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Rabea Gebler

Rabea Gebler

Rabea Gebler

Joined
May 1, 2024
Messages
18
Likes
143
Location
Yamanaka Onsen, Ishikawa, Japan
Website
www.sentomono.com
Hi everyone! I am new to all things woodturning forums and communities but I am excited to get to know more woodturners around the world and learn from various techniques. I live and work in Japan, where I just graduated from a 2-year course at the only woodturning school in the country. I studied on and currently use a Yamanaka Style Japanese lathe, a machine used sitting down, powered with two belts, used with jam chucks, and in forward as well as reverse. I make my own tools and turn a lot of small endgrain bowls for daily use. I first started turning on a western lathe about 5 years ago, while graduating in Product Design, but I have specialised in Japanese woodturning and urushi lacquering since. Glad to digitally meet you!
 

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My wife and I follow you on Tiktok! Love your videos! Such a unique way to turn! I have always wondered about your sharpening process. Hopefully you can share with us one day! What kind of steel are those tools? Do you make them yourself, or does some toy know make them. Sorry for am the questions! Welcome!
 
Rabea Gebler said:
I studied on and currently use a Yamanaka Style Japanese lathe, a machine used sitting down, powered with two belts, used with jam chucks, and in forward as well as reverse. I make my own tools and turn a lot of small endgrain bowls for daily use. I first started turning on a western lathe about 5 years ago, while graduating in Product Design, but I have specialised in Japanese woodturning and urushi lacquering since.
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Welcome. You will get inundated with questions. Someone posted a video of a woman in Japan turning on a lathe like that and it had us all quite curious.
 
Welcome, Rabea. Like the others, I'm fulla curiosity, so definitely look forward to your posts on tools, techniques, lathes, and most certainly the finishes (based on the pics you included above!) I guess Wood turners just love learning new stuff!
 
Welcome!
I was fortunate to see part of one of the demos that Eiko Tanaka did at AAW Portland. Cool tools, machinery, and technique. And the history and heritage of turning was fascinating.
 
By the way, do you have a mailing list for when new pieces are available? I'd like to buy one of your small lacquered rice bowls but all the ones I looked at were sold out.
 
Rabea Gebler said:
Hi everyone! I am new to all things woodturning forums and communities but I am excited to get to know more woodturners around the world and learn from various techniques. I live and work in Japan, where I just graduated from a 2-year course at the only woodturning school in the country. I studied on and currently use a Yamanaka Style Japanese lathe, a machine used sitting down, powered with two belts, used with jam chucks, and in forward as well as reverse. I make my own tools and turn a lot of small endgrain bowls for daily use. I first started turning on a western lathe about 5 years ago, while graduating in Product Design, but I have specialised in Japanese woodturning and urushi lacquering since. Glad to digitally meet you!
Click to expand...
Urushi finishing is something I have always admired. Lovely work.
 
Asher Langton said:
By the way, do you have a mailing list for when new pieces are available? I'd like to buy one of your small lacquered rice bowls but all the ones I looked at were sold out.
Click to expand...
Hi Asher, I do! You can find the sign-up on my website, www.sentomono.com. Unfortunately, I will have a few months' break from producing now, but there should be new work coming up in October. If I have time, I might do a quick shop update this month as well.
 
Dave Landers said:
Welcome!
I was fortunate to see part of one of the demos that Eiko Tanaka did at AAW Portland. Cool tools, machinery, and technique. And the history and heritage of turning was fascinating.
Click to expand...
Eiko is great! She graduated the same school I studied at and studied with one of my mentors for a couple of years. Although she lives so close I have yet to meet her!
 
Nick Valenza said:
My wife and I follow you on Tiktok! Love your videos! Such a unique way to turn! I have always wondered about your sharpening process. Hopefully you can share with us one day! What kind of steel are those tools? Do you make them yourself, or does some toy know make them. Sorry for am the questions! Welcome!
Click to expand...
Thank you! I am not super active on TikTok, but I'm glad to hear you like the videos. I use carbon steel for greenwood and HSS for dry wood. You can't buy the tools anywhere in Japan, so all the turners forge their own
 
Brian Gustin said:
Welcome, Rabea. Like the others, I'm fulla curiosity, so definitely look forward to your posts on tools, techniques, lathes, and most certainly the finishes (based on the pics you included above!) I guess Wood turners just love learning new stuff!
Click to expand...
urushi is an endless topic! not sure where to start, but happy to answer any questions
 
Rabea Gebler said:
Thank you! I am not super active on TikTok, but I'm glad to hear you like the videos. I use carbon steel for greenwood and HSS for dry wood. You can't buy the tools anywhere in Japan, so all the turners forge their own
Click to expand...
They forge their own HSS? Wow. Have you gotten a chance to do this?
 
Welcome from Ohio USA Rebea! Your work is very nice and it sounds like you are having a lot of fun learning about the Japanese techniques! Sure sounds different then our methods!
 
Jaramiah Severns said:
@Rabea Gebler how is your Japanese? I’d love to study in Japan some day, but worry the language barrier would be tough to overcome.
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I think if you really want to study here, you will need two things: basic spoken Japanese and plenty of time. Especially most craftspeople won't speak a word of English, and you won't get around studying the language. But people are very kind and understanding if you try, even if you arent fluent. I noticed I started experiencing a whole different Japan, once I started speaking some Japanese. Secondly studying here takes time. I would try and go at least for 6 months, ideally for 2 years. You can get a lot of impressions in shorter amounts of time, but to truly study Japanese craft, you need time and patience. Most teachers won't accept a student under 2 years of study, and at first, I thought that was excessive, but I have now learned why. On one hand, the main thing you will learn is patience, perfection and accuracy, but on the other hand, the amount of knowledge available in this country is immense. If you want to learn to truly do things "the Japanese way," it will take years.
 
Rabea Gebler said:
Hi everyone! I am new to all things woodturning forums and communities but I am excited to get to know more woodturners around the world and learn from various techniques. I live and work in Japan, where I just graduated from a 2-year course at the only woodturning school in the country. I studied on and currently use a Yamanaka Style Japanese lathe, a machine used sitting down, powered with two belts, used with jam chucks, and in forward as well as reverse. I make my own tools and turn a lot of small endgrain bowls for daily use. I first started turning on a western lathe about 5 years ago, while graduating in Product Design, but I have specialised in Japanese woodturning and urushi lacquering since. Glad to digitally meet you!
Click to expand...
welcome and beautiful work.
 
so excited to have your input from such a great perspective and especially interested in the lacquer process, so keep posting and welcome!
 
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