A day in the company of Phil Irons

Some of Phil's pieces

Had to show the hats

The members take a closer look

Light just appearing through

It was a cold dry morning and the members were met at the hall with a hot cup of tea or coffee, some were there very early which gave them plenty of time to talk turning, the last few things where done and all was ready. Aline and Nikky were busy preparing the mid day lunch for us all and as we were all there Don welcomed Phil and off we went.

Phil introduced himself and gave us some past history; he went straight into tool sharpening, well if your tools aren't sharp you can't expect to turn can you? He spent quite some time on the subject; the members did seem to need this info, lots of questions and answers and an insight into his method of sharpening, it was an in depth discussion which brought out many things I didn't know, and I'm sure that goes for a good number of other members to, things were explained well with a good number of things passed round.

The turning part of the demo was a small hat, very impressive working to 2mm or less thickness which I think impressed us all, the burning of the hat band was something I've never seen before, but will be doing it now especially with the junior turners. He used a light to judge the wall thickness but it was inside the turning jig/jamb chuck behind the hat, with the cable passing through the headstock! Now you're guessing, unless of coarse you've seen this before, but there's more………there was the added bonus of having the room lights turned out, now we're talking dramatic, picture the scene if you will…….apart from the light picking up on Phil's hands and arms, all you could see was the light through the wood and the tool cutting away, the room went quiet for what seemed like ages, just when you thought he'd finished he'd cut some more, the light was getting brighter and brighter and through the mist you could just see the out line of the aliens space ship…………..sorry….it just followed on so nicely I couldn't resist it, you can come out from behind the sofa now.

It produced some stunning pictures and it drew the attention of every single person in the room, I haven't seen anything quite like that before. So with the turning completed it was time for some shaping, some elastic bands were stretched round the top and across under the rim to pull it, now it was placed on the lamp to dry it and pull it at the same time. I have to say it was a brilliant finally, and quite rightly was rewarded with loud applause. Through out the whole day Phil was explaining things which explained why there wasn't shed full's of shavings on the floor, but that wasn't the objective, to entertain and demonstrate the art of woodturning was the reason and he did that extremely well I thought. Don took the floor and thanked Phil who received another round of applause, which was followed by some more questions and answers.

Half way through the demo we had the usual mid day lunch brilliantly provided my Aline and Nikky, a number of us helped pass the food round and of coarse the turning talk at the table over the coffee after the desert, and before we returned to the demo the girls were thanked for their efforts.

While the busy members discussed the days turning the chairs, tables and Phil's things were put away, and I almost forgot, Phil had a very good display of turned pieces, tools and books which got a lot of interest. And even though it was a full day the time just went in a flash, so with a clean and tidy hall all but the 2 waste bins in the middle of the floor to collect the drips of rainwater, it was time to lock the doors and go home, and in case your wondering the leak was fixed the following morning, and there goes another brilliant Master Class.