Why Woodturning?
This is a question I’ve been asked many times: why do I
“do” woodturning? Recently, I’ve been thinking about it a lot and have decided
to share my thoughts in this blog. The initial answer to the question was a bit
long, so I’ve split it into two posts. Here is the first part.
Some people think I do it to relieve the stress of the
50+ hours I currently work each week as a manager in a large retail company.
However before I was a Retail Manager, I was a Manufacturing Supervisor working
for a large multinational company working similar hours during the night, and
before that I was a Fast Food Manager working for another multinational company
(doing it their way many hours a week). I have been in management for over twenty-five
years so by now I am well used to work pressures and working hard for long
hours. Management is mostly head work and generally the work isn’t very much
hands on unless you count all the pen pushing you have to do. I thought that if
I was doing so much paperwork, I might as well have a nice pen but I could
never afford a “good” one.
Before I worked in management, I was employed as a labourer
on a building site, working for the family building contracting firm here in
Galway. As soon as I was able to carry a block and hold I shovel and push a
wheelbarrow, I was brought on the sites. Working as a labourer, I was primarily
working with my hands and some basic tools; lifting things, carrying things,
mixing things, pushing things, pulling things, shovelling things, sweeping
things, digging things and the fun part was smashing things. Demolition was
always done in a controlled manner. From an early age I learnt there was value
in everything taken out of a demolition project; doors, windows, roof tiles, nails
on the ground, and especially timber. The timber was always divided into two
piles – for taking home for cutting up and burning, and the rest “for the shed”.
The good timber from the demolition always went to the shed before it got wet
with the intention of being used in a building project later on. The sheds were
and are still full of wonderful pieces of timber, old doors, windows, furniture,
and many other odds and ends. Some of the timber has sat in sheds for over forty
years.
I always wondered what to do with all this timber and in
2010, got the loan of a lathe and some woodturning tools from a friend. I built
a shed in my back garden which I christened the #ManShed. I dry lined and insulated the interior and put up a few
shelves and made some simple workbenches. I wired the shed myself using
reclaimed electrical fittings. I started to turn small pieces of timber into
random shapes when I came home from work late at night. I hadn’t a clue what I
was at initially, and grazed my fingers more than once, and dodged the flying
chips many times. After watching a few YouTube videos, and getting advice from
some woodturners, I picked up some of
the basic skills. Soon I was hooked on turning. I bought a kit of ten pen parts
online and started making pens to hone my turning skills. The first few pens
were chunky and rough efforts, but in time they got better. Soon I had to
upgrade my lathe, buy new tools and a new chuck. I bought a cheap pillar drill
and a second-hand table saw. I ended up giving the pens I made away for free as
I never thought my pens were any good. I always believed I could make a better
one.
From 2010 until 2013, I experimented with using different
woodturning tools and settled on using the 5/8” gouge. I tried nearly every
combination of finishes from kitchen polish, varnish, several different types
of waxes, BLO (boiled linseed oil), different oils from the kitchen (e.g.
walnut), and even using super glue! It took me quite a while to realise that
the finish depended on the timber and not on what I wanted to use. There were
times I felt like Edison (who knew 10,000 ways a lightbulb wouldn’t work).
Similarly it took quite a bit of experimentation to figure out which finish to
use. I knew quite a few ways which the finish on a pen would not work. I also started working with
acrylic and that took a different set of skills to work on and to finish off
the piece.
At the same time I was also experimenting with drying of
timber. Sometimes I tried to turn wet timber, but it always fractured and
caused a mess (not to mention nearly taking out my eye – thankfully I wear
safety glasses and recently have also started to wear a safety mask). When the
timber dried after turning, it always shrank and cracked. So I invested in a
simple moisture meter I’ve learnt not to work with wood with moisture content
greater than 5%. Now I had my supply issues sorted, I had a basic skill in woodturning,
but I lacked the confidence in my ability and the motivation to start making
pens as a business. The woodturning took a back seat as I got on with my life.
I have a story to tell on how my motivation and
enthusiasm to turn wood was reinforced. I call the story “granny’s six pens”
and I’ll tell it in part two of this post.
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