A day in the company of Tony Wilson

Tony's finial, Picture sent in by Dave Jenkins

Now for the top

Removing the foot

Now thats what you call a bowl blank

Beautiful

Brilliant use of grain

This was the first time for years I hadn't been there the night before to help set up the hall, I did offer because those that were going said they where fine, Kim went because like me he just turns up to help on these occasions so there was help there, Dave was also there and just as well, Tony's lathe had moved while travelling and a lump of wood had damaged the switch, fortunately by the time it was needed it was up and running, so well done lads.

In the morning as usual the members are here early, and very soon got chatting whilst drinking their first cuppa of the day, Colin had a raffle to extract a few more pennies from us, sadly not a number came up for me despite the good number of prizes and fewer members than on a club night.

Don made the introductions and we were away, I was looking forward to Tony's demonstration because he's not only a very good turner, he's very entertaining to. Plus he always puts it across that this is how you do it, emphasising you. I've been spending a lot of time trying to change people's perception of wood tuning, without thinking, most of us watch a professional and see it as, that's what they do with the big fancy lathes and equipment, and we do other easier things, but not so with Tony, he encourages the audience to try things, the projects he chose to do were specifically aimed at being easy to do with the equipment most of us have, but the important thing is, and this is another area of turning I've been working on, they are different and look real special, on the lines of Art so to speak, the sort of things that make you want to go straight home after the demo and have a go.

Tony introduced himself and very soon got turning, his first project was a diamond shaped 2.5 inch thick block, 3 choices of end product, bowl, candle holder or a box, there are others, when I saw the finished piece I thought with a little attention to one of the small raised points it can be made to look like the tail of a bird, the head and wings are already there, I expect good graining timber would make this an exceptional wall piece. No guesses what I'm working on now? Tony did an exceptional job with the turning, I say exceptional because a number of our members have since tried it and failed in some way, what makes it difficult is you cant see the piece whilst its turning, I've tried it and with a few pieces of white kitchen roll laid underneath the bed and one over the banjo with a clip on it you can, once you start the cut by gently locating the piece, then as you cut by looking almost straight down you can see the timber in front of the gouge, this is a good project to teach you to listen, you see the cut against the white and listen, with both eyes and ears you can if done gently make your cuts without any problems. I don't profess to be particularly good at tooling but this piece I tried is tooled and good enough a finish to hand sand on the bench if I had to, patience and a bit of thought compensates for the lack of tool capability, so as Tony said, anybody can turn these unusual pieces, this one by the way is narrow enough to sit on the mantle piece.

A large 12.5 inch piece of Bubinga was then mounted on the lathe, this was very soon turned into a lovely bowl, it wasn't sanded as Tony was concentrating on projects rather than the finished item, he said, who wants to sit there watching me sand? Good point I thought. He then turned another piece of Bubinga for a large foot to the bowl, again not something we in the audience are doing, and it was very effective, especially with the distinctive colour change.

This next piece I think will be remembered by all of us, it was a yew box and finial, the box was typically shaped but the finial was 9 inches plus high and very slender with loads of shapes turned on it, this finial was a real work of art, a true testimony of the turner's skill in both tool work and shape/design that really work well, and all produced without a pattern and talking to the audience, absolutely brilliant, this was all done with the Robert Sorby Spindle Master, a perfect finish that required no sanding what so ever, the audience was well impressed, and quite right to. Sadly I didn't get a picture of the finished piece.

Tony then turned a three cornered bowl from a cube, this was mounted opposite corner to corner, as with the first piece you have to be careful because you cant see the timber along all the cut. This piece was followed by some interesting chat, turned onions, sharpening and various other useful subjects were discussed. During the whole day various items were passed round for the audience to inspect and photograph. Tony had a number of finished pieces on show along with some turning timbers, there were some interesting sized blanks, and the members purchased a number of these, whether we get to see anything finished is anybodies guess.

We had the usual mid day lunch provided by Aline and Nicky, and as usual it was first class, we at the club are very fortunate to get such enthusiastic support, that's my next master class meal guaranteed. Don thanked Tony for a brilliant day and the audience applauded well, it was obvious they really enjoyed the experience. Sadly all too quick it was time to put everything away, sweep the hall with the chairs away there goes another brilliant master class.