ticklingmedusa
9th February 2006, 01:05 PM
http://www.woodturninglearn.net/articles/viking.html
I tried to cut & paste this article by Alan Lacer but it was too long.
Have a look... great photos of historic lathes.
Apparently vikings were early turners.
Norsemen plundered England & Ireland in search of decent fish and chips :D & founded Dublin in 831 AD, and much later of course the convicts were deported in ships to Australia.
You might find some references to the development of skilled crafts
in The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/australia/
Its a great historical account of the convict transports and colonization in my humble opinion. I dont remember
if it discusses the subject of crafts or trades in depth...
Its not hard to imagine once people were settled (no easy feat)
that craftsmen began to ply their trades using the native materials at hand.
It might be a good place to begin further research.
Lacers video has outstanding but brief footage of bow lathes reconstructed from archaeological evidence of the 9th thru 11th century York, England, springpole lathes, a greatwheel (hand cranked by an assistant ) lathe, sidewinders, treadle lathe, Barnes lathe (peddled backward by the operator) as well as the Japanese lathes mentioned above. All of them are moving and operational.
You can get the video from his website or
go to http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/cgi-bin/shopper?preadd=action&key=386-0600
You might try emailing Lacer at
[email protected]
Keith Rowleys Book Woodturning A Foundation Course offers a very brief history of the "chair bodgers" in the UK
This site offers some photos of UK pole lathes in action and
there was mention of a pole lathe carved on a tomb.
http://www.fencible.org.nz/avillagelife/crafts_bodger2.htm
More history & mention of an turner emigrating to Australia in the 1920s
http://www.stuartking.co.uk/articles/lathe.htm
maybe some useful contacts given here
http://www.anbg.gov.au/anbg/media-releases/04-03-04-bodgers.html
I spent hours searching the internet far and wide,
unfortunately I did not find an image of a Pole lathe with a potato between centres. :D
I hope this helps,
tm