Another Good Club Night

May 2004 Meeting with Tony Wilson

As usual I arrive somewhat early only to find most things already set up. I collected an article from Don, placed my competition entry, noted three new entries to the book library for our web list, got my raffle tickets and chatted. Despite the fact that it was a glorious summer evening there was a very good turn out of club members. We had the usual chat from the chairman. I mentioned the web fun quiz; Ken promoted a local wood festival and that Ripon symposium was mentioned again. I keep hearing about that so Ill do some research on the subject and put it on the web. Ken introduced our evening's guest turner Tony Wilson and we were into another good club night.

As per usual Ken had done us proud in booking Tony for the night. And well, what can I say; it was a mixture of wood turning techniques and a commentary that had us all continuously laughing out loud all evening, I don't think it was a rehearsed routine as his good lady wife was laughing along with us.

First on the lathe was a piece of Sycamore, it was to be the top bowl of a two tiered bowl, I haven't heard or seen one of these before which made it even more interesting. The finished base, lower bowl and centre stem were passed between the members, the base and centre stem was Cocobolo, (careful with this timber, details on our web site) and the lower bowl attached was Sycamore. The finish was superb; the shape of the base, centre stem and top was rather like the shape of the Eiffel Tower, with the addition of the two bowls, the lower one obviously sitting on the base. The choice of timbers was excellent to say the least. The centre of the lower bowl was raised and became part of the stem, very impressive design I thought. Tony told us that they are normally three tiered bowls with each bowl having the same shape but each added bowl having a smaller diameter, that's the clever bit. Part of the upper bowl was turned for us and it was passed around between the members to see the tooled finish.

Meanwhile Tony moved on to the next item, which was another first for me; it was a 4" cube of Burr Elm. This was to be another bowl but with a difference, it was spindle turned but on its corners. Tony sanded a flat on two opposing corners and fixed it between centres, he turned a spigot then mounted it onto a chuck. This method gives a bowl with four raised points around the perimeter. It was turned just enough to show us how and what to do, a simple idea but who would have thought of putting it on the lathe that way?

He then went back to the Sycamore bowl; he lightly sanded and then polished giving us a very informative explanation of how he did it. I for one have always been struggling with polishing despite all the help and advice I've had. I do believe that it has sunk in this time because of the way it was explained. So along with the notes I took throughout the evening do believe I've finally got it, (Ill keep you posted on that one) the part finished but now polished piece was again passed between members. The polished area was faultless. I was so impressed I find myself wanting to remind you that this piece was part turned as a demonstration only but still had a perfect finish. The club camera's again showed all the detail on two monitors so nobody missed anything, and there was the usual crowd talking to Tony during our mid way tea break.

The last piece was as surprising as the two previous items had been. Once again it was a variation of a bowl. It was a blank of about 8"x 8" x 2" and had a diagonal line across the face, mid way between the centre and the corner was marked and it was at this point that it was mounted on a screwchuck. This obviously is for experienced turners with variable speed lathes only. The piece was put on the lathe and at a very slow speed it was turned on. With the aid of a bit of belt slip Tony proceeded to turn, as it was only cutting for part of each revolution and it sounded a bit like one of Fred Dibnah's old steam engines chugging away. The piece was only turned enough to show the method and design; it was a slower than usual removal of timber as you would expect. The finished bowl would look rather like a 3" ball shaped bowl passing through the corner of a quarter piece of a platter. I think one of our members has the piece to finish, if so I will get a photo to go with this article when he's finished it.

All in all it was an evening to remember. I made loads of notes on hints and tips that I know will help me at the lathe. Everything was explained in an easy to remember manner with attention to detail. As I said before there was an almost continuos sound of laughter from the members all night. Sadly we didn't get to see the finished two tiered bowl, I will however contact Tony a try to get a picture to go add to this article.

Ken thanked Tony for his demonstration, which was accompanied by a good round of applause from the members. The competition results were read out and the raffle prises were drawn. We had the usual sweeping up, chairs away and final odd bits of chat and there goes another good club night.

Boots, May 2004