Snow and Turning Do Not Mix

Sorry about not getting more turning done and up for you to read. Winter has hit with a vengeance. I am tired of shoveling. Normally I step out my front door to some brickwork. Now I step out to snow and ice. In the spring, summer, fall I can back up to where the door is just about hitting the car to bring in groceries and stuff. Actually I could easily get it to where the door hit the car but what would be the point? Look at this.

Yep. That mess to the left of the shovel is about 20 feet from the house and left by the plow to block the path. No anger at the plowman. He has to put the stuff somewhere. Part of it he put in the front of the path to the shop. It is a good forty feet. Used to be thirty but the snow had to go somewhere. I have shoveled the paths at least 3 times today and some of the snow I carried 20 feet by the shovel full to have a place to dump it. The whole province (Nova Scotia) seems about the same.

I miss my lathe. I miss the shop. I miss the time to turn. However, enough complaining. Spring is around the corner. The snow will go and I can retire the snow shovel for the duration. Wood will be found and turning will go on. Back soon with wood.

Woodturning Design - A New Look at an Old Question

I was looking at an old hard drive and some of the pictures on it, deciding what to keep, when I stumbled on some pictures of the progressive turning of a birch hollow form from some years back. It all started as a sort of mess; a crotch piece with branch growing from it, maybe six inches thick and 7 or so across and about 8 inches long. So it would have two centers from the trunk and two more from the secondary trunk and branch. Each of these is a familiar split area and also a spot of elongation as the piece dries  and settles.

On the other hand it should have some great feathering pattern from the crotch and other patterns around the branch entry and each center. A hollow form should show all of these with a little planning.

I thought this would be a good time to ask those old questions of what makes a good design for a woodturning? So I decided to introduce a section to around the woods. For now it will start with getting from there to here. 

As time progresses I hope to bravely consider what makes good design and get shot for it or at least to start some dialogue going. It should be fun. I will also link to a few other places where I have commented on the thought processes that go into the pieces I have turned. Some good and some mistakes. One or two have ended up in the fire not because they split or came apart on the lathe but because they looked like crap. Future ones like that I will photograph and we can all pick them apart. Like I say, it should be fun.

Getting the Turning Corner Back in the Workshop

The cleaning goes on and on. If I could only get a couple of eight hour days in there it would all go faster. At least I tell myself that. This winter seems to go on and on and on and I am getting a little shack wacky. Any day I do not have to shovel is a good one. So the dilemma is, I need to turn and if I stop cleaning now I may not get back to it for another five years. But look at this corner of the shop.

Does that not cry out to get turning? I think I may get a piece of apple from a pile of green stuff and turn a little hollow form for a break. I will let you know. Soon.

A Few Awesome Tools

So I was going through the shop doing the big cleanup and I came across these awesome tools. Obviously they are awesome just because of the kind of tools, drawknife, froe and hatchet, but especially because of where they came from. Last summer I served as Chaplain (Padre) for the Greenwood Cadet Summer Training Center and the Cadet Padres from the Maritimes gathered for training in Halifax. Quincy, one of the other Padres, had been these tools at home and had not been using them, but we had been talking about wood working at the training during break time and realized we were not only friends but also kindred spirits. A while later he showed up at Greenwood with these for me. Wow! Now I need to find a special place for them so I am reminded of a good friend when I see them and use them.

By the way, I could not say enough good about the Cadet program and the summer camps. They too are awesome.

O, the cleanup is posted up with a few new pages here.