Notable woodturners




  • Richard Raffan

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Techniques

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Complex forms made on a wood lathe develop from surprisingly few types of cuts: parting, planing, bead, cove, and hollowing. Parting separates the wood from the holding device, or establishes depth cuts. Planing is done with a tool in which the bevel below the cutting edge supports wood fibers, just as in a typical wood planer. Beads are a convex shape relative to the cylinder, and coves are a concave shape. Hollowing techniques are a combination of drilling and scooping out materials. The woodturner is at liberty to choose from a variety of tools for all of these techniques, and the quality of the cuts improves with practice wielding the tool selected. Turners rely upon three points of contact making any type of cut: the tool presses down on the tool rest, and against the woodturner's body before contacting the surface of the wood, most often with a bevel edge riding the surface of the wood. The objective is to position the tool correctly so that the wood comes around to the cutti...
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Tools

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Turning tools are generally made from carbon steel, high speed steel (HSS), and more recently Tungsten carbide. Comparing the three types, high speed steel tools maintain their edge longer, requiring less frequent sharpening than carbon steel, but not as long as Tungsten carbide. Tungsten carbide tools typically consist of scraping tools with the disposable carbide insert attached to the tool. The harder the type of high speed steel used, the longer the edge will maintain sharpness. Tungsten carbide inserts are generally thought of as disposable, but they can be sharpened with diamond abrasives. Modern cutting and scraping tools can also be coated with titanium nitrite to improve wear characteristics. Woodturning tools must be sharpened more frequently than other edged woodworking tools to maintain a clean cut because the wood passes at great speed. Sharpening is usually accomplished with the aid of mechanical devices such as powered sharpening wheels and abrasives. This sharpening pro...
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History

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The archaeological record of woodturning is limited to illustrations because wood is a fiber prone to rot. Egyptian monuments illustrate a strap used by a helper to rotate the lathe while another worker cut the wood. Early bow lathes and strap lathes were developed and used in Egypt and Rome. The Chinese, Persians, and Arabs had their own variations of the bow lathe. Early lathe workers would sometimes use their bare feet to hold cutting tools in place while using their hand to power the lathe. Bow lathes continue in use right up to the present day, and much of our information about them comes from watching turners use them. Between 500 and 1500 A.D., turned wooden vessels served as the everyday bowls and cups of most of the population of Europe. Our knowledge of these humble vessels comes from bowls excavated from shipwrecks, such as the Mary Rose and the Oseberg burial ship, or dug out of deep wells, where they were preserved in a nonaerobic environment. Much of this ware was turned ...
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