stevethewoodturner does some great skew chisel work. He posts on Youtube and Instagram daily. I asked him why he's not a member of the AAW and he replied it is because he's in the UK. That is not a good excuse though.
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Incredible Skew work
- Thread starter Tom Albrecht
- Start date
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- Roulette, PA
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- www.reallyruralwoodworks.com
Should have told him there's many members here from U.K, Ireland and many other countries. Might have gotten some interest from him?
Richard Raffan did a skew video recently. Amazing.
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With the greatest respect It is a little like asking Michelangelo why he has not joined the local painting club ?
Sadly Steve does not demonstrate either
Links
thewoodturners.com
There is a story about a renowned British woodturner who had another well known turner visit his home and ask him if he would demonstrate and told him how much he would be paid
The renowned turner declined the offer
His wife was in the next room and overheard the conversation
Surprised by the amount of money offered she came into the room and said
He will demonstrate
Sadly Steve does not demonstrate either
Links
The Woodturners craft shop
The Woodturners - B.A.Jones & Co - Redditch- home page, Wood turner West Midlands/bespoke woodturning /Wooden Gifts/ Garden Gifts/Unique Wooden Gifts/Handcrafted Wooden Gifts/Bespoke Wood
There is a story about a renowned British woodturner who had another well known turner visit his home and ask him if he would demonstrate and told him how much he would be paid
The renowned turner declined the offer
His wife was in the next room and overheard the conversation
Surprised by the amount of money offered she came into the room and said
He will demonstrate
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Yes; I subscribe to his channel, and am working my way through his videos. Well worth the time; really skilled guy.
Please see links below
Steve,s skew
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRQiSRPsFl9/?img_index=1
and
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7XyRoqJ0wy/
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CfqsCwAFkGf/
If you look carefully at the video you can see how Steve has rounded the edges on the Skew
Steve,s skew
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRQiSRPsFl9/?img_index=1
and
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7XyRoqJ0wy/
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CfqsCwAFkGf/
If you look carefully at the video you can see how Steve has rounded the edges on the Skew
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A few times I've asked talented individuals who were striving to make a living turning why they were not members of the AAW. Their answers were mostly related to the the AAW not being receptive to new methods or concepts. I certainly find that to be true, almost anything beyond traditional woodturning methods are not well received, at least on this forum.
To make good money at turning (not resorting to teaching or selling tools) you have to sometimes bite the bullet and adapt modern methods. Being a traditional turning purist is almost a guaranteed road to poverty.
It’s a paltry $68/yr. You’d think they could gamble on one year. Would get a good bit of advertising for that amount.
Hmm, I can't say that I've seen any evidence that the AAW is "not receptive to new methods or concepts". An organization like this does not show continual growth and expansion without an open mind. Not that long ago, we never saw painted work here, or dyed wood, or resin incorporation, or pyrography to name just some. When you stop to think about the fact that everybody here is working on the same type of machine that is built to accomplish a similar goal, I am amazed at how versatile our membership is.
Am I alone in this response?
odie
TOTW Team
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I'd say we have an abundance of turning styles, methods and concepts right here on the AAW forums, and traditional turning is in the minority here. All are very much appreciated, because on here, it's a brotherhood of sorts. (Sisters are included in that, too!
)However, the point I wish to make, is I consider myself to be among traditionalist turners who is attempting to sell his work. As far as making a living, I'm not......but, I must stress that making a living isn't my primary goal. Becoming "accomplished" is a goal, and that goal is a very personal effort, not related to profiting from it, but more so a personal quest to take my work to the highest level of excellence that I can.......before I check out of this world! Any sales I make is simply a method of financially sustaining the effort.
That may not make a lot of sense to some people, but to me, it's what makes life worthwhile!
-o-
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How about my posting on making oval bowls on a CNC from May, 2022? There was quite a bit of pushback on the topic. So much that the moderators moved the thread to the Off Topic sub forum. I also experienced pretty much the same when attending the years ago Seattle area OT symposium showing CNC'd work in the instant gallery.
The AAW can be confusing. The Journal had at least one cover story on a CNC "turned" object plus several articles. In all those articles there was no mention of the featured works having been done on a CNC. Huh? The works of Mark Lindquist and Giles Gilson being non-traditional woodturning at first were not readily accepted, yet they both eventually were given the highest honors by the AAW.
CNC'ing may be work of certainty rather than risk. I look at the incredibly high cost of exotic woods these days and it takes deep pockets for risk.
If this AAW forum is still around 10 years from now I expect CNC will be very acceptable and hopefully more emphasis will be on design than on hand turning techniques.
Don't hold your breath Doug.
This is a woodturning forum. Making facsimiles of turned bowls with a CNC machine might open up new artistic possibilities, and it may be financially prudent, but it's not woodturning.
odie
TOTW Team
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The source of confusion for me, is whether CNC is, or should be considered "woodturning". Certainly, it is a form of "woodworking".....but, Doug makes an argument that tends to confuse the defining conditions of two otherwise distinctly different things. Those of us here who consider a spinning block of wood being shaped by hand-held tools, are generally not interested in programming computer-controlled machinery to perform tasks that are traditionally a concept initiated from one's spirit, and thus transferred from physical being through the senses, to the tool, and shaping the wood to a conclusion.
CNC is quite the opposite, in that, in Doug's case, a computer controlled spinning cutter is pre-programmed to shape a stationary piece of wood. This entirely eliminates the human element in the process of actually shaping the wood.....and, this is a very significant difference which separates it from "woodturning" in a traditional sense.
Should Doug have a space here on these AAW forums to discuss his processes?
Sure, why not!
-o-
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Mass-producing pieces from a spinning cutter is hardly new, either. One of my related interests is pipe making, and the large pipe factories have been shaping pipes with copy machines for the better part of a century, with a router-like cutter guided by a human operator tracing a reference shape. A CNC machine is more efficient, but not conceptually very different. And while factory-made pipes can be very high-quality and profitable, there's still a vibrant and growing community of artisan pipe makers who take individual blocks of briar burl and craft a pipe from the unique characteristics of the wildly-unpredictable wood. And I'll believe that copy machines and CNC routing has truly, fully replaced handcrafted artistry when I see a machine that can create pipes like these:
Hmm, what exactly is woodturning?
Here's a picture of a "real" woodturner.
She must have her VFD in a remote location. Hard to see how she mounts her laser guided hollowing mechanism. Good assortment of tools at the ready, maybe off to her right is her sharpening station with several CBN wheels on her variable speed grinder. She may be watching her favorite turning videos online as she works.
Or, is it possible turning has evolved in ways nobody could have ever imagined from the days of this picture? How might it evolve in the near future? Do you suppose kids who are learning CNC in the 4th grade through "coding" and 3D printing might be advocates of CNC woodturning in a few years?
A CNC machine, integrated with a lathe, can certainly be used in woodturning. But making a bowl from a stationary piece of wood simply isn't woodturning. It's not. That's not a value judgement or a rejection of either the process or the result, just a fact: if you're not spinning the wood and applying some kind of cutter, it's not turning.
Asher, you need to get out more. Those pipes you show are beautiful, but to think those couldn't be done on a CNC machine is wrong. They're almost trivial. The needed skill of the CNC'er would be in the pipe design and determining how to orient the wood to emphasize the grain and then programming the CNC. I would rank the design part as the most difficult.
I take it you haven't worked with briar. The finest artisan pipes are shaped in response to the grain as it becomes visible. No current CNC machine can do this.
I wonder if there was the same resistance to change when lasers and other “changes” were introduced to woodturning. I find Odie’s comments very reasoned and apt—is CBC work woodturning or a subset of woodworking? Probably the latter. Regardless, I think it’s worth a forum here and I find it fascinating. I’m glad Doug persists in educating us.Sure, why not!
I'm fine with CRC and other modern approaches that mimic traditional turnings. However, I agree with Odie that it's woodworking and not woodturning.
No need to worry about CNC replacing traditional turning, and that does not mean there is not a place for it here on the forum.
And back to the original post regarding Steve the Woodturner, I think I'll let him know that we have over 200 members in the UK. He wouldn't be alone.
And back to the original post regarding Steve the Woodturner, I think I'll let him know that we have over 200 members in the UK. He wouldn't be alone.
Tom, sometimes I forget to mention my use of CNC is not to eliminate traditional turning. More to show the versatility of CNC like this variable radius, concave tapered, twisted fluting that nobody can or is doing with any of the attachments like Flute Master and various others. The cutter is the same as supplied with threading jigs like the Baxter. Back in the day these type furniture parts were made on huge, mechanical copy lathes originally developed to mass produce rifle stocks during war times going back to the Civil War. The copy lathes required a hand carved master pattern to trace from. This could be done on an under $1500 CNC router from Woodcraft with a simple home built indexer.
Here's another piece like a unicorn's horn. First time I showed this somebody said it was simple to do with a round over router bit. Nope, not with variable radius on the twists. Done with a common straight flute 1/2" diameter router bit end cutting vertically top to bottom (against the grain). This is a short one, taller, narrower ones might finials.
How about off-center turning? Fifty off-sets per inch, about 150 here.
Pretty scary stuff, huh? And oval bowls without a couple thousand buck Vicmark jig.
I think it’s pretty hilarious that this thread evolved into a CNC-woodturning discussion. Skew-to-CNC might be a record derailment. Haha.
But I’m glad, because I got to see some of Doug’s work (a rarity).
But I’m glad, because I got to see some of Doug’s work (a rarity).
I just saw this thread and was just about to post the same comment Michael did when I came to his-so funny how a thread can get off course so quickly-but it is also so encouraging and affirming to see this thread,and the “passion or obsession” one earlier, and recognize the passion folks have for their craft!!
The original post was quite interesting and the derailment was also. I don't really care about the labeling of things so much. If someone is making something beautiful and has a passion for what they are doing, then I say good for them. Even if I personally don't care for their "art".