On May 23, 10:29 am, charlieb wrote:
There is an element of exhibitionism that seems to come to the fore
in front of an audience. There is, after all, a little Ham in all of
us.

Extremely talented, Batty is also a good showman and promoter. And as
far as ham goes, he could put Hormel to shame.


But back to the apparently dumb ass things turners try and those
which become "common practice" a few years later.

Could be that a fair number of turners are self taught and somewhat reclusive - time socializing is time away from the lathe. Not knowing
any better, one of them might try something that a more knowledgable turner wouldn't.

I personally think that is a very large part of it. Woodturning is a
craft with no rules. Unlike cabinet making, dovetails must be done a
certain way, fine finishing is performed in a multi faceted produre,
and measuring and cutting with great precision of parts that must fit
or sometimes move as a function of their existence (like a drawer) is
a highly prized goal.

With woodturning, it's "hey... I made a bowl!" In the limited amount
of woodturning instruction I have done in the past, I have found that
with a little honest effort everyone can turn something in the space
of a few hours. The curve to good work is not a long one. (Yeah,
yeah, I know about the curve to great work.) Easy to get into,
woodturning brings out the craftperson/artist in many of us.

Unlike fine woodworking, woodturning is the only portion of wood
related crafts I know that the participants are overjoyed and brag
about the acquistion of "found wood". A log at the landill is a
treasure! (I certainly include myself in with them). For my cabinet
making either for my business or my pleasure it is hard thing for me
to let go of a few hundred dollars on wood alone. Throwing a chunk of
unknown in the back of a pickup or raiding a firewood pile is a lot
more pleasing than letting go of more dough. And damn... there is so
much "found wood" out there.


I venture to say that wood turning has evolved faster, and in more
directions, than any other form of woodworking - with solid wood
funiture making being at the other end of the spectrum.

Couldn't agree more. The explosion of this aspect of woodworking over
the last fifteen years has been dramatic.


And that brings up a question. When - and why - did wood turning hit the hobbyist/amateur market?

My thoughts (as specifically related to woodturning only) are not so
philosophic as yours. I think the explosion of woodturning was market
driven by two things. I think that there were a lot of men that were
looking for hobbies that involved wood and working with their hands,
making them feel like a traditional craftsman. Seemed like this
happened somewhere on the 80s or so. Around this time, Woodcraft
started to really make a move.

Coincidntally, this is about the time Builder's Square, Home Depot,
Lowe's, etc. really started their nuclear explosion of growth.

Whilst perusing a local bookstore's magazine rack, I saw an article on
the next thing I believe changed the woodturning world forever.

The Jet Mini.

It was an affordable lathe that didn't scrimp on features. And
although I took my original blue mini back three times to get a solid
one, they had the right idea. You could get an honest machine, and a
real lathe at an affordable cost. All cast iron, heavy enough to do
some real work on, and
good customer support. Besides, buy it at Woodcraft and they had a
ONE YEAR satisfaction guarantee at the time.

It was a first "starter lathe"; a a good lathe to use everyday.
It was a great lathe to take to demos as it was portable. When we had
a turning day in our club of 6 in 1997, literally everyone had one to
bring to the meeting. Sure, some had other lathes, but everyone had a
mini.

And they didn't swallow a garage up when you bought one. At 60
pounds, you could build a stand like your router table, and you were
in. You could practice the basics of turning in the privacy of your
own home as much as you wanted using "found wood". How cool was that?

But with so many turning, and so many round things being turned, most
of us got bored after a while. So... boredom certainly being a factor
in pushing new boundaries, all manner of woodturning came up. Why not
leave square edges? Why not leave natural edges? Why not turn off
center? Then the segment guys raised the bar again. All of that sure
beat the daylights out of turning round bowls.

As woodturning caught fire, manufacturers responded. It was new, it
was easy, and easy to teach. Now with a compact, movable, and most
importantly an affordable quality tool all the ingredients were in
place. In a flood of attempts to cash in and find a niche, every
aspect of woodturning became game.

And unlike cabinet making which can literally take decades to master
(if you ever do) and thousands of dollars in machines, at the time
many of today's woodturners reached pominence a few years ago, they
had only been turning for a few years themselves. Of course we aren't
talking about Soren Berger, Peter Childs, Rude Olsonik, and those
guys.

But when I saw Trent Bosch demo at Texas Turn or Two (now known as
SWAT) in '97, he was turning on the balcony of his apartment when
weather permitted. I'm not too sure he was even out of his twenties.

I think many mistake the fact (and fall for the romance of the idea)
that some of the demo guys and artists that are so well known today
have been turning for a hundred years. (When I started "in the
trades", you weren't trusted as a full charge carpenter until you had
about 7 - 10 years full time under your belt). In fact, there are
many that have taken up turning only on the awareness that retirement
was looming or had already happened.

It is no secret that many of them and many of our ranks took up the
hobby later in life. I think the demographics of just about any club
would show a vast majority of turners older than 55, and in our club
the average age is +/-68.

When I asked these guys when they started and why, almost to a man
they said it was just before or after retirement. Not wanting to
spend decades to learn fine woodworking, then finishing, then design,
etc, it was a perfect hobby to start right in on in the corner of the
garage without overloading yourself with bulky equipment, and
committing a large chunk of your life learning many aspects of a craft
you may never be good at.

Woodturning for most is fun, and it gives the opportunity for doable
projects, ones that can be finished in a weekend or two, some as
little as a day. What's not to like about that? For me, I love going
out to the shop knowing I am going to make a couple of Christmas
ornaments (or whatever) before I leave.

It's not the pioneers that move things along - it's the farmers who come after them that use their discoveries that make civilizations.

charlie b

Truer words never spoken. History is replete with inventors,
entrepreneurs, and artists that have ended their lives penniless and
forgotten.

Robert