On Fri, 2 Dec 2016 06:46:00 -0800 (PST)
"Dr. Deb" wrote:

Its the same with turning knitting needles, which is really just a
very long dowel. Love to do it, its not that hard and extremely
satisfying. The trick is in knowing the secret of getting a uniform
diameter the whole length.

the dowels i turned were all 12 inches or so and uniformity was not
a problem but they were about half inch diameter

stability at the midsection seems to be the critical spot and any
deflection there will give poor results

i use a piece of lether in my hand to keep it from bowing out


sharp tools helps a lot too