• August 2025 Turning Challenge: Wooden Version of Non-Wood Item! (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to David Croxton for "XOXOXO" being selected as Turning of the Week for August 11, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Turning Ivory, in the 17th Century

Tom Albrecht

Tom Albrecht

Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
1,235
Likes
683
Location
Evanston, IL USA
Here is an interesting article I came across that should make a few of you blink twice.


These Bizarre Ivory Cups Were Carved by Princes | JSTOR Daily


these_bizarre_ivory_cups_were_carved_by_princes_2_1050x700.jpg



https://daily.jstor.org/these-bizar...l&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email
 
That was an elite hobby for the rich as there were very few people that could afford to purchase ornamental lathes back then.
 
Princes did this to learn:
  1. Applied mathematics,
  2. The value of planning ahead and
  3. Patience.
This is fixed tool turning (https://www.otbok.info/OT - LnT-Term-FixedTool.html), and we have two artists these days who make similar pieces.
It is really amazing work.

Kind regards,
Rich
 
This picture from the article Tom linked to is either "photoshop'ed" or glued up of segments. Probably a doctured photo, humor isn't something you see much of in ornamental turning. I suspect the piece in Tom's post is also glued up of individual segments.

OT.jpg

Bonnie Klein and Jon Magill got me interested in ornamental turning. Mine was all done on the CNC, but to have real
credibility in OT you almost have to do it the old ways which can be unbelievably expensive and tedious.
 
Doug Rasmussen said:
Mine was all done on the CNC, but to have real credibility in OT you almost have to do it the old ways which can be unbelievably expensive and tedious.
Click to expand...

Well, Bill Ooms & Dewey Garrett would probably disagree with you. Automation is always debated, but I wrote this essay, Automation and Ornamental Turning, which concludes with:

My opinion is that we should look at the work of the artist, rather than the means.​

You need to make your own decision about how much automation you want to use. My ask is that you do whatever keeps this fun and exciting for you. It should be something you really enjoy doing, not a chore.
​
Kind regards,
Rich
 
RichColvin said:
Well, Bill Ooms & Dewey Garrett would probably disagree with you. Automation is always debated, but I wrote this essay, Automation and Ornamental Turning, which concludes with:

My opinion is that we should look at the work of the artist, rather than the means.​

You need to make your own decision about how much automation you want to use. My ask is that you do whatever keeps this fun and exciting for you. It should be something you really enjoy doing, not a chore.
​
Kind regards,
Rich
Click to expand...

"My opinion is that we should look at the work of the artist, rather than the means."

I couldn't agree more. But we're still a long ways from full acceptance of automation technology in the art world.

In ornamental turning a CNC milling machine let's the user go beyond anything remotely possible on a rose engine. And, at a price well below what some tricked out OT lathes currently sell for. Example, I scanned an artichoke (photogrammetry), using the resulting 3D CAD model, scaled down, a miniature artichoke was made as a box lid handle with all the randomness of it as grown. There isn't a conventional ornamental turning lathe in the world that could duplicate that randomness. Adding a stepper motor here or there to a rose engine isn't CNC.

 
The idea of how things are made is more important the maker than the collector - although some like to know the story.

maybe 10 years back a group formed on the Internet to promote what I will characterize as “pure woodturning”
They had a list of rules the first was that 50% of the work had to be done in the lathe. others were no paint, carving & texturing only when the wood is spinning.....

Off the bat 50% of the time eliminates
Pens,
Segmented pieces,
Natural edge bowls smaller than 12” where the turning takes less than 20 minutes - I spend more time off the lathe: blank prep(10 min), CA on the bark ( 10 min), attention to drying(5 min), sanding(10 min), finishing(15 min)

they did not last long as all but a few found it too restrictive.
 
Last edited:
You know, I sometimes wonder how things will change.

The Raspberry Pi and Arduino are opening all sorts of possibilities at a really great cost. And Doug is right : these and other technologies offer some new, awesome artistic opportunities.

On the other hand, my millennial children seem to be embracing old ways. The 25-yr old just bought a record player! And the 33-yr old likes to work on hobby cars with carburetors! I feel like I’m raising old men for sons. But they all love their iPhones.

I bet the turners who powered their lathes with treadles looked down on those who used motors.

I saw the CNC-based approach that Dewey and Bill use. I’ve been to both their shops. I chose to not go down that path because it takes too much planning ahead. Same reason I don’t want to do segmented turning. But that doesn’t make their work any less beautiful. Just different strokes.

So Doug, please share pictures of the artichoke. I bet it’s really cool.

Kind regards,
Rich
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top