Members of the TEW,
We were incredibly fortunate to have an extended five day visit with Paul Fennell and his wife Judy. They stayed with Dave and Suzy Wahl and there were multiple events scheduled by David including dinners for club members and ample opportunity to meet and get to know this lovely couple and world class teacher and wood artist.
Last Saturday Paul gave a half day “hands on” workshop related to turning hollow forms. For about two hours he demonstrated his home made tools and beautiful turning techniques using a method of running the lathe in the opposite or reverse direction to normal and being able to use your body to leverage the tools in such as way as to prevent leaning over the lathe and creating stress on your back and right arm/elbow with the actual turning process. His tools use simple parts such as old drill bits he shapes into a “fingernail” grind and sets the cutter at an angle into a round steel shaft with an fascinating home made wooden handle that allow for better torque control while hollowing:
The cutter (back half of a used drill bit) is placed at an angle that allows for easy removal of wood with the lathe running in reverse and is easy to sharpen and use with his handle which can be made on a table saw. The cutter is secured in place with CA glue.
Here is another home made tool from an Allen wrench and again sharpened with a fingernail grind:
We had a small number of club members at the workshop and several of the students from ECO and everyone had a great time.
The beauty of his turning is that he works slowly and effortlessly with a “non violent” approach that is very relaxing and seems enjoyable. His shapes are elegant and he normally has the widest diameter either near the top of the piece or the bottom (not in the middle) and here is Paul demonstrating for us with a typical shaped piece that he started between centers and then created a tenon for the Stronghold chuck which he uses at home:
Here is a set of home made measuring calipers especially designed for hollow forms and from aluminum material cut out on a band saw:
Here is Paul turning for us and hope this will download and play for everyone:
Here are a few pieces Paul brought to show his final forms:
On Sunday, Paul did a full day embellishment workshop and another communication will follow. Monday was the club meeting with another and longer demonstration on hollowing techniques. It was a great experience to meet Paul and have the opportunity to see how he works and creates such beautiful pieces of art from wood.
Best regards,
Bob
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