Thnks to the Old Timers

Maybe "Old Timers" is a poor phrase to use here. many of the old time turners are not old. Some of them have only have only been turning for a year or two. What makes them "old timers" is simply that they have been turning wood longer than others.

However, what sets woodturning apart from most other crafts is the desire to share information. Old Timers are more than willing to bring a new comer under their wing and get them started on woodturning addiction. There is a sense of camaraderie that needs to be extended into more parts of life.

Most of our woodturning meetings have a couple of sharing times. During one, someone who is advanced in a technique shows the rest of us how they do it. Another more informal sharing time is the show and tell. People who have been turning for a few weeks or a lot of years bring in their latest pieces and talk about how they made them. Comments are almost always encouraging and often the old timers will quiz the new guys on how they did something.

questions, encouragement, sharing, friendship, humility

Who would NOT want to be a part of this? Maybe this is why a number of our club do not turn, they just like the meetings.

Notice of EBay Scam

Will the greed of people never cease? I got an email from a great guy who had unfortunately bought a DVD from Ebay. The DVD was just a collection of free videos from folks like me who had posted them on YouTube or our own sites for folks to see free of charge. This guy had made collections and was selling them on EBay. Not only is this a violation of all the copyright laws around but it is also an attempt to profit from other people's work and generostiy.

Trust me, it takes a lot to make even a home video if you want it to turn out decently. But this is fine for me because I enjoy it and I like people to see how I do stuff. Hopefully they improve on it and we share the info. That is one of the great things about wood turners. If you do not share, you have not gotten the idea of turning in the first place.

A while ago at a show I was asked by a turner how I made a particular piece. This is an entirely different question from a wood turner than from a regular customer. He thanked me for sharing my "secrets" with him. There are no secrets in wood turning. Just good techniques and practice.

However, there is a big difference between sharing for free while giving credit where credit is due and the idea of selling free material to people while giving the understanding that this is good value.

Enough rant. I am going to turn.