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Leon[_7_]

On 8/22/2014 3:29 PM, wrote:
I guess it comes down to how much time you want to spend turning, or learning to sharpen. When I had classes with our local club, my spot was always sharpening. It took a lot of months to get "good" at it, and many, many more to become proficient. Then even longer to be able to replicate my favorite grind angles without jigs, free handing on the grinder. Honestly, as with most folks, it took much longer to learn to sharpen well than it did for me to learn to turn wood. All in all, even when obsessed with turning, it still took me a couple of years to be able to walk over to the grinder at will and flip it on to resharpen.

If the scrapers were better then and I had an opportunity to try one that actually worked, I might have skipped on the sharpening learning curve stage and stuck with learning how to turn. As it was then, it went hand in hand, and I sadly saw several gifted turners in my club (much better than me) leave turning as they couldn't sharpen their tools easily. They all said the same thing - they spent as much time at the grinder as they did at the lathe since they could never get their grinds right.

When I met a lot of the professional turners that were making the paid circuit going from club to club in larger cities, we had some great conversations about the difference between "cutter" and "scrapers". I am definitely on the "cutter" side of things, probably because I became adept at sharpening. This was really important to me to avoid tear out as much as possible, and when turning hollow forms like vases, sanding away tear out areas is just too time consuming for me. Any edged tool (in my eyes) needs to be about as sharp as it can be at all times. I even strop some of my pocket knives...

With a long modified Ellsworth grind on a tool as small as 3/8", I could at one time reach as much as 5" deep in a vase with no problems and did so in demos. The tools were sharp enough not to catch, and that was the point I was trying to make. Most of the time, my sanding started with 220 on a piece, then to bronze steel wool depending on the desired finish.

It is sad to me though to think I haven't turned in years. I used to turn out Christmas ornaments for family and special friends, turned out a lot of offset turned mushrooms for some of my buddy's wives, made a lot of bowls, small vases, a ton of oil candles, baby rattles, spoons and scoops, coffee measures, pens, etc. Then were immediately became too much demand on my personal time (think of your Dad...) with both parents, one of Kathy's, then the demise of two of them, and all the attendant stuff that follows those things...

I have four lathes and it disappoints me that I don't get out there and get with it. One tiny Carbatec, two Jet minis (one for traveling demo) and a Nova 3000, which is crated back up due to space considerations, All of them sitting. Maybe this year...

Robert

Well my had is off to you Robert. I am pretty anal about most of my
work but turning and sharpening was mostly beyond me.