In a class of his own

John Davis invited a number of beginners from our club for a day's tuition in his new workshop in Stockbridge.
For various reasons John offered to help them with the basic skills, it pretty much put the final touches to a project I've been working on for a couple of years now which was basically to get these real beginners to start turning regularly. I started entering our club monthly competition some years ago and found that if I hadn't I probable was only turning once or twice a year which wasn't advancing my skills in any way despite my monthly club nights and attending the master classes. It wasn't long before I realised just how important it was to turn on a regular basis and I only started because of a casual remark from a conscientious club member.

Once I realised how important it was I started my quest to encourage others, sadly I only managed to get a few people interested despite various ideas I tried. The final break through came much later from an arranged meeting; a dozen or so members came along showing some interest in just having a chat about it. This meeting was invaluable to the cause as it revealed the main reason for members not entering the competition. So now you can understand my excitement, with John's generous offer there where 12 beginners at his workshop for the day and they thoroughly enjoyed it. I knew John was passionate about getting people started and it showed, he was very understanding of their capabilities and made them feel at ease.

There wasn't a single person afraid to step up to the lathe and complete the exercise John set them. I have to admit I did wonder if that was going to be a stumbling block, not that I doubted John ability but I wasn't sure with three students to a lathe in unusual surroundings whether they would all actually have a go. As it happened you couldn't have stopped them if you tried. I think this was the result of a number of factors leading up to it and the main one being just how friendly our club has become with members really mixing and enjoying their club nights. John completed the circle as it where to very good effect.

So after giving you the entire history since time immemorial I'll get on with what I started to write about and that's our day at John's new workshop, "hooray", and "about time to" I hear in the back ground! But I had to explain how when and why, oh never mind, here we go then.

Our day at John's workshop.

Three of us travelled together and left in good time, on arrival we realised we where all but the last there, all good plans as they say, (stick to the plot Boots). Angy had made personalised badges for us all so we new who we where talking to. She used her imagination as in, mine had tea boy on it and Johns had The Boss, only right I suppose, I know my place. All thirteen of us started with a cup of something and got chatting as we wandered around his shop and workshop areas. John gathered us together in the workshop and I quickly introduced him and away we went. With a very good explanation of what to expect and do John gave a demonstration on the lathe.

Then splitting into groups of three they found one of the four lathes complete with a set on nice new tools, they marked the 2" x 2" x 9" pine and put it between centres. They each turned to a round and completed the first part of the exercise. As each person in turn carried out the task they where talking about it and helping each other get it right. This was pretty much the format for the whole exercise but with the addition of John visiting each lathe to check on progress, obviously some needing help in some way. We had the usual breaks for tea/coffee and lunch and it was encouraging to see most of the lathes in action during this time. The exercise was to turn a bead and a cove using the spindle-roughing gouge, spindle gouge and skew.

Once they had all completed the task satisfactorily it was time for John to look at the tools the class had brought with them, and as you can imagine it wasn't long before John was grinding a number of them back into a useable state. Sadly all to soon our day was over, I thanked John for our brilliant day and the group applauded well. So with the last few purchases from the shop the students disappeared into the car park. Well all except one!……………

Angy has been trying to find time between her commitment to her class at work to practice turning an apple; this is encouragement from Bill and I, mainly Bill though. So John with a 4" cube set to helping her turn a large apple. I received an email shortly after saying the apple was turned and she did most of it. Well done Angy and my many thanks to John. Well what more can I say other than many thanks to John, and especially his wife for staying on just that little bit longer.

The day wouldn't have been complete without the help of Paul, John's son and John's understanding wife who I have to apologise to because for some reason I have completely forgotten her name, she made us feel at home and cleaned our cups ready for the next time. So in conclusion, it was a brilliant day out, very much appreciated by everybody and they all went home very much more enthusiastic about their turning. So job done.

I have since received a good number of emails and calls explaining how much they enjoyed the day and asking when the next one is, plus to pass on their thanks to John. I have to point out that this is something John has done as a special just for our club. So if you are not a member of the Forest of Bere Woodturners, first why not, and second, you will need to contact John Davis and ask about the specific courses he does run. I can along with the dozen students that visited John without a doubt guarantee his capability to teach, he is very understanding and patient making everybody feel at ease.

Many thanks again John on behalf of the club for a brilliant day, and of coarse my good wife for making the chocolate brownies.

Boots - August 2006