I think turning wood on a lathe using hand held tools is a hand(i)craft. Being a craft it requires skill and ability to use our hands. Our hands are not tool posts nor top slides and our arms are not cross slides nor lead screws and in my view we don't 'machine' wood, we shape it by hand with subtraction. In that context manual skill trumps both knowledge and artistic talent.
IMO, a woodturner's artistic talent and knowledge of physics, chemistry, metallurgy, strength of materials, botany, forestry or whatever are useful, but not essential adjuncts to manual dexterity.
Conceive, design, draft and theorize all you want, but "if you can't turn it you can't make it". Arch, 2007 :) (unless you think that using a copy lathe is making it)
In my limited experience, dipping a hot highspeed steel tool in water doesn't change the steel enough for this woodturner to notice any difference.
Not knowing any better, I grind or hone my HSS tools to edges just as sharp as my high carbon tools. I wonder since the softer high carbon steel edge dulls quicker than HSS, it seems to be sharper because the burnishing effect produces a temporarily smoother finish. For that matter I'm not sure that carbon steel makes better scrapers.
At times, I grind tool edges at 3750 rpm on a grey wheel, reuse worn sandpaper, sand at high speed, skip grits, stop at 350 grit and deny global warming. It is truly amazing how ending up with hand sanding along the grain using quality abrasives followed with a Beall system buffing will pardon my sins.
Store bought scraper burnishers, Morse taper cleaners and color coded wire burners. Catalog spindle anti-lock washers. respirator diving masks and wooden tool handles. Lathe duplicators, double faced tape and faceplate rings. These are a few of my LEAST favorite things! Bah! Humbug!
Well just this once, I have no pride of COC: Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Bona Pascka, God Jul, Wesolych Swiat, Nollaig Chridheil, Happy Holidays and to all the rest of my rcw friends whatever your belief.
Peace Be With You.
ps. hope I got these greetings right and not like my friend who exclaimed to a dignified group of ladies that he and his wife were moving into a giant _condom in Miami. :)
First of all, I h I know engineers who cannot change a tire. They have no real world experience, only that of sitting in front of a CAD display. They design stuff that is difficult to impossible to maintain due to their lack of experience in real world practicality. (The rear shocks on a Ford Crown Vic/Mercury Marquee come to mind...)
What has this to do with anything? Only that there are those who understand the procedures, the physics, the history, and yet still cannot DO a damned thing useful. I have a childhood friend like that. They lack the patience and persistence to develop the skills, and would rather talk it to death, knowing that eventually someone will come along and do it for them if they whine and throw enough stuff.
See above...
Hmm. I do the same thing, but only when they are too hot to hold, not so hot they glow. I'm too impatient to do otherwise. Waiting on a tool to cool allows a moment for the creative thought that preceded the decision to freshen the edge to escape.
Not enough experience to come to a conclusion. I know the cheap Buck Brothers turning tools from the BORG would not hold an edge for long. The cheap Harbor Freight set holds up better, although most have been re-ground into round nosed bowl scrapers and such that bear little resemblance to their original intention. By far, my most used tool is a Crown 1/2 bowl gouge that has had several different swept wing profiles ground onto it. It scrapes, it cuts, and does exteriors and interiors, and will even cut into that small 90 degree junction between the bowl body and the rim, when such a flourish is desired.
Alas, I have no Beall system, and I abandoned the use of the higher speed grinder with gray wheels - it removed so much material so fast that I caused more damage than repaired. I don't bother sanding the wood above 340 or 400 - it doesn't seem to help. I do use higher grades on hard finishes. Generally to knock down the gloss, ironically enough.
I have none of those, except for the wooden tool handles - the tools came that way. Most accessories are built from scraps - although I do have to occasionally have to purchase some obscure hardware piece or another from the BORG. As well, yard sales are of no use here for scoring old WW tools and equipment - the area I live in seems not to possess nor embrace any creative history whatsoever. Unless you consider creatively churning retirement accounts at the brokerage house, or what-if'ing lowest common denominator products to death.
Live long and prosper, Arch.
Must get pretty crowded in there... But I think you pulled it off OK.
Life's too short to sweat the small stuff - and most everything is small stuff. So if you find a way to do something - a turning, or an approach to life in general - if it works for you then it works. You seem to have found that balance.
Now if the folks who go by Peace on Earth - to men of good will would just work on the earlier version Peace on Earth - good will to men ...
While it is certainly true that one cannot turn without manual dexerity, it's an on-going shame in a number of areas that those who are a little less pompous about it are willing to sacrifice the term artistic to those who are more than willing to shellac a piece of dog poop, then make up a load of drivel about thier motivations and claim it as art.
Learning to turn is no less difficult, and more dangerous than, for instance, painting. But, it works the same way- in each case, the skill is developed to allow the craftsman or artisan to form the materials to make what they have in thier mind. Whether you articulate them or not, there are thousands of tiny skills, tricks and proportions that you've developed over the process of learning your avocation, whether it is turning, painting, pottery, carving or any other number of things.
All of these things are present every single time you turn that lathe on. You may not be thinking of Fibonnaci numbers or the golden ratio when you swivel and slide that gouge to make a nice looking cove- but I bet you know when it "just looks right." Just as you make a metallurgical judgement when you decide that a scraper is overextended and chattering too much for your liking, and either move the tool rest forward or swap it out for a thicker tool. In the absence of any knowledge of these "adjunct" disciplines, you would be powerless to make even a stair spindle.
If your only skill was manual, any man could sell you a plastic turning tool, and you'd have no way to judge it's ability to cut wood. You'd have no reason to turn on the lathe, because you would only make shavings at random that lead to no discernable final object. If you knew nothing of chemistry, you may as well finish your pieces with a stick of butter or a wad of chewing gum.
The question here isn't one of art V. craft, or of knowledge V. practice. All of these supposed antagonists support one another in different ratios in any given craftsman or artist. Without a goal in mind (and this is important) concious or subconscious, we would never feel any inclination to even aquire our tools, much less use them for anything.
Artistic training is no less important to the turner than it is to a portait painter or glass blower. The trap you seem to have fallen into is in accepting that someone, anyone, other than yourself has some special power and knowledge that must be imparted to you before you can claim to have made a study of art. Simply walking around with your eyes open is the best artistic training there is. You know when you see something you like, whether you can explain why you like it or not. That thing you like makes an impression on you- and later, whether you recall it in the front of your mind or not, parts of that object are bound to come out once again in the work under your hands- changed, but still recognisable, if you take the time to look.
Everyone has this power of abstraction and recall, whether expressed or implied. A fully automatic subconcious urge that appears to be no more than instinct is rarely an uninformed random thrashing, unless it's sole expression is in purposeless destruction. Any creative work is performed by a process of thought, and the success of that work is determined by the degree of "training" you have aquired, either through lessons or simple observation. There is a difference, except in the case of natural savants, in the degree of impact and quality between the work of those who pursue this with thought and care, and those who allow something in the mind's basement to guide the tool, but both create a work of the mind.
It is important to all of us, not simply as turners or craftsmen, to understand that what we do *is* art. There can be no real distinction made between an object which is porportioned for function and one which is proportioned for simple enjoyment. It is a crime to ourselves and to all society to shrug and claim that our bowl which will hold water or popcorn is inferior to one which can hold nothing, tacitly accepting the idea that no one would create a useless object if they did not have some knowledge that we do not posess.
To fold so easily in the face of a sneer and a growl is an act of cowardice, and it shows that we accept as an axiom that that which we percive to have no value must always be superior to that which has value. In conceeding this point, we destroy the concept and meaning of value, and resign ourselves to the back row in perpetuity.
I agree 100% with that- wishing never makes anything happen.
The real question here is whether or not you need to know these things, and believe it or not, that is a matter or economy. If you buy cheap, you get what they gave you, if you buy expensive, you are counting on the people on the other end to have made all the necessary decisions and performed all the procedures involved in making your gouge with integrity.
If you learn the parameters for yourself, you can make the tools or not, depending on your inclination, but you won't be easily talked into purchasing a Rolls Royce to haul a hay cart, or to buy a horse to pull your car in a formula one race. Getting or making the proper tool for the job at hand is an important part of manual skill. Sometimes, less than the best will do just fine- it's all a matter of being able to make the call.
Well there you go. If you don't need 'em, you don't need 'em. If you do, you'd better either have the cash to buy them or the knowledge to make them.
I may not have made my thoughts clear because I don't think we differ that much. Whatever, thanks for your thoughts. I always enjoy reading your posts. Keep 'em coming.
I made several hundred dollars recently selling small bowls, pens and dibblers (planting sticks). They're nice, but they ain't art. I made 'em, I get to say.
"I may not know what I like, but I know ART."
;-)
Happy New Year, all. I contribute here less than I like, but always appreciate the posts of those who spend time thinking about these issues.
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