I think there are three things that really made a difference the way I
turn.

1) I went to a seminar put on by Sorby a several years ago to watch a
guy demo that texture tool they sell. Woodturning wasn't what it is
now, and me a 5 people were there, and the seminar/demo was free!
Anyway, since he was from England, I asked him what he considered the
the biggest difference in the actual turning process (not style/shape/
art, etc.) of an Englishman and an American. His answer was "speed".
You told me "you guys turn a LOT slower than we do over there. I mean
a lot. When I was doing demos for out bowl and spindle gouges last
summer, I had shocked the crowd by turning up the lathe speeds a lot
faster than they were used to."

The result was I went home and juiced it up a lot, and now rarely turn
too slow anymore. It is much easier to make better cuts, better to
hide out of balance vibrations (or at least deal with them), and
easier to cut details.

2) When I realized that I could grind my tools to cut the way I want,
and not pay attention to the accepted grinds. Some grinds are great
on some tools, but I noticed not all the book and magazine grinds
worked at an acceptable level on my chisels and gouges. I was
thinking... man... if that just had a little longer wings on that
grind (or less) or maybe a little more angle...

Then one day I thought, well why not? I change all my flatwork tools
to suit me, so why not these? So I spent about a month grinding the
daylights out of my chisels just changing grinds. It was liberating.
I went from using a lot of tools to do different things to about 5
since they would all do what I wanted them to do. It dawned on me at
that time that the nationally known turners that are linked to a
certain grind most likely found their grind by the same method of
grinding, cutting, regrinding, cutting, etc.

As a sidbar, I have a cheapie tool that was sold as a 3/8 spindle
gouge that is neither fish nor fowl. It is too wide to be a good
spindle gouge and the flute is too deep. The flute is not deep enough
to be a good heavy duty bowl gouge. But with the right grind it will
do great work hollowing out vases, and for finishing cuts on bowls.
And I was ready to pitch that damn thing until I decided I had nothing
to lose and starting grinding it in my own way. I like it so much now
I ordered another one for spare!

3) Probably the most important thing was when I decided I didn't give
a crap about my stuff conforming to the accepted stylings of the
national turners and their legion of copy cats. I got my nose out of
joint with that because I turn for fun, and only sell enough of my
projects to buy more lathe stuff.

When I had enough of listening to the self appointed judges of our
turning club parrot what they had heard on some woodturning show or
read in Woodturning Design, I quit. They would take wonderful little
project efforts and gently but quickly shred the work to pieces in
front of some hopeful turner that was just looking for a small pat on
the back for his efforts.

I haven't been back to the land of the critics and artists in about a
year now, and don't miss anything there except a couple of the old
timers that were just there to have fun.

Woodturning is fun, and should be fun. It is about the only aspect of
woodworking where you can turn out a finished project in an extremely
short period of time and not feel pressed. Once I remembered that I
was doing this for the sheer enjoyment of simply sculpting the wood,
the fun came right back.

Robert