The reason I asked the question is because of James Krenov,
one of the furniture making masters (in the company of
Sam Maloof and George Nakashima). His approach to cabinet
making is to get as close to perfection as possible at a few
techniques - and keep it simple and have the wood speak for
itself. I figure that if I get all the coves and beads and ogees
out on turning maybe I can overcome the urge to do them in
furniture.

Roughing gouges and parting tools are pretty easy to use,
especially if they're sharp. Scrapers aren't too tough to
use either. The rest of the turning tools - well they take
a bit of practice and a range of techniques - some not so
easy to get. And some seem to operate at the edge of
disaster. When I first started turning I must admit the
skew scared the hell out of me. The idea of getting that
long point and sharp edge anywhere near a spinning piece
of wood seemed insane. But after 20 or 30 hours of
playing with it, initially clench jawed and white knuckled,
it turns out to be able to do far more than is first
apparent - and - with a curve in the cutting edge - not
that catch prone.

Now if I could just focus on one branch of turning and
work at getting a lot better at it rather than being
adequate at a range of types of turning . . .

The nice thing about the turning branch of woodworking
is that most of the wood can be had for free. And
being able to go from a piece of a tree - with the
bark still on it - to a finished piece in an hour or
less. rather than in days, weeks or months ain't
bad either. Still getting used to having the wood
moving while working on it.

charlie b