conover's school. Have you ever seen a Conover lathe? It consists of a High Wycombe style massive cast iron head stock, tail stock, and tool rest. Ernie and his father designed and manufactured it. They made metal legs for it. Ernie was surprised with the number of people who bought it with the wooden ways. He thought most people would prefer to make their own. As the ways are wooden, they can be any length. (Ernie once wrote a magazine article showing how he turned some porch columns for his home. No "mini lathe"!

You would enjoy Ernie's turning classes. I remember turning two bowls from green wood and being covered with sap. They are oval now, something I'm sure you understand.

At the time my only turning tools were two gouges I bought from Ernie and my grandfather's set of 1930 carbon steel Craftsman tools. I was using the largest Sears gouge (3/4") as a roughing gouge. Each time I sharpened it I reshaped it a little to resemble what Ernie called an "English" (flat) configuration. I have since picked up two Sorby HSS gouges.

SWMBO just awoke. More later.

Ken

[Rob]

Thanks Ken :-)

How funny...your Ash tale isn't entirely unlike mine in a way.  When the storm brought mine down last year it landed square in the middle of my neighbours flat bed truck....whoops!  It had a massive "trench" from the cab to the back of the trailer....written off of course!  Luckily no-one was hurt.

I've not come across Ernie on this side of the pond but he sounds like my kind of guy.  I love the idea of those pillar sized column turnings!!

I also understand your desire to have something made from the very tree that had given you enjoyment in other ways.  I feel about mine the same way, it's to do with the provenance isn't it....you can trace back memories of the tree and for it to "give up" some of it's very being to be incorporated into something useful is rather nice.

I'll send you some of mine if you like...go ahead and get that tripod made after all :-)

The village I live in is where the famous Victorian author and philanthropist Charles Kingsley originated (The Water Babies was his most celebrated work).  In his diaries he makes reference to a lovely old oak several times and that very tree came down in the same storm that nobbled my Ash.  I happen to know the lady whose modern equestrian farm the CK Oak fell on and her family commissioned me to make 3 natural edge bowls from it....entirely because of its rich provenance.

Wood warms us in so many ways and on so many levels doesn't it.

I apologise if our recent exchange offended you in any way Ken...sometimes I have to dig my heels in when I feel strongly about an issue.  I regret any bad feeling it may have caused between you and I.

[Ken S]

No problem, Rob. If friends didn't disagree occasionally about things both are passionately interested in, this would be a very dull forum. My apologies, also, especially for the "Rules Police".

You would like Ernie. i would call him a practical purist. He is a combination of scholar and bodger, with a definite flavor of Scots thrift. His thinking is very English when it comes to turning and woodworking. He likes empire dovetails (the ones with almost invisibly small tails for show). And, horror of horrors, he sometimes advocates using scrapers sometimes when turning. While he admires quality, he also admires the practical speed of the bodgers. (My spell check almost changed bodgers to dodgers. That would be confusing.) For those of you who don't know, bodgers were itinerant turners who generally worked outside making turned parts. They are part of the great English woodturning tradition.

We sometimes need to be reminded of how material objects remind us of happy memories. Our inherited tools remind us of those who came before us. Wood is a great material for this. By the way, I think your copper ferrule will look very nice with the wooden handles. Nice (and practical) touch.

Also, the socket design of the L-N chisel handles allows interchangeable handles. All the L-N chisel up to 3/4" have the same size socket, so handles are completely interchangeable. I purchased one long "paring" handle.

So, on to further adventures. amigo.

Ken

[Jan]

Hi Jan

Hornbeam is a fabulous wood for handle turning, one of the very best in fact, doubtless why LN use them. It's really tight grained and hard yet is sufficiently springy to resist shocks.  Ash is another popular choice, also used widely for sports goods (baseball bats, cricket stumps etc).  We had a large Ash tree come down in a bad storm just over a year ago which has provided me with a lifetimes supply of handle material.  Here's a knockout bar I recently made for the tailstock of my lathe out of some steel bar, my Ash (Olive Ash, note the deep coloured heartwood) and some copper plumbing for the ferrule. All turned with the dreaded skew chisel.

Thank you very much, Rob, for posting nice photos of your Olive Ash handle. The darker heartwood underlines the very interesting visage of the handle. 

Because I have only small piece of hornbeam wood, for two or three handles, I will definitely start my training on some common wood samples.

My first impression is that by turning the contact with the wood is much more intimate than when sawing or routing it.

Jan

[Ken S]

Jan,

Excellent thought to turn a prototype (or several) with regular wood before using your good wood. Among other things, you may find a shape and size which fits your hands very well. Do keep us posted.

Ken

[Jan]

Jan, I think you will find Ernie Conover interesting. (I suggest you do a google on him; he has written for years.)

Incidentally, Lie-Nielsen uses hornbeam for its chisel handles. I think it would be an excellent choice for your inherited chisels.

Please post photos of them with old and new handles.

Ken

Thank you, Ken, for your confirmation that hornbeam wood is suitable for my heavy duty chisels. You know, I could buy a hornbeam handle for some 3 $, but to learn woodturning is challenging for me.

Jan

[Ken S]

Better to make your own. Much more satisfying.

Ken

[Rob]

Hi Jan

Hornbeam is a fabulous wood for handle turning, one of the very best in fact, doubtless why LN use them. It's really tight grained and hard yet is sufficiently springy to resist shocks.  Ash is another popular choice, also used widely for sports goods (baseball bats, cricket stumps etc).  We had a large Ash tree come down in a bad storm just over a year ago which has provided me with a lifetimes supply of handle material.  Here's a knockout bar I recently made for the tailstock of my lathe out of some steel bar, my Ash (Olive Ash, note the deep coloured heartwood) and some copper plumbing for the ferrule. All turned with the dreaded skew chisel.

Thank you very much, Rob, for posting nice photos of your Olive Ash handle. The darker heartwood underlines the very interesting visage of the handle. 

Because I have only small piece of hornbeam wood, for two or three handles, I will definitely start my training on some common wood samples.

My first impression is that by turning the contact with the wood is much more intimate than when sawing or routing it.

Jan

As Ken says, DEFINITELY practice on scrap softwood or indeed anything before you cut that lovely hornbeam so you know where you're going first.  If you have a log burner, your average pile of firewood will yield plenty of perfectly useable turning blanks for handles.  Have you a bandsaw to harvest blanks from green wood?

The relationship between turner and wood is the most important aspect of turning.  Much like driving a car, as you become proficient with the tools, so they will fade into the background while you concentrate on steering the wood in the direction you wish to travel.  After enough practice, the pedals, the gear lever and the indicators become invisible....then you're an artist in wood :-)

A handle is an excellent early project too because its not too difficult but it does have some curves and a separate component (the ferrule) and it needs to be carefully drilled so the hole is centred for the steel.  Quite a varied patch work of different turning tasks in the one project.  It will challenge you.  I look forward to your progress if you feel inclined to do a WIP as you go.

[Ken S]

Good post, Rob. I watched bandsaw expert and teacher, Mark Duginske, cut a piece of firewood into a turning billet by eye. He raised the guard and used the blade as a gunsight. I would guess he was within 1/16" or just over a millimeter of being flat. he actually used this piece to make a cabriolet leg.

Ken

[Jan]

As Ken says, DEFINITELY practice on scrap softwood or indeed anything before you cut that lovely hornbeam so you know where you're going first.  If you have a log burner, your average pile of firewood will yield plenty of perfectly useable turning blanks for handles.  Have you a bandsaw to harvest blanks from green wood?

The relationship between turner and wood is the most important aspect of turning.  Much like driving a car, as you become proficient with the tools, so they will fade into the background while you concentrate on steering the wood in the direction you wish to travel.  After enough practice, the pedals, the gear lever and the indicators become invisible....then you're an artist in wood :-)

A handle is an excellent early project too because its not too difficult but it does have some curves and a separate component (the ferrule) and it needs to be carefully drilled so the hole is centred for the steel.  Quite a varied patch work of different turning tasks in the one project.  It will challenge you.  I look forward to your progress if you feel inclined to do a WIP as you go.

Thank you, Rob, for your knowledgeable comment on woodturning essentials.    I am really looking forward to learn basic woodturning skills.  But because the gardening season is now in full swing, I am afraid that the early winter season will be my soonest possibility to find uninterrupted time slot necessary for woodturning practicing. 

We have two larger gardens, which in the growing season take some effort and time. But as you mentioned it is a good occasion to harvest own blanks from green wood. We have apples, pears, plums, peach, cherry, apricot and nut-tree. Usually I am of course limited to tree branches, with limited diameter, but I have found that this wood is often denser then the wood from the tree trunk.

Jan

[Rob]

All fruit woods are excellent sources of wood turning blanks.  They are typically very tight grained and have a lot of figure in the grain, also some lovely colours (especially plum).