Darrell Feltmate wrote:
.... One of the things I do and as far as I can
tell most turners as well, is to turn for constant thickness. It gives a
rightness of feel and balance to a piece and also lets it dry and or settle
with less chance of splitting.

Hi Darrell, you weathered the storm ok?

I'm of the opposite opinion about bowls. Some of my least favourite and
unsold bowls have uniform thickness. I often leave a wider rim and
heavier base, finding them to be more interesting and of better balance
when picked up.

Admittedly when roughing green bowls for intial drying they tend to be
quite uniform (~ +/-5mm), but that is more for speed and convenience
rather than any problems in drying due to non-uniformity (mainly
red/sugar maple, y.birch, some oak and ash). I dry slowly. Will say no
more on that subject for fear this will turn into yet another LDD thread



In my experience
turners can not tell if a piece is constant thickness by feel nor with most
calipers where the jedgement is made by the gap left as you slide one foot
of the caliper up the edge of the piece.

But does it matter? If the the turner can't tell, can anyone else? I
just fail to see why constant thickness should be such a holy grail.


--
Derek Andrews, woodturner

http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com
http://chipshop.blogspot.com - a blog for my customers
http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com/TheToolrest/ - a blog for woodturners