Hello, my name is Brian James and am 57 and have been a woodworker for most of my life. I got my fist lathe last year and have been working with it almost daily since. I have rough cut nearly 100 bowls and of those have finished around 20. I am still a rookie although am learning daily and really do love the hobby. My grandfather had lathes and turned bowling pin lamps and made close to 2,000 of them over the years and gave them away as gifts. I have given away most of the bowls I’ve made so far so woodturning and giving the bowl as gifts honors my grandfather you could say. I look forward to continuing learning and want to thank everyone on this site that posts so people can learn from, that I hope to be one of them someday.
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Brian James
- Thread starter Brian James
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Welcome. Lots to learn here. Find a club and a mentor. It accelerates the learning curve.
Thanks Alan and great advice. I have a couple online mentors although agree that in person will accelerate the learning.
Welcome, Brian. I have found www.turnawoodbowl.com a great resource for beginning bowl turners.
Hello Brian, I just now saw this. Hope you find this forum interesting, I sure do.
Looks like you're in Kansas - My birth certificate indicates I was born in Kansas but my parents moved east in the early '50s so I know nothing about it!
If there is a turning club within driving distance, as Alan mentioned visiting and perhaps joining can be a huge help. (Some of us drive an hour or more to meetings) There you can watch demonstrations, see things others make, find wood and resources, meet people willing to share and teach.There's nothing like spending time at the lathe with a real person, demonstrating techniques then making suggestions while looking over your shoulder!
I see you're interested in bowls. If I could make a suggestion, if you haven't already, maybe also get some mentoring on spindle turning. Turning bowls is fun and relatively easy (depending!), but it's been said by some respected professionals that spindle turning can help teach fine tool control. (I have references!) For that reason, I start every student with the skew even if they've never seen a lathe before. From there, we to to spindle gouge, back to skew, to roughing gouge, etc., then to face turning. In dozens of such lessons I've not yet had anyone get a catch. After some time with spindles, we learn bowl turning.
These two friends, vet students, had never touched a lathe. In a one-day session we did spindle turning in the morning and a practice and take-home cherry bowl in the afternoon. One is now an active turner and is quite creative!
Maybe 10 years ago...
Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!!
JKJ
Looks like you're in Kansas - My birth certificate indicates I was born in Kansas but my parents moved east in the early '50s so I know nothing about it!
If there is a turning club within driving distance, as Alan mentioned visiting and perhaps joining can be a huge help. (Some of us drive an hour or more to meetings) There you can watch demonstrations, see things others make, find wood and resources, meet people willing to share and teach.There's nothing like spending time at the lathe with a real person, demonstrating techniques then making suggestions while looking over your shoulder!
I see you're interested in bowls. If I could make a suggestion, if you haven't already, maybe also get some mentoring on spindle turning. Turning bowls is fun and relatively easy (depending!), but it's been said by some respected professionals that spindle turning can help teach fine tool control. (I have references!) For that reason, I start every student with the skew even if they've never seen a lathe before. From there, we to to spindle gouge, back to skew, to roughing gouge, etc., then to face turning. In dozens of such lessons I've not yet had anyone get a catch. After some time with spindles, we learn bowl turning.
These two friends, vet students, had never touched a lathe. In a one-day session we did spindle turning in the morning and a practice and take-home cherry bowl in the afternoon. One is now an active turner and is quite creative!
Maybe 10 years ago...
Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!!
JKJ