If you make ply and face framed cabinets, or solid wood furniture, you find that there?s always more than one way to skin a cat, be it the tools to make a piece, the methods of sharpening and using those tools, or the joinery to hold things together. But the cat skinning methods are finite - often limited to two or three alternatives. OK - maybe five alternatives - max. And with the exception of the ?rustic furniture? makers, you play with dry wood, 6 12% moisture content, be it ply or solid wood, ?prep?d four square? to begin with. There are parts to keep track of so there are a couple of parts marking conventions/methods. The How You Make It is pretty well tied down. The What You Make is up to you.
With that as a reference, turning seems to be the realm of anarchists, and it seems it has more ways to skin a cat than there are cats. One ?expert? says ?Work only with dry timber/timbre.?. Another expert says ?Only turn green wood.? Still another professes ?If it?s wood - turn it!? Then there?s the myriad of gouges, chisels and scrapers - skews, bedans, spindle, bowl, rouging, parting and the hybrids - skewgie? And when you get to grind profiles - well everyone seems to have a different opinion about how a specific gouge or chisel should be ground and at what angle(s). When you get to actually removing wood with one of these turning tools it?s more anarachy - work towards the tail stock, except for the last few inches on the headstock end - No, ALWAYS work towards the headstock end, except the last inch or so on the tailstock end. Work from the center out! No! Work from the outside towards the center! There?s the Handle Really Low, Handle Low, Forget The Handle Height You Just Want To Shave/Pare/Cut/Scrape Wood. Always start with a roughing gouge! Screw that! Use a skew for everything.
You want variations? Just take a simple turning tool - my favorite - the skew. There?s the rectangular cross section, the oval cross section, the tear drop cross section and the rectangular cross section with the corners eased/rounded. And the cutting edge - straight, curved or straight near the long point and curving more as you get closer to the heel. With bench chisels and plane irons it?s simple - parallel sides, square end, flat back - and a bevel (some like to add a ?micro bevel?), hollow ground or not. With bench chisels, you don?t need a book, or better yet, a video to learn to use them.
There?s a phrase that describes tools and machines as either having low or high ?congative friction?. The more obvious the relationship between the tool/machine and its use, and the product of its use,the less cognative its friction. The less obvious the tool/relationship between the tool/machine and its use, and the product of its use, the more cognative its friction.
Take making a dovetail joint for example. With a handsaw, a chisel or two, a mallet and a pencil or marking knife, the use of the tools is obvious - layout where to cut/chop, cut close to the line and chisel out in between. Now like at the various dovetail jigs - 30 pages of instructions, a special router bit, a router - with or without special guides, the set up of the jig itself and two boards - one oriented horizontally and one vertically. Follow the 30 pages of instructions and you may or may not end up with what you thought you?d end up with. One method has low cognative friction - but requires a bit of practice to learn the skills required. The other has high cognative friction , requires less skill and, once set up, lets you crank out dovetails ?like a machine?.
Most turning tools have high cognative friction - their use and effect are often not obvious. Got a ?bowl gouge?? Looking at one, it?s not obvious how to use it. Did it come with a DVD? No? Well are you just going to poke it in some spinning wood to see what happens or are you going to buy some books, do a web search on ?Bowl AND Gouge AND How AND To AND Use?? Perhaps a trip to WoodCraft / Rockler / Highland Hardware on Lathe Turning Demonstration Day? Join a club? Take private lessons?
?Riding the bevel? seems to be a universal goal, but what about a hollow ground bevel. Do ?facets? in a bevel really make much difference? What about a slightly curved ?bevel?? Do you ride the entire bevel - or just the last 1/16th of an inch?
Want to hold a piece of wood so you can turn it? Well there?s a hundred ways to do that, some EXPENSIVE and some DIY. Tool rests? Pick one of the dozen types available - or make one?
How do you know when you?re finished with a piece? Well that?s up to you since just about anything turned can be called ?finished?. If it warps and deforms later - It?s Natural! If a bowl or ?hollow form? has holes in it - no problem - ?Negative Space? - ?Organic? - a ?Feature? - ?That?s Character!? Don?t like, or can?t get a nice finish on a piece? Texture it! Patina It! Char It! Hell, you can just paint it - and draw ?horse hair? lines on it - with a felt tip pen.
Got a big slab of wood? Get it rotating and shove a big sharp curved tool up to it. Oh, by the way - wear a face shield! You might also want to don your chest protector - and maybe a cup! If you still don?t feel safe well there?s always body armor. Cut/scrape/pare away what doesn?t look like something you like and keep it up ?til what you see looks ?done?.
Don?t have a big enough piece of wood around? Why not glue a bunch of scraps together and turn the results. Better yet, spend hours or days planning a ?segmented piece? then hours or days making the segments, to a precision several steps above what?s required for cabinet or furniture making.
Turning is the woodworking realm of anarchists - no rules or conventions, no bounds as to what is a nice turned piece. Symetry? OK if you want it, but not necessary, though easier to obtain. Opinions? Everyone one has one - what?s yours?
Other than not having the entire piece, or a piece of the entire piece, fly off the lathe and not cutting yourself with any sharp tools, turning is the Wild Wild West of woodworking - and a lot of fun.