Mike Darlow's Woodturning Series: Useful Woodturning Projects

Mike Darlow

• Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781607659150
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Technische & produzierende Gewerbe

An inspiring guide to over 20 useful woodturning projects! Featuring 14 project sections – most of which contain multiple variations – turn frames, spinning tops, both antique and modern chess sets, a pepper grinder, backscratcher, and more. Also included are step-by-step instructions, helpful photography and diagrams, dimensioned scale drawings, a detailed introduction to woodturning, and an informative section on small tools. Author, instructor, and professional turner Mike Darlow has written seven other woodturning books, as well as articles for Fine Woodworking, The Woodworker, and Woodturning Design, making him a leading voice in the world of woodturning.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

My objectives with this book are to revive the turning of useful items, and to inspire readers to seek other useful turning subjects.

In the first four books of my woodturning series I covered the techniques of hand woodturning. The fifth book in the series, Turned Chessmen published in 2004, was my first project book. It was forecast to flop by a woodwork book marketing expert. 16 years after publication it continues to sell well. Feedback from buyers confirms that the book’s background and history content have been a major factor in the book’s success, being appreciated both by the turners, and, when passed on, by the users of those chess sets. This second project book continues that approach, and will thus, I hope, interest even those readers who aren’t about to undertake any of its projects.

Instead of focussing on one type of useful turning, this book’s projects cover a wide range. Some might consider that range too esoteric. My excuses are that it mirrors my own interests in turning, and illustrates the scope to explore.

The interest in turning useful projects has waned in recent decades. I believe that if turners increase the proportion of useful items in their output they would:

• enjoy their turning at least as much

• gain the potential to enjoy using the turnings they keep

• find that their turnings were better appreciated by others.

By useful I mean ‘can be used for other than aesthetic, contemplative or emotion-creating purposes’. A useful turning’s usefulness may be entirely due to the turning, as in a pastry-cook’s rolling pin. At the other extreme the turning may only add three-dimensional ornament to an item which is no less useful without the turning. Of course useful turnings aren’t always bought to be used—most buyers of Japanese tea caddies, such as those in figure 1.1, now buy them as ornaments and souvenirs and continue to make their tea with tea bags.

How to describe turnings which aren’t useful in the way I’ve described? My dictionary of antonyms offers useless as the antonym of useful. However, aesthetic, contemplative and emotion-creating purposes are valid and certainly not useless. For want of a better term, I shall therefore describe turnings which aren’t useful as non-useful.

Many now live in surroundings in which the only relatively unaltered natural substances are the air and the tap water. Wood is an obsolescent (becoming obsolete) material, and therefore woodturning is an obsolescent skill. But, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already decided to disregard this truth and continue enjoy using a lathe to shape wood.

Figure 1.1 Three Japanese-style tea caddies turned from European ash (Fraxinus excelsior). They have incurved flanges so that the finely powdered green tea doesn’t billow into the air when the lid is lifted, not tugged, off. The top of the lid is almost flat, and during the tea ceremony a bamboo teaspoon or chashaku rests on it. In the bottom is a recess to grip on the hand.

The Japanese words for tea caddy are chaire and chaki. This type is a natsume, and is used to store the powdered tea for making thin tea.

Figure 1.2 A chair with at least eight designs of identical spindle.

I contend that during recent decades the hand turning of useful items has declined relative to that of non-useful items. As evidence I cite the 1921 edition of Paul Nooncree Hasluck’s The Wood Turner’s Handybook.¹ Every turning pictured in it is useful as figures 1.2 and 1.3 demonstrate. In contrast, today’s woodturning often features non-useful bowls and vessels and the non-turning techniques which are used to apply two-dimensional decoration and three-dimensional ornament.

It’s true that during the last 50 years woodturning as an artisan and industrial technique to produce useful items (mainly components for buildings, furniture and woodware) has declined, but not disappeared. It’s also true that during that time hobby woodturning has increased in popularity, and it’s undoubtedly true that part of that increase is because woodturning has been increasingly promoted as a technique which can be exploited to create Fine Art. In many examples though the turning is a subsidiary technique used to provide a base for the decoration and ornament.

Figure 1.3 A towel rail constructed from five designs of identical turning.

I fully support this widening of woodturning’s horizons and ambitions, but not the associated:

• neglect of the potential for useful turnings to be rewarding turning subjects

• narrowing of the range of turning skills which turning teachers offer to beginners and which beginners seek to acquire, and which has thus resulted in a smaller proportion of turners being able to turn useful items

• neglect of pre-turning design.

In this first chapter I’ll discuss these changes by considering:

• why the growth in non-useful turning has occurred

• why, in parallel, turning of useful items has declined

This chapter then concludes with some housekeeping matters.

1.1 THE GROWTH IN NON-USEFUL TURNING

I’ll discuss the reasons for the growth in non-useful turning under four headings:

• the market for non-useful turnings

• the influence of the woodturning media

• today’s high-profile turners

• the influence of turners’ associations.

1.1.1 The market for non-useful woodturnings

Michael Dunbar made this insightful statement in his 2016 book Woodturning Techniques:²

Modern turners no longer work as subcontractors providing their products to other crafts. Instead, they largely focus on making complete turned objects that stand alone, such as bowls, vases, and platters. . . . Old-time turned objects were inexpensive. . . . Most of the objects made by today’s turners are very expensive, selling for prices that will make the uninitiated gasp with disbelief.

Dunbar’s statement’s first line “modern turners no longer work as subcontractors” suggests that his statement concerns professional woodturners. My assumption from the remainder of the statement is that these turners generate large incomes through producing non-useful one-offs. But is this assumption entirely correct?:

• A proportion of “professional” turners have significant non-turning income. A substantial proportion of some turners’ turning incomes comes from demonstrating, teaching, producing paper- and screen-based content about their pieces and techniques, supplying turners, and promoting turning events.

• Some turners’ pieces develop and exploit particular techniques or design features. A proportion of these turners earn income by teaching others how to replicate those same techniques or features. Doesn’t this suggest that the income from the sales of the originators’ pieces may be somewhat fickle?

• There are still some turners, albeit a small number, who earn their entire turning incomes as subcontract (jobbing) turners.

• We only hear of the big-money sales, not about the pieces which don’t sell and subsequently clutter their turners’ homes.

The last part of Dunbar’s statement “the objects made by today’s turners are very expensive, selling for prices that will make the uninitiated gasp with disbelief ” suggests that those objects aren’t priced according to their cost of production, but are priced as if they were Fine Art. The separation of art into high-status Fine Art and lower status craft occurred in Europe during the 18th century. This is not the place to debate the validity of this separation despite its continuing influence, or whether it has been undermined by the subsequent expansion of Fine Art to include such as photography and jazz. But, even if the Fine Art market were as strong as Dunbar implies, can it continue to absorb at worthwhile prices the volume of non-useful turnings being produced?

A factor limiting the acceptance of woodturning as a technique which can be used to create Fine Art is that it uses a lathe, a machine whose raison d’etre is to produce round items quickly. These associations conflict with the widely assumed properties of Fine Art.

1.1.2 The influence of the media

An early catalyst to the growth in non-useful turning was the publication of Dale Nish’s book Artistic Woodturning in 1980.³ Its gallery section promoted the non-useful works of several turners. The success of these and other high-profile turners of the non-useful has been and remains a powerful encouragement to the growth in non-useful t...