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At every demo, I try to walk away with 3 things.
Always 3, not more, not less.
One of the things I walked away from Ashley's demo may seem simple,
and is something I had heard before, but guess I didn't take it to heart.
"As turners, we don't practice, we go out and make things".
When I first started turning, I did practice.
I would go out and spend a day doing finishing cuts, taking a 1/64" cut or less from start to finish.
It would take me a day or two to turn a small bowl, but it really helped me learn.
The last few years, I just made stuff, no practice, very little feedback.
As my tremors have gotten worse, my turning has also slipped, and I spend more and more time sanding.
So, thanks to Ashley's demo, I've gone back to practicing.
I have plenty of roughed put bowls. Many have pretty boring. So practice it is!
What is the difference between practice and making stuff?
Practice finds the piece cut in half. I get feedback on how I'm doing, looking at the thickness.
It also lets me get light from different angles to see any tear out I might have missed.
It also means I don't spend time sanding! I'm trying different grinds.
I've got my own variation of Ashley's 40/40 grind,
David Ellsworth's grind, Glenn Lucas's grind, and the "Irish grind" that I saw at a symposium.
All are different, and all seem to work differently for different woods.
Now, this doesn't mean I don't just make stuff as well.
But, I'm trying to spend at least one day a week practicing.
Dave
www.daves-turned-art.com
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